GLENDALE — From Southern California to Canada, then back to Southern California, before earning a trip Greece and finally, back home.
It was a whirlwind summer for Glendale High graduate Kevin Witt and the rest of his teammates on the Team USA Men's National Water Polo team.
It concluded in Athens, as Team USA came up short in its bid to qualify for the championship in the FINA World League Super Final after consecutive losses to Serbia and Montenegro and Spain.
Witt and Co. had advanced through the preliminaries in Canada and the semifinals in Los Alamitos with an undefeated mark prior and qualified for the finals after failing to the previous year.
It made for some mixed reactions.
"If you look at the summer and how it ended, it'd be a failure," said Witt, who scored 11 goals over 11 games in which Team USA went 9-2. "It was a success if you look at it as a whole.
"I think everyone pretty much understands we made progress. I think we really learned a lot in terms of ourselves and our capabilities."
That was back at the onset of August, however.
Since arriving back in sunny Southern California, Witt, "took time, thought about the whole summer," and is, "still a little bit in the relaxing stage."
The 1999 Glendale graduate hasn't gotten that far from water polo by any means, though.
As of late, he's been a volunteer assistant for Loyola Marymount University, where he was an All-American standout.
Next up is a likely stint playing professionally in France. It will pay the bills and also afford Witt the luxury of leaving in October and November to return to Team USA for the World Championships.
The FINA World League Super Final saw a much improved Team USA under first-year Coach Ricardo Azevedo. But the team's run came to an end, as everything literally went dark.
The Americans' match with Greece on Aug. 2 was postponed until the next morning due to a blackout. After Team USA defeated the home team, 7-5, there was little time for rest before going against defending FINA champion Serbia and Montenegro. What transpired was a 15-4 throttling with the Americans on the wrong end.
"We just had no gas and we got crushed," said Witt, who was an All-American and All-CIF selection during his senior year at Glendale.
A hard-fought 13-10 loss on Aug. 4 left USA without a shot at the championship.
"We started the game well, but were unable to make some key stops," Azevedo stated in a press release. "The guys played hard and continued to create a number of open opportunities, but were not able to convert."
Now, Witt has his pro team in France, his club team in Brazil and Team USA in Southern California on a busy agenda.
According to him, he needs the practice.
"I didn't think I played well over the summer at all," said Witt, who later admitted to being his toughest judge. "I'm one of my harshest critics."
Nonetheless, Witt judged his performance much like he did that of his team.
"I did think I made progress," he said, "but I've got a long way to go."
With the aforementioned travel ahead, the statement is both literal and figurative for one of the United States' very best water polo players.
