By Three current and former 49ers were selected this week to take part in their respective United States national teams, continuing this summer’s trend of LBSU athletes representing the red, white and blue.
Gavin Arroyo, head coach of LBSU’s men’s water polo team, and Liz Grimes, assistant coach with both the men and women’s water polo teams, accepted positions on USA water polo coaching staffs. Former 49er and volunteer track and field assistant coach Colin Dunbar will compete for the U.S. at the NACAC Senior Area Championships in Costa Rica.
Arroyo will be the head coach for the under-16 Men’s Cadet Team that will participate in the Darko Cukic Memorial tournament staring on Aug. 13 in Serbia. Arroyo, a former Team USA member himself, has coached at the international level before, as an assistant coach for the senior national team in 2005.
Grimes, on the other hand, already had her first game as the team manager with the USA senior women’s national team. Grimes, a former LBSU athlete herself, has vast national team experience; she was the Associate Director of Sporting Development with USA water polo before joining the LBSU coaching staff in 2010.
She coached with the women’s national team on July 18 in a friendly against Spain in Madrid as preparation for the FINA World Championships, a major competition involving only aquatic sports, in Russia. In Grimes’ first game back with the national team today, USA defeated Australia 8-6 to advance to the gold medal match on Friday.
Dunbar will represent the U.S. in the men’s hammer throw on Aug. 9 at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica. The former LBSU athlete qualified for the competition through the U.S. Outdoor Championships in June and owns a lifetime best distance of 241 feet 4 inches.
Arroyo and Grimes will be back with the men’s water polo team in time for the start of the season on Sep. 5. The LBSU track and field team is in its offseason.
