 |  |
Brown University's Lars Enstrom Inducted into CWPA Hall of Fame
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Three-time collegiate All-America selection Lars Enstrom '86 of Brown University was inducted into the Collegiate Water Polo Association Hall of Fame on Friday, November 20 at the Holiday Inn-Boston/Somerville as part of the 2009 Men's Eastern Championship hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology on November 20-22.
A standout collegiate goalie, he led the Bears to multiple undefeated regular seasons , three Eastern Championship titles and a sixth place finish in the final Men's Varsity National Collegiate Poll, the highest finish recorded by an Eastern water polo team to date.
Inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997, Enstrom is appreciative of his induction.
"I have been off the water polo grid for such a long time. I'm very appreciative that somebody thought that I contributed enough to be recognized in such a way. It's a real honor."
A three-time All-America and All-East First Team selection, the 1985 Mid-Atlantic Conference (now Collegiate Water Polo Association) Most Valuable Player was one of the key contributors to the Bears championship seasons under the tutelage of Hall of Fame head coach Ed Reed.
Reed used to worry when he would watch Enstrom warm up for a game. The goaltender from Skillman, N.J. would go through periods where he would let five or six shots go by him. However, as Reed remembers, "Once he got in a game, he was a completely different animal. He stopped everything in sightc."
Following a freshman season in which he recorded 188 saves with 193 goals against (.493 save percentage) with 14 steals and eight assists, Enstrom came into his own as a sophomore to start the best three-year run by a goalie in conference history.
In 1983, he earned United States Water Polo Honorable Mention All-America and All-East First Team honors for stopping 208 shots with 152 goals allowed (.578 save percentage) with eight steals as he anchored Brown past Slippery Rock University for the Bears second Eastern title in three years after capturing the 1981 title a year prior to his arrival on campus.
He exceeded the performance in 1984, stopping 165 shot with 139 goals allowed (.543 save percentage) with 10 steals to lead the Bears past the United States Naval Academy for another Eastern title. An National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Honorable Mention All-America and First Team All-East selection for a second consecutive year, he helped Brown make history at the NCAA as the Bears fell to perennial national championship contenders the University of Southern California and University of California-Los Angeles by one goal each to finish sixth.
Among the most athletic goalies to compete in the league,
Enstrom's abilities allowed Reed to implement a defensive scheme
the team called "bongo bongo," in which Enstrom would leave the net
to play a tight man-to-man defense, and everyone else would play a
hard press. The tactic confused UCLA so badly that the Bears
caused multiple turnovers and scored two goals in the final two
minutes of the game to nearly pull off an upset.
He wrapped up his collegiate career in 1985 with 138 saves and 147 goals against (.484 save percentage) to go along with 12 steals and an assist as he guided the Brown and White past Bucknell University for a third consecutive Eastern title and NCAA Championship tournament berth.
For his performance, he was once again honored on the national and conference levels earning NCAA Honorable Mention All-America and All-East First Team honors. Further, he notched Eastern MVP honors as a senior to conclude his career among a rare category of players who garnered Most Valuable Player honors from between the pipes.
During his four-year career, he posted 699 saves and 631 goals allowed for a .526 save percentage along with 44 steals to accompany the Bears three Eastern titles.
Following graduation, he has continued to excel both in and out of the water.
He played water polo with the New York Athletic Club for a years following graduation, but the demands of work and his enrollment into the Harvard Business School did not allow him to continue to play.
A 1986 graduate of Brown University with an A.B. in Economics, he went onto complete a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, but continued to stay involved in athletics through Tinman Triathlons, which consist of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike and a half marathon run (half the distance of an Ironman Triathlon).
Now married with three children, Enstrom is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group, LLC.
