On Friday afternoon, Chris Ording took to the stage with Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” playing in the background.
Ording just smiled.
“I guess I coached women’s water polo for too long,” he told the crowd at the 2024 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame luncheon. “Actually, that’s not fair. That was my song of choice.”
For Ording, who will return to the team as an assistant coach for women’s water polo for the third consecutive Olympic Games in Paris, mentioning the U.S. may mean a little more this summer.
But he received a bigger honor on Friday: Ording, a Costa Mesa resident and former Corona del Mar High School boys water polo star, was one of four members of the Class of 2024 to be inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame at the DoubleTree Hotel in Claremont.
Chris Oeding smiles while speaking at the 40th annual USA Water Polo Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday.
(James Carbone)
Ording, 52, has had a long and colorful career in the sport, and when he enrolled at CdM in 1985, he planned to be a soccer player. John Vargas, the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame coach at Stanford University and then-promised men’s water polo coach for the Sea Kings, didn’t think so.
“It was just the right place, the right time,” Ording said. “After the fall season ended, it was like, ‘I’m not going to play soccer. I’m going to swim and play water polo year-round.'”
Considered one of the best high school water polo players to ever come from Orange County, Oeding helped CdM win the CIF Southern Section Division 4A titles in 1987 and ’88 by defeating rivals Newport Harbor and Sunny Hills, respectively, in the championship matches. He was named CIF Player of the Year his senior year in 1988.
“When he was a junior at CdM, he scored seven goals in the CIF finals and won the game singlehandedly for CdM,” Ording’s future Olympic teammate Gavin Arroyo, who played at Villa Park back then and is another Hall of Famer, said in a video played before Ording’s speech. “And at that moment, I thought, ‘Wow, this guy is so amazing.’
Chris Ording (center), Doug Peabody (left) and Killy Neuschl in their USA Water Polo Hall of Fame blue coats after a luncheon on Friday.
(James Carbone)
He then attended the University of California, where he won three national championships and was co-winning NCAA Player of the Year in 1992.
A captain of the U.S. Men’s Junior National Team, Ording battled shoulder injuries to make the 1996 and 2000 Olympic teams, the latter of which he served as captain again.
“The thing about Chris is he’s always been a leader, even as a kid,” U.S. basketball legend Tony Azevedo said in the video.
Azevedo said he was a nervous young athlete when the U.S. men placed sixth at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
“We didn’t know what to do,” said Azevedo, a member of the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. “Chris said, ‘Hey guys, let’s go.’ We went to the oldest bar in Sydney, Australia, and had some beers. It was a great night. We all became closer.”
Chris Ording was congratulated by members of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Water Polo Team during the 40th annual USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Luncheon in Claremont on Friday.
(James Carbone)
Ording coached at Orange Coast College in the late 1990s before taking up the coaching post at Long Beach City College in 2000, near the end of her playing career. She remains at the college, where she has won six state championships, and joined the U.S. women’s national team coaching staff in 2013.
“He was a godsend for water polo. He understood the game and he was a great athlete,” Vargas said in the video. “When you watch him coach, he has the discipline to analyze and teach, not yell or scream like crazy. That’s what makes him such a great coach.”
The U.S. women’s team will begin using a new swimming facility at Long Beach City College in 2022, which is one of the reasons Ording has committed to returning to the staff after a short break following the Tokyo Olympics.
“I was looking out the window, watching the team train,” Oeding said, “and wondering if I could jump in again.”
U.S. women’s head coach Adam Krikorian joked that as a water polo player he’d always looked up to Oeding because he’s so much younger than her (in fact, there’s less than three years between them), and they’ll take a U.S. team to Paris looking for its fourth consecutive gold medal, even though seven of the players are first-time Olympians.
From left, Chris Ording, Ken Smith, USA Water Polo CEO Chris Ramsey, Kylie Neuschl and Doug Peabody pose for a photo before the 40th annual USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Luncheon in Claremont on Friday.
(James Carbone)
Ording’s inductee class also includes former high school standout and Olympic gold medalist Kylie Neuschl from Santa Barbara, influential longtime San Diego area club and high school water polo coach Doug Peabody and longtime Punahou School of Hawaii coach Ken Smith.
Oeding thanked his family, including his wife, Eden, son Gus, who played water polo at Newport Harbor, his brother Jeff and his parents Maureen and Robert, who were in attendance. Jeff was a standout water polo player who helped CdM reach the CIF finals in 1984 and won two NCAA titles at Stanford.
Chris and Eden-Ording will be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in a few weeks, and Chris joked about it during his speech, referencing his busy schedule in the run up to the Paris Olympics.
“It’s a great opportunity to get out and travel, go to Europe,” he said. “I just wanted to let you know that I checked my schedule and I have a day off on June 17th so you can go ahead and make those plans.”
U.S. women’s water polo team coaches Chris Ording and Adam Krikorian pose for a photo before the 40th annual USA Water Polo Hall of Fame luncheon in Claremont on Friday.
(James Carbone)
