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Boys’ Water Polo: Trush tough for CdM

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The best player on the Corona del Mar High boys’ water polo team this year was also perhaps the toughest, and that’s not by accident.

Senior co-captain Jack Trush knows that water polo can be a very physically demanding sport. That’s especially true as a defender, a position he picked up early in the season.

But that doesn’t compare to having a loved one deal with dialysis for the better part of a decade.

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Trush saw his grandfather, Michael Shaver, do so with bravery. His mother, Leslie, would take Jack and his older brother Kyle up to Anaheim often, to visit with grandpa.

“We’d always go see him,” Jack Trush said. “He’d never complain. When we were over at their house in Anaheim, he would just say that he was going to ‘the club.’ He called [the hospital] the club. We wouldn’t even know that he was struggling, because he would always put on a good face for everyone. He was pretty tough.”

Shaver passed away in 2010, but that toughness never left the Trush brothers. They just get to exhibit in the water during a water polo match. Nowadays, they do so in front of grandma Charlene, who moved to Newport Beach to be closer to the family following Michael’s passing.

“My kids both learned empathy, supporting and seeing someone deal with some really difficult times,” Leslie Trush said.

Maybe now you see part of what makes Jack Trush so tough. Two summers ago, he said he ruptured his eardrum after being punched repeatedly at a tournament in Australia.

“The guy ripped off my cap and took three blows to my ear,” he said. “That was pretty brutal.”

And last May, Trush took an elbow above his left eye, which earned him about 10 stitches.

In fact, when he broke his right fibula Oct. 17, you might think it was due to some physical play in the water.

Nope. He was just messing around with a skateboard.

“I don’t usually skateboard too much,” said Trush, who prefers fishing and diving for lobster. “It was a freak accident. I went home and iced it. I didn’t think it was going to be anything too bad, until it started swelling up pretty good.”

Trush went to see Dr. Andrew Gerken at Newport Orthopedics. He was put in a special water-proof cast almost immediately, meaning he could still train. He missed nine games of action, returning for the Sea Kings’ regular-season finale against Mater Dei.

Gerken couldn’t officially recommend that Trush return to action so soon. But he understood how much that CIF meant to Trush.

“He was an athlete, so he kind of understood that you need to go for it,” Trush said. “He said if it got a good hit, it could get displaced. I’d have to get a plate in my ankle, and I’d be out for another few months.”

Trush, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, made it work. He also put in work for the Sea Kings. He came up big Nov. 15, scoring two goals and dishing out two assists as CdM outlasted Long Beach Wilson, 10-9, in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal match at Belmont Plaza.

CdM lost in the semifinals, 13-2, against top-seeded powerhouse Harvard-Westlake on Wednesday at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center. But the Sea Kings (24-6) still had a successful season, and Trush helped lead the way.

“He’s been a real solid leader for us,” said CdM Coach Barry O’Dea, who has had Trush as a captain the last two years.

O’Dea said he moved Jack Trush to defender, a spot Kyle played for CdM, after the Sea Kings lost to Loyola in the South Coast Tournament. The Sea Kings won their next nine games, including two victories over rival Newport Harbor and wins over Huntington Beach and Foothill.

“I was always getting beat up by my older brother, so it kind of prepped for me for this,” Jack Trush said of being a defender, adding a laugh. “Not to say I didn’t win some fights.”

Kyle is now a sophomore starter for UC Irvine, which is competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament this weekend. Jack also wants to play college water polo.

Despite missing the nine games with the ankle injury, he still finished third on CdM with 39 goals, adding 16 assists and 17 steals. Those numbers could have been even bigger, but Trush made a sacrifice.

“[Playing defender] put him in a position where he’s not going to score a lot of goals necessarily, but it was a big team move for him,” O’Dea said.

Sacrificing isn’t a big thing for Trush. He has learned to deal with situations that arise. His parents also have been divorced for several years, although Trush’s dad, James, still lives nearby and comes to all of his games.

In a large sense, Trush is just happy to play the game that he loves. He said sitting on the bench while injured was hard, yet rewarding.

“Everyone grew from it, I think,” he said. “People took on more responsibility when I was out, and I think that helped us in the long run. Jack Rodosky stepped up, started guarding more. Foster Hoose stepped up, and I think [CdM’s other co-captain] Ashton [Jajonie] stepped up even more.”

That’s spoken like a team captain, and someone who understands just what that title means.

“He really tries to be the leader,” Leslie Trush said of her younger son, knowing that he succeeds in the water and out.

Jack Trush

Born: June 18, 1997

Hometown: Corona del Mar

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 195 pounds

Sport: Water polo

Year: Senior

Coach: Barry O’Dea

Favorite food: Lasagna

Favorite movie: “Lone Survivor”

Favorite athletic moment: Competing internationally in Australia and New Zealand for CdM.

Week in review: Trush, a senior co-captain, had two goals, two assists and two field blocks as CdM topped Long Beach Wilson 10-9 in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal match Nov. 15.

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