Q&A; WITH AARON CHANEY:

Aaron Chaney has been girls’ water polo coach at Corona del Mar High for seven years, but that’s not the only way he gets his feet wet with the sport.

Chaney, 52, has also been a high-level referee for several years. He was the only referee representing the United States in both the 2004 Athens Olympics and the recently completed 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Chaney was passed over for one of two U.S. officiating spots at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but he worked four games in Athens and six more in Beijing, including the fifth-place game that pitted Croatia against Spain.

He’s back from China now, and the Daily Pilot caught up with Chaney on Saturday afternoon at the CdM pool deck to ask him about his latest adventure.

Question: What was it like officiating at the Olympics for the second time?

Answer: I was more seasoned, so I had a better understanding what was going on. Last time [in 2004], I was a little upset because I didn’t get as many games as I thought I might get. I don’t think I really knew how the system worked, and this time around, I think I knew how the system worked. When there were days when I didn’t get games, I could understand why. There’s politics involved in the way assignments are made. This time, I was a little more relaxed. I wouldn’t say I was better, but I thought I refereed really well, actually, just because I was more relaxed in that sense. I wasn’t thinking about “Why aren’t I getting this game or that game?”

Q: So, do you have a schedule of what games you’ll be doing when you’re over there, or is it more day by day?

A: It’s day by day; they schedule it the night before. I didn’t get any women’s games, and that’s their decision. I did get a really good game the very first day, Australia vs. Greece, then the next men’s day I didn’t referee at all. I realized why, because I couldn’t referee anything in the United States bracket. If [the United States] is in the “A” bracket, I could only referee games in the “B” bracket. It’s a political decision; they don’t want any perception that there’s anything going on behind the scenes. I had to re-referee Australia and Greece, and it made sense to me, the politics of it.

... There’s 24 refs, and on the men’s days, only 12 can ref, so 12 sit. It’s a waiting game.

Q: As someone who got to see a lot of games, what would you say was the atmosphere, maybe compared to four years ago in Athens or even some of the big games here in the States?

A: The atmosphere is high-energy, but I don’t know if the atmosphere over there was any different than it is for the NCAAs. Everyone there is really intense and there for a single purpose. I think it’s [the Olympics] a difficult tournament to play in and to coach in, because it’s long. It’s two weeks. I think to maintain the intensity over a two-week period is difficult.

Q: What else did you get to do while you were in China?

A: I went to the Great Wall, and it was unbelievable. I went to the opening and closing ceremonies, unbelievable. The Chinese put so much time and energy into planning those shows. I didn’t see many other events; swimming finals were in the morning and we had conflicts. Our credentials didn’t get us into all of the venues.

I did get [Jamaican 100 and 200-meter men’s gold medalist] Usain Bolt’s autograph at the airport on the way home. He’s sitting a couple of chairs away from me, so I went over and asked for his autograph. He wrote his name, and he wrote “100 meters – 9.69” [seconds].

Q: What did it mean to you to be chosen to referee for the second straight Olympics?

A: They had two U.S. referees in 2000, and in 2004 they changed it to one referee. If you’d asked me, before I left Hawaii in 1999, if I would have come if I knew they’d go with one referee? Probably not. I would have never thought I’d make it. I thought I had a chance at two, but I never thought I’d be the sole referee. I would have been hard-pressed to move. It was a gamble as it was.

This is one of the things I tell the girls on my team, that you can never sell yourself short. If I’d have sold myself short at that point, then I’d never have experienced what I’ve experienced the last eight years here. I came here to ref, but I never imagined all the great kids I’ve had to work with at CdM, all the friends I’ve made around the world. The Olympics were great, but that’s not the stuff I’m always going to remember.

Q: What do you think about the men’s and women’s team getting silver medals? Do you think that it’ll be a boost to USA Water Polo?

A: It’s huge. We did the best of any country there. It should get us more funding, and more respect in the world. Just to see the other teams come up and shake our guys’ hands — there were other teams that were really happy for our guys.