On Deck with Chris Vidale, Marist Women’s Water Polo’s Head Coach

Today is an historic moment for Chris Vidale and his Marist women’s water polo team. Winners of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship for the first time since 2009, the Red Foxes advanced to the 2021 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship, where they beat Salem University 9-8 in an opening round match at UCLA’s Spieker Aquatic Center. It is the first NCAA polo victory for Marist since 2009.

Last week I spoke with Vidale about winning a MAAC title in his fifth year in Poughkeepsie after losses to Wagner in the four previous championship finals. We also covered how the Red Foxes overcame COVID-19 challenges, the surprising withdrawal of top seed LIU a day before the MAAC tournament, the large shadow cast by six-time defending champion Wagner, who took a coronavirus pause this season, and the unexpected retirement of U.S. national team player Kiley Neushul.

- You arrived at Marist in 2016. After four previous attempts to win a MAAC title and get to NCAAs, this is the year you squad accomplished your program’s primary goal.

I remember that first one [in 2016]. [We were] up 3-1 in the second period. In my head I was thinking: Can we win this? Maybe I jinxed it because Wagner went on 3-0 run—and it all changed so quick.

I’ve won some things as a coach but this is different because the athletes went through so many changes—as everyone one is going through [with] COVID now. For them to be able to come through with very little training and get the job done… It was really fun to see the joy on all their faces.

Wagner or no Wagner: we always think we’re going to win it. The day my team gets to face Wagner [again] in the championship, it’s going to be bittersweet. I wanted to beat Chris Radmonovich at the helm of that team.

- There’s no question Radmonovich brought the best out of his players.

When I was an assistant at Iona and he had just started [at Wagner] I said: I love what you’re doing with your program. I remember [Iona coach] Brian Kelly giving me a look like: Don’t compliment the man. He never said it, but it was you could appreciate what they do but don’t say it out loud.

For my last couple of years it’s been him versus me… it’s like Moby Dick: you want to catch the big one.

- I first spoke with Coach Radmonovich in 2018. His intensity for the game and passion for his athletes was second to none in the region.

We competed in that pool with Marist. He did some great stuff there with some good athletes. He figured out a system and a pipeline from internationals and how to get some really good American who bought into everything he did.

- The fact that he chose to leave his career as a successful water polo coach for a job as a search and rescue firefighter is admirable.

[Chris Radmonovich: From Celebrated Water Polo Coach to Dedicated Firefighter]

Salem will be playing in their first-ever NCAA tournament when they face your team in the opening round of the national championship.

I’m excited to face them. I have friendly communications with Justin [Kassab]—really smart, nice guy. He figured how to make [a program] out of a remote, unknown place. Being an East Coast guy it’s cool to see water polo thriving outside of California in a place that people wouldn’t think to play water polo.

It’s going to be a really good match-up. Justin and his staff will be scouting film from this year. I’ve looked at what they did last year when they upset Brown at Harvard.

It’s going to be competitive; they have 30-something games under their belt and we have a solid eight, so there’s going to be that side of it. Games are important.

- How does the fact that the Tigers have played so many more games than your squad affect this contest?

What my team has going for us, and we’ve been riding this lovely high of close game, is we have depth. I assume he knows who my starters are and my go-to people. It’s nice to be able to through a wrench at people: “Here’s a new face you haven’t seen in a bit.”

I pick the brains of a lot of coaches. I watch their games and see them go three kids in, three kids out [or] six for six. It gives a different look, especially if you’re a team that’s doing well against one unit and they put an entirely different unit and change the tempo and style of play, which gets the defense thinking.

I’m hoping this comes into play. I don’t know how deep into his bench Justin can go but I’m planning to tap into mine.

- You’ve had five years to develop a strong roster and make Marist a top polo destination on the East Coast.

When I got the program I started thinking about what we needed. It was a default where my wife [Betsy Armstrong] played at Michigan at a high-level. Every time we go to Michigan I go to the pool and talk to Marcelo [Leonardi, Wolverines’ coach]. You think: how do I get to this level.

I talk to Felix [Mercado] at Brown and Teddy Minnis at Harvard and ask them: What was it that you needed? Teddy’s a guy who walked into a program that wasn't as successful as it is now. Everyone knows where Harvard is but he put a different spin on, a different name on what Harvard water polo is.

Instead of wanting to be like Brown, be like Harvard, be like Michigan, I was thinking what can I offer my athletes? A big selling point for Myriam [Lizotte, Marist leading scorer] is that I built a program around her and that she would be the one who would take the program to another level. That—and her mom and pop could go to all the games.

Teddy says all the time: Recruiting’s our lifeblood. I never understood it until I was the head coach. If you can get good athletes you’re not going to be able to support this program.

The other things is word of mouth. You get one kid in and the kids start talking and… I have the Alter sisters. Sawyer’s the older on and India came to check it out, and the next you know she’s here too.

- Speaking of sisters, your assistant coach, Jocelyn played for you and her sister Justine came back for a fifth year with the Red Foxes. It was a plus to have senior leadership on your roster, especially with all the challenges of COVID-19.

Having Justine come back was fantastic. It was funny: how was I recruiting my own athlete? She was a last minute deal. Her goal is to be a surgeon and she spoke with a couple of people in med school and doctors in the field. They told her to go for it [and return for a masters’ degree]

I have another fifth-year senior, Bree Marmion, and was worried that it wasn’t going to happen. I sold this dream on these kids again but it was slipping away. The administration was able to make it happen for us and make their goals happen for these kids.

Having Bree’s and Justine’s leadership has been fantastic.

- You referred to the as a “weird season.” So many of us have been impacted by COVID-19—I’ve seen a statistic that 1 in 5 Americans in this country have lost a loved one to the pandemic. How have you been able to get your athletes to focus on this season?

We talk about a lot of big picture things—it’s not just water polo. Sports are an important part of a growing person’s life [but] I’m not saying it’s the end-all be-all. As a group we talk about things that are happening in the world. I like to give them perspective and keep them engaged.

I took a survey of everyone and asked: What do you want to do? I found out: this kid wants to be a doctor—and set up a Zoom with the whole team to listen to a doctor talk about their career. We spoke with business CEOs and people from the NFL.

It gets tough when you’re away from home. A lot of them are from California. When they go on Instagram they see their friends maskless on the beach. When you’re in Poughkeepsie, wearing a mask, under virtual guidelines because everyone needs to chip in and be safe on campus…

We’d talk about our goals—and for all of the athletes coming in to this season was to bring a championship to Marist. Even when they were frustrated they could take a step back and ask: Why am I here—and that “why” was important.

Locking in on that was huge.

On the other end, once we got going it went from zero to one hundred. I went from being a stay-at-home dad with my family to being a full-time coach again. You had to kick everything into gear without any build-up.

They did a really good job of staying on top of their homework and checking in with each other. That check-in with their teammates was important; we all have our problems and it’s easy to forget about other people.

- You have a number of Canadians on your roster—but the border between Canada and the U.S. has been closed because of COVID-19. How has that impacted your athletes?

In between semesters they were able to get back, no issues. At Marist we had our own quarantine process for everyone who wasn’t coming from a state such as New York. Canada, I don’t know if they’re not doing as well at the present time , but if my athletes flew home right now they’d have to quarantine for two – five days in a hotel, a really pricey situation.

They were able to get in, no issues. As long as you had your visa that you were going to school they were okay. [Shinae Carrington] my New Zealand athlete, ended up staying through the Christmas holidays. Once COVID happened, she went to Pennsylvania to be with a family that’s on the team.

From there she went to Texas and from Texas to California, then January rolled around and she’s back here. It’s crazy to think about.

I had a couple of athletes not compete. They had to make a decision for themselves as to what they wanted to do. And COVID is stressful. Being on campus and quarantining and worried about the testing protocols.

- Speaking of testing, it’s not 100% certain why LIU withdrew from the MAAC tournament, but certainly COVID was a big part of that decision. A coronavirus outbreak had left the Sharks with only eight players on their roster—perhaps not enough to effectively compete in the championship. What did you make of the #1 seed in your conference tournament suddenly out of the championship?

The hardest part for me is I spent a bunch of time scouting there games and trying to gather as much literature on them as possible. And then, when they were out, I thought: Arrg! I did all that work!

I feel terrible for those athletes. We too were in a tough situation. For the whole fall we didn’t touch the water and then went on a month pause where we were waiting and hoping it was going to happen and then it didn’t.

To come back for the spring: January, February, then March 8… we were back in. But we went on a pause [until] we were told we could start practicing on April 22. But that was our first game [a 15-14 win over Siena]

We went into the season with very minimal practice. And, to go back to the testing side of it, with Marist being as cautious as they were, if one person comes up positive, you have to shut down the program for two weeks, regardless of contact tracing.

My heart goes out to those young ladies who were tested and lost some teammates but still got the job done. Another potential COVID scare just ripped the program apart. It’s out of your control and it’s frustration. I’m sure to get to that final week and [for] all the hard work to feel like it was for naught.

[Commentary: LIU Water Polo Withdrawal from MAAC Championships Another COVID-19 Casualty]

I hope they can walk away from this with some silver lining. They went from a one-and-a-half year old program that got to do a lot of crazy things. They didn’t lose any games, they brought in some really good athletes.

We were excited to play them. We wanted to know who the top dog was.

By no means does that take away anything that we did, but there’s that “what if” that we’ll just have to wait until next season to deal with.

- Does Wagner’s absence this season make it feel like this year is an asterisk?

Will there be that sports fan who says: It didn’t count because LeBron wasn’t in the game that day? But the rest of the Lakers organization competed; it counted… we beat them.

All of my athletes who are competing right now, they showed up. You can’t take that away from them.

I don’t know the situation at Wagner but I assume they had kids who decided to opt out as well as kids who wanted to compete.

I appreciate that Marist gave us the opportunity to compete. We showed up and were present…. I assume the Wagner fans will say that it’s an asterisk: “We weren’t there; they would have never beat us.” But they weren’t there, so we’ll never know.

They should appreciate that a team showed up under crazy circumstances and persevered. You have to respect and accept that.

Will there be a Wagner vs. Marist matchup one day? Absolutely. Will there be an LIU vs. Marist meeting? Yes. We can handle that business when the time comes.

- To switch gears, Kiley Neushul has announced her retirement from the U.S. national team, foregoing a possible Olympic gold medal this summer in Tokyo. You coached her on the New York Athletic Club women’s team; your wife Betsy Armstrong made a similar life decision after winning gold with the American women in 2012.

Kiley could have kept going. She’s a baller and would have dominated. Living with a former national team player who had that same: “Do I keep going or do I pursue other things?” question, I think it’s brave of her to pursue other things.

You get so good at that one activity—it’s great to live off those highs—but we’re human. We want to explore and see what’s out there. You want a new challenge.

I assume for [Kiley] she wants to figure out what that new challenge is.

Following Betsy as an athlete then as a mother, now she’s exploring her next challenge, that next risk.

I spoke to Kiley after the announcement came out back in the summer and told her congratulations on a really great career and thanked her for representing USA and NYAC. She’s traveling abroad and forming a new life with new projects. She’s figuring out what kind of career path she wants to turn on next.

Sports are a big part of life, and we’re not just the individual we are in our competition life. You go to Stanford for four years and succeed in the classroom and the water. You meet people and figure out what you want to do, and being that face of USA—she’s going to be able to use all of those tools to be successful in whatever she wants to do.

The interesting part for these athletes when they’re the best at their craft is figuring out what they want to do. There’s no doubt they will be successful; they just have to decide what their next deal is.

It’s a loss for USA but it’s also a good thing because you have athletes fighting for [her] spot. Once she made that decision it opened up a couple of different avenues for everybody. Now the competition gets heavier—and I think that makes the USA even better.