No Dancing Around It: Ordway is Tam's Savior

The story of 6-foot-4 water polo star Elliot Ordway is hardly one of the boy next door.

Unless, that is, you live in San Anselmo, home of the Drake High team Ordway’s Red-tailed Hawks beat Sept. 8, in which case he just might be.

Ordway, a San Anselmo resident, really should be going to Drake. But his family opted to send him to Tam because of, believe it or not, ballet.

That’s right. Before he splashed onto Tam coach ’s lap as a sophomore last season, Ordway was a very serious dancer for San Francisco Ballet, following in the footsteps of older sister Georgia.

“My freshman year, right after school, I’d go over to the bus stop, ride the bus for an hour and a half into the city, dance for two or three hours, then ride the bus two hours to get home.”

Last fall, recognizing he “didn’t see it as something I wanted to do the rest of my life,” Ordway gave up dancing and pursued something he' d tried for the first time over the summer at Sleepy Hollow Aquatics – water polo.

A dedicated dancer who thought he was in pretty good shape, Ordway got quite a shock shortly after jumping in the pool – and it wasn’t because the water was cold.

“I’d never done anything that tiring in dance,” he said. “With dance, it was difficult because of the technical things. The whole elegance factor. And the fact it needed to be perfect.

“When I got into the pool for water polo, there was so much strength needed. My cardio wasn’t up and my strength wasn’t up to the guys who had been playing water polo for a while.”

Ordway decided to try out for the Tam team last fall, and Kustel recalls how it all began.

“His cousin, Avery Mosser, who used to play for Tam, called me and said her cousin wants to play on the team. She said he’d never played before,” the coach recalled. “She said, ‘He’s been in ballet.’ I remember thinking, ‘Uh, OK …’

“Turns out he’s the best goalie in the league," Kustel continued.  “Imagine, you’re coaching a team and the best kid in the league shows up. That only happens at (Marin Catholic) and Drake.”

Ordway made second-team All-Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) as an inexperienced sophomore last season. As his pals at Drake witnessed first-hand earlier this month, he’s a lot better now.

Ordway saved three penalty shots in Tam’s 16-15, double-overtime victory over the Pirates, the school’s first water polo triumph over Drake since 1995.

’s goal in the sudden-death second overtime provided the game-winner, but Kustel said there was no doubt who was the hero of the day.

“The reason we won the game was Elliot was so spectacular in the cage,” boasted Kustel, who had been 0-for-a-decade as a coach against Drake before the historic win. “He turned shot after shot away. His presence in the cage was the difference in the game.

“He leads the defense. He’s a great kid, a great team leader. He works harder than anybody.”

Calling it a “beautiful art I will always appreciate,” Ordway assures he doesn’t regret all the years he spent dancing. He believes it has helped him be a better water polo player.

“The work ethic,” he said of the biggest thing he has carried over from one activity to the next. “With the whole dance and ballet atmosphere, it’s a really strict environment. You can get emotionally torn down quickly. You learn to work really hard. It becomes second-nature.

“In water polo, I don’t need anyone to push me.”

Not surprisingly, he excels in water polo’s version of a solo performance – the penalty shot.

“Last season I was pretty much self-taught. But this year I did some work with SHAQ (Sleepy Hollow Aquatics) and got better at it,” he said of defending the point-blank attempt. “Now I can approach the penalty shots with a different technique. I have more experience and have an idea what the shooter might do.”

Ordway realizes the probably goes through Drake again. A win is a win, but he’d just as soon it not be as tense that next time around.

“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever undergone,” he said of the sudden-death finish. “You realize if you let one shot go in, that’s the game.

“Drake was personal, because a lot of the kids on the Tam team play with the Drake kids on SHAQ. And we hadn’t beaten them in 15 years.

“It’s nice to know we have the ability to beat them.”

Tam, Drake and Marin Catholic entered the week tied for first place in the MCAL. Being that they don’t play each other again (the Hawks’ only league loss came against Marin Catholic), it’s possible they’ll finish in a three-way tie for the regular-season title, setting up a tie-breaker of sorts in the MCAL Playoffs.

“We play the regular season all just for seeding for the playoffs. That’s when it really matters,” noted Kustel, whose team sports a 10-3 overall record. “Beating Drake was nice, but we want the pennant.

“We have a good club this year. We’ve exceeded my expectations. A lot of it is having a good goalie. It’s like having a great defensive center in basketball.”

At 6-4, maybe basketball will be Ordway’s next challenge. It’s another sport where beating his hometown team would be quite an accomplishment.

The Tam High boys water polo team plays host to Berkeley High today at 5 p.m. and heads to the Acalanes Tournament this weekend.