2018 – PATRICIA ANN “TRISH” McGUIRE – SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY
An All-America goalie at Slippery Rock University prior to passing away of a heart condition in 1993, Patricia Ann “Trish” McGuire made a lasting impact on the game and Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) during her time.
The starting goalie during the 1991 season for Slippery Rock as the team captured the league championship with a defeat of Bucknell University, she was named an Eastern Championship First Team All-Star. A swimmer at SRU in the 100 butterfly and sprint freestyle events, she returned as the goalie for Slippery Rock in 1992 leading the team to a 22-2 record, a league championship win against the University of Maryland and a Third-Place finish at the National Championship Tournament, the precursor to today’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship. Following the National Championship, she was named an All-America selection.
She passed away from a heart condition on December 5, 2003, at Slippery Rock.
“She played her entire water polo career with a heart defect,” recalled fellow CWPA Hall of Fame member Dr. Richard “Doc” Hunkler who coached McGuire at Slippery Rock. “She was Ms. Courage personified.”
Prior to and during her time at Slippery Rock, she was among the best players in the United States earning a place on the USA Water Polo Women’s Junior National “A” Team as a 16-year old after only playing the sport for two years.
A competitor at the 1986 USA Junior/Senior International Tournament in Davis, Calif. and the 1987 Hawaii Invitational, McGuire made her impact immediately on the national scene to be the prototype for future Team USA goalies Betsey Armstrong (CWPA Hall of Fame Inductee – 2008) from the University of Michigan and Ashleigh Johnson of Princeton University.
“When I took over the Junior team full time in 1988 after spending 1985 as Juniors coach and then 1986 and 1987 as Senior “B” coach we were essentially starting from scratch,” noted former National Team coach Brett Bohlender.
“Trisha and the other girls chosen from the Navy squad would make up the first true core group that would put in place pointing towards a hopeful entry into the Olympic games. In fact, on the squad that Trisha was the starting goalie would produce four players that would eventually make the first USA team to make the Olympic games in 2000.”
Part of the core that is the foundation upon which the current Olympic Gold Medalist United States Women’s National Team was built and modeled, McGuire was part of a group that rose sacrificed to train, practice and compete without United States Olympic Committee (USOC) funding.
“The girls had to pay their own way,” notes Bohlender. “This included uniforms, training travel, meals, etc. It wouldn’t be until after Trisha had been moved up to the Senior “B” team that any kind of funding would happen. So, in many ways she, and the girls on this early team would be the stepping stones to the inclusion in the first Olympic games.”
In 1988, she was the starting goalie for the Junior Team that traveled to Puerto Rico and Canada. She continued with the Junior team in 1989 and was part of a USA squad that went to Europe for the second time (the first being in 1985). McGuire and her team played well enough per Bohlender, “there was not real distinction as to our level, in fact the countries that we played and trained with were under the impression that we were a Senior squad – so this was a difficult trip, but, as mentioned, this was the initial core group and Trisha was the starting goalie. We traveled to Italy and then onto Greece.”
In 1992, the USA Water Polo conducted its first Junior level tournament hosted in the United States at Navy in Annapolis. Playing in front of her hometown crowd, McGuire continued as her nation’s starting goalie and led Team USA to a second-place finish behind the more established Canadian team.
She helped the fledgling United States National Team finish in Third Place at the 1991 FINA World Cup in Long Beach, Calif. prior to anchoring the Americans to the Gold at the 1992 Pan American Tournament and Canadian Cup events.
Further, she competed at the 1990 (at Minneapolis, Minn.), 1991 (at Los Angeles, Calif.) and 1993 (at San Antonio, Texas) U.S. Olympic Festivals as well as the 1988-to-1992 Winter Senior Nationals in Novato, Calif. as a member of the Team USA National “A” Team.
“Trish was a coach’s dream player,” recalls International Swimming and USA Water Polo Hall of Fame member Sandy Nitta, “Her dedication to the sports was unbelievable. Without that those teams, women’s water polo is not an Olympic sport.”
