COLLEGE WOMEN MAY GET SHOT AT WATER POLO; COLLEGE PLANS TO ADD 2 SPORTS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

At College of the Canyons, female students can try out for six sports: cross country, basketball, softball, track and field, volleyball and swimming. Next year, they might have eight, including water polo.

Water polo? Seems like an odd choice, considering that the aquatic sport has long been male-dominated. Besides, none of the high schools in the Santa Clarita Valley has a girls' water polo team. For that matter, they don't have boys' teams, either.

Ever since the board of trustees at College of the Canyons began considering the return of a football program, disbanded in 1982, one of the big question marks has been what female sports to add.

The top contender is a women's soccer team. Deciding on a second sport hasn't been as easy. Along with water polo, campus administrators have suggested a women's golf team should be considered.

In order to comply with the terms of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the number of female athletes at a school must be proportionate to the number of female students, and likewise for the male athlete-student ratio.

Local swim coaches said the Santa Clarita Valley has an abundance of talented female swimmers at Canyon, Hart, Saugus and Valencia high schools. But whether those girls would have the interest or ability to play water polo at a competitive level in college is another matter all together.

``There are a lot of good women swimmers in this valley - people who would like to continue with it after high school,'' said Steve Neale, head boys' and girls' swim coach at Hart High School.

``It's a shame they don't have (water polo) at the younger levels,'' Neale said. ``It would take a little time to develop their skills.''

But, he added, if the college were to add a women's water polo team, and the program were a success, maybe that would spur the local high schools to bring back the sport. The school district dropped boys' water polo in 1979, Neale said.

Saugus High School swim coach James Klipfel predicted the same outcome if COC established a strong women's water polo program. Parents of his athletes have been lobbying in recent years for the return of water polo at the high schools, he said.

Besides, he said, the number of girl swimmers at Saugus outnumbers the boys. The boys have so many spring sports to choose from in high school; girls have fewer options, so swimming tends to garner strong participation.

``If (girls) have four years of high school swimming experience . . . I could see them being interested'' in water polo, Klipfel said.

College of the Canyons already has an indoor pool on campus, one argument that would support the addition of a women's water polo team. The same can't be said for tennis; there are no courts at COC, and for that reason the Cougars have neither a men's or women's team.

While girls' or women's water polo hasn't really caught on yet in the Santa Clarita Valley, there is growing interest in the sport across California and the nation.

This year there are a combined 26 women's water polo teams at four-year colleges and universities affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to a staffer at NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.

In comparison, there are 43 men's water polo teams, out of the 986 campuses nationwide, public and private, affiliated with the NCAA.

The trend is much the same in the high schools.

Nationwide, there are 442 high schools with boys' water polo teams - all of them in eight states including California, said Bruce Howard, spokesman for the Kansas City-based National Federation of State High School Associations. There are 179 schools across the country that field girls' water polo teams, he said.

Last year the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section added girls' water polo to its list of sports, and the response was overwhelming.