Motlagh, Stover discuss savagery, sport

Recently, Daily Princetonian senior writer Sofia Mata-Leclerc sat down with men's water polo juniors John Stover and Jamal Motlagh. They discussed the team, mustaches and the NBA.

Daily Princetonian: How is the team looking this season?

Motlagh: The team is excellent. We're getting over our injuries — a myriad of injuries. I'm throwing in the big words there for you. Things are starting to fall into place. We have some great starters and an awesome bench.

Stover: One guy in particular, [junior utility] Mike McKenna or 'Smalls' as we like to call him. He's always looking to get in to the opponents' heads, because you look at him and you think, 'Oh, that guy's not much.' But he'll be the one to score the goal.

M: Smalls always brings the funk, same as everyone else on the team. Ninety percent of the people out there look as us as rich, preppy, goody goody pretty boys, but we're not about that. We're savage.

S: Definitely savage.

DP: So what are you doing to prepare for Navy?

M: We try to deal with what they might throw against us, but mostly it's just playing our own game because a good team will do what they need to do to win the game as opposed to getting ready for the opposition.

S: It's a lot of mental preparation. We have other rituals that we go through, but it might not be appropriate for the audience.

DP: Any appropriate rituals or preparations?

M: We have a guy who likes to snake charm — "Snakes" Jake Harter. He's a pretty big fan of that. He sometimes brings in his cobra.

DP: Nice, and does it work?

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M: We haven't lost yet. Yeah, that and he puts his goggles in his suit.

DP: Seriously?

M: Yeah, he plays with his goggles in his suit. He did it until we lost last year.

DP: Is there anything else you guys do for good luck?

M: Yeah, well, we all shaved our mustaches.

S: I still have a mustache. You know I might dye it for Pirate Night. There's still some people going strong.

M: I brought it with the Fu Man Chu, so I went above and beyond.

DP: What is the Fu Man Chu?

M: It's the handlebar mustache that comes down to the bottom of the chin. It's the kind of thing you see in sweet Bruce Lee films.

DP: And what is your signature, John?

S: The Mustache Rides. It's a certain kind of mustache. It's like you can't really see it, but it's there.

M: John is also known for his big chest. We call him Captain Big Chest.

DP: Okay, Motlagh, do you have a nickname?

M: Mostly Ja-Mal. Every once in a while I get a Dirty J from [senior center] Mike Murray because of the dirty nature of the Fu Man Chu.

S: He brings an element of...ethnicity to the team.

M: Yeah, I'm the minority. I bring some color, otherwise it would be a bunch of white boys running around like a KKK convention.

DP: So it has been noted that male water polo players show a good deal of crack at all times. What's with that?

M: People tell me, 'Why don't you get a bigger speedo?' The truth of the matter is I have a bigger speedo, but when you play games you want the tightest thing you can find because there's less bagginess and less to grab on to.

DP: So they're made to be small?

M: Yeah, and we're not really modest people.

S: If my speedo came off and I was in the pool naked, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

DP: Okay Pistons vs. Lakers, who is better?

M: The Pistons got lucky. It's like [last year's] Eastern Championship, we were the better team just like the Lakers were the better team, but the Pistons wanted it more.

S: Let me tell you something, you don't win 4-1 by just wanting it more. The Pistons dismantled that team.

M: See, but that's what we don't want to do. We, the Princeton water polo team, do not want to be the Lakers of 2004.

DP: So I hear that your coach, Luis Nicolao, has some interesting sayings?

M: Some days he'll bust in on you and it'll be funny as hell. Like last year I remember he was like, "[Sophomore center Nicholas] Seaver, you're all foreplay. You never get the job done."

S: He comes up with some good stuff. Some of it makes no sense.