HIGH AND DRY; SWIMMERS WIN WITHOUT HOME POOL.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

This is one of those stories you cut out and put up on the refrigerator so the next time your kids start complaining about how tough they've got it, you can say, ``Yeah? Read this.''

A gritty team of four young girls representing the San Fernando Valley last weekend in the All-City Los Angeles Synchronized Swimming Championships won four gold medals.

Pretty impressive considering their home pool, the city facility at Cleveland High School in Reseda where the girls were supposed to be training for these championships, has been empty and shut down for more than a year now because of El Nino damage.

With other city pools throughout the Valley closed during the winter months, the girls practiced their synchronized swimming without any water. They trained mainly on the pool deck, backyard lawns, each other's living rooms. Sometimes, they got to use the small pool at their coach's condo.

Imagine winning the city baseball championships without your own ballfield to practice on, the football title without a football field, a tennis crown without tennis courts or a basketball championship without your own hard court.

Now, add one other thing. In one year, your team has gone from 30 girls down to four because of the pool closure.

The winter championships have arrived and you're going up against nine much-larger teams from throughout this city with their own Recreation and Parks pool to practice in every day - some teams with private coaches for the girls.

And, yet, you win.

You don't quit on your team or your coach, said Michelle Theriault and Hayley Hays, both 10, Heather Hays, 16, and Naeta Rohr. No matter how tough things get. And things got pretty tough.

``We went anyplace we could, and did a lot of land drills to make up for the time we weren't able to be in the pool practicing,'' said Michelle, who won a gold medal in solo performance in the midget novice division, and then teamed with Hayley to win gold in the duet performance in the midget open division.

``That's why we were so surprised that we won,'' she said Wednesday. ``We thought the other girls would be much better than us, but we were just as good as they were.''

The judges said better, honey.

Hayley also won a gold medal in solo performance in the midget open division.

``We stuck it out because we love the sport and are very dedicated to our team and our coach,'' said her older sister Heather, who won a gold in solo performance in the senior division.

It's been tough this past year, the girls said, coming to practice and watching your teammates drop out because there was no pool to practice in anymore, or because they couldn't make the earlier practice times.

``We went from 30 girls down to 18 when the pool closed, then down to 10,'' said Brenda Erazo, a 22-year-old CSUN student who coaches the team.

The city's Recreation and Parks Department rented them time for a couple of months at the Porter Valley pool before it closed for the season, but the girls were given only one lane to practice their routines in, and it was pretty cold up there, they said.

That's when the team was left with only four swimmers, Erazo said.

Naeta, a beginner in synchronized swimming, went along to the championships and participated in the novice division just for the experience, Erazo said. She did not medal, but watch out for her next year, her coach said.

``Often, we would practice our whole water ballet routine on the pool deck,'' Erazo said. Or the team would go to each other's houses and back yards - turn on the music they would synchronize swim to, and pretend that was water they were treading, not grass they were stepping on.

``I'm so proud of them,'' Erazo said. ``I didn't think we would win much, but I was hoping we would get a third or fourth in our divisions because I knew these girls are very talented and would do well.''

But they fooled everybody and won, proving it isn't the pool or the logo on the equipment athletes use that makes them winners.

It's the heart and drive inside, and these girls are loaded with that to go along with their talent.

For the record, the city's Recreation and Parks Department, which owns and operates the Cleveland High pool even though it's on Los Angeles Unified School District property, is replastering the pool next week.

``Hopefully, by mid- to late June, it'll be open again,'' said Ralph Lew, project manager with the department.

Thanks, but it looks like the girls really don't need it.

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PHOTO (color) Coach Brenda Erazo, left, and swimmers Heather Hays, Hayley Hays and Michelle Theriault weren't fazed by their pool's closure.

Evan Yee/Daily News