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Saturday, September 23, 2000
Hawaii scores Maureen O'Toole said she was enjoying a beer as she spoke over the phone amid the din of a post-medal ceremony bash from Sydney this morning.
a silver
O'Toole finishes with silver
medal in water poloBy Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin
It's a pleasure the former University of Hawaii scholarship swimmer can once again indulge now that her underdog women's water polo team has earned an Olympic silver medal.
"I'm just pretty disappointed we couldn't have brought back the gold," said the 39-year-old O'Toole of the 4-3 loss to Australia.
Yvette Higgins scored with 1.3 seconds left to give the Aussies the first gold ever awarded in Olympic women's water polo.
"The crowd was incredible," said O'Toole of the capacity crowd at the Sydney International Aquatic Center . "There was 17,500 ... sold out. I never played in front of a crowd like that before." O'Toole's team, which has former Punahou star and three-time Olympian Chris Duplanty as an assistant coach, is the first with Hawaii ties to earn an Olympic medal since 1988.
Competing today: Hawaii's Olympians
Women's basketball: New Zealand (Tania Brunton) vs. Russia.
Today When to watch
4 p.m.-9 p.m.
Track & field, swimming, women's mountain biking, men's diving.
9:30 p.m.-11 p.m.
Men's volleyball (U.S. vs. South Korea), weightlifting.
9 p.m.-4 a.m. (repeat)
Baseball (U.S. vs. Cuba), Women's water polo gold medal, (U.S. vs. Australia), men's soccer, softball (U.S. vs. Italy), women's beach volleyball.
1 p.m.-6 p.m.
Men's water polo (U.S. vs. Croatia), boxing, soccer, sailing.
Duplanty was a member of the men's water polo team that took silver in Seoul.
"I will definitely bring the medal to show people at the University of Hawaii first chance I get to take a vacation to the islands," said O'Toole.
She said there will be no stopover here for the team en route back from Australia.
"I'm proud to be an alumna of UH and I'll do whatever I can for the school. I love Hawaii, and it's always in my heart." She said that someone who ha d just returned to California from Honolulu gave her a tuberose lei before she boarded her flight for Sydney .
"I wore it on the plane ride," said O'Toole, who recorded two shots on goal in last night's game.
"Their goalie made two great blocks on me," she said.
O'Toole said that it's ironic that Duplanty was with her for this Olympic campaign because .
"When I was a swimmer at UH, I would go and work out with the Punahou and Iolani water polo teams, and Chris was with Punahou at the time," she said.
O'Toole then offered, "Guess who else is here at the party. Aaron Chaney."
Chaney was Iolani's long-time head varsity water polo coach who is officiating at the Games.
O'Toole, who along with her coach questioned the legality of Higgins's goal, said she is sure the U.S. could have won in overtime.
"Absolutely we would have," she said. 'We were the better conditioned team."
Brian Viloria said in a phone interview yesterday there's a "50-50" chance that he will enroll at the University of Hawaii at midterm or next fall. Choices for Viloria
But Viloria, the world amateur light flyweight champion whose pursuit of Olympic gold ended Thursday, said he wants to get some rest before he decides whether to continue his education or turn pro.
"All I want to do now is rest up," said Viloria. "But I do have to catch up with some of my credits. I just want to go back to school. I missed a whole year."
Viloria said he would probably major in communications at UH.
He had taken broadcasting courses at Northern Michigan and has 32 credits. He has developed a number of contacts in the broadcasting industry since his world championship last year.