Douglas Kimbell
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Douglas Burns Kimbell | ||||||||||||||
| Born | June 22, 1960 (age 65) Long Beach, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Cal State, Long Beach (1982) | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Claims specialist | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 205 cm (6 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 104 kg (229 lb) | ||||||||||||||
Spouse | Darlene Slepcevic Kimbell | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Water Polo | ||||||||||||||
| Position | 2-meter guard (Defense) | ||||||||||||||
| College team | UCLA Santa Ana College California State University, Long Beach | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Industry Hills | ||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Ken Lindgren (Cal State Long Beach) Bill Barnett (Olympics) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Douglas Burns "Doug" Kimbell (born June 22, 1960, in Long Beach, California) is a former USA National Team water polo player who earned All-American honors at California State University Long Beach in 1981-2, and later won the silver medal for the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was also a member of the USA Water Polo team at the 1992 Summer Olympics, which finished fourth in Barcelona, Spain.[1]
Kimbell graduated from Villa Park High School in 1978, where he won honors as a High School All American in water polo in 1976 and 1977. He had initially been on the basketball team as a Freshman, but with knee problems, switched to Water Polo where he excelled.[2] He still holds many of Kimbell's swimming and water polo scoring records.[3] As their leading scorer, Kimbell led the Villa Park Spartans to finishing third at the CIF Playoffs for the 3-A Division.[4]
Kimbell was a member of National Team from 1980-1995, where one of his primary coaches was Bill Barnett, who like Kimbell, had a career a water polo player for Long Beach State. Though he was an Olympic prospect for the 1984 Olympics, Kimbell would not gain enough experience to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team until the 1988 Olympics.[3] In Club play, Kimbell played for Industry Hill and the Hackers Water Polo Club in greater Long Beach, and may have stepped in to coach the Hackers.[5]
He attended University of Los Angeles briefly on an athletic scholarship for water polo, though he got little playing time on their team. He then transferred to Santa Ana College (SAC), where he had the most water polo goals in one of his seasons. He finished his College career at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) where he played for Coach Ken Lindgren, and finished out his water polo eligibility for a single season from 1981 though 1982, where he was an All-American both years.[3] Long Beach State Coach Ken Lindgren considered Kimbell his best player on defense, and was the team's second leading scorer as of October, 1981. At Long Beach State, he was a Most Valuable Player in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, and led the team to a second place finish in the NCAA National Championship. Graduating around 1982, he was a marketing major at Long Beach State, and maintained a 3.0 grade point average through his Senior year.[6][7][3][8]
1988-1992 Olympics
Kimbell participated with the U.S. Water Polo team that won the silver medal for the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, where he was coached by USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Coach Bill Barnett.[9] Yugoslavia was a strong early favorite, though the U.S. had beaten the Yugoslavian team five of eight times in matches prior to the Olympics. In group play, Yugoslavia and the United States met in their first Olympic match, with the U.S. team defeating Yugoslavia 7-6. However, as Yugoslavia had been the winner of the group competition, while the U.S. team lost to Spain 9-7 in group competition, Yugoslavia progressed to the final round despite having lost the U.S. team in early rounds. Both the U.S. team and Yugoslavia progressed to the semi-final round, and each won their first semi-final match. In the final match, the U.S. had a 5-2 third quarter lead. Yugoslavia scored four consecutive goals to bring the score to 6-5, but the U.S. team soon brought the score to a 6-6 tie. In overtime, the Yugoslavian team scored three additional goals to take a 9-6 lead, and at the game end won by a score of 9-7, taking the gold medal. As second place finishers in the final round, the U.S. team took the gold. The Soviet Union took the bronze medal.[1]
Kimbell was also a member of the USA Water Polo team at the 1992 Summer Olympics, which finished fourth in Barcelona, Spain.[1]
In international competition, Kimbell played with the U.S. National team at the World Championships in both 1991 and 1994. He participated in Water Polo at the Pan American Games, winning a silver medal in 1991 and a gold in 1995.[1]
Honors
Kimbell is a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame for both California State University Long Beach and Santa Ana College, though he had little playing time during his brief career at UCLA. In 2000, Kimbell was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.[10][11]
Kimbell is married to Darlene Slepcevic Kimbell. He is father to son Jackson, born in 1994, and daughter McKenna, born in 2008.
Kimbell later worked as a claims specialist in the Los Angeles area.[12]
