[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15520-15521]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      A TRIBUTE IN RECOGNITION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY AND HISTORIC 
    CONTRIBUTIONS OF TWO COMMERCE ATHLETES, BRENDA VILLA AND PATTY 
           CARDENAS, TO THE SPORT OF U.S. WOMEN'S WATER POLO

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 21, 2008

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and 
commend two extraordinary athletes who are members of the United States 
Women's Water Polo Team competing in the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 
Beijing, China. In addition to being first-generation Mexican American 
Latina trailblazers in the world of competitive water polo, both of 
these exceptional women call the City of Commerce, in the 34th 
Congressional District, their home.
  As children, Brenda Villa and Patty Cardenas learned to play water 
polo and hone their skills at the local swimming club, Commerce 
Aquatics. Looking back on their introduction to the sport, Brenda, now 
28, and

[[Page 15521]]

Patty, 23, credit the City of Commerce and the club's dedicated coaches 
for encouraging and developing their interest in water polo.
  Today, in a $20 million facility built to Olympic specifications, the 
city continues to encourage young people--the future Brendas and 
Pattys--to participate and excel in water polo. In addition to 
employing two full-time and three part-time youth water polo coaches 
and allocating more than $250,000 a year on its programs, the City of 
Commerce also covers participants' competition-related expenses. These 
expenses might otherwise prevent the community's economically 
disadvantaged youth from participating in tournaments.
  After Commerce Aquatics, Brenda and Patty continued to play water 
polo at Bell Gardens High School.
  When Brenda entered high school in the fall of 1994, the school did 
not have a girls water polo team. With Brenda competing alongside and 
against the male players, the Bell Gardens Boys Water Polo Team won 
four consecutive league championships and back-to-back California 
Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division III championships.
  In the fall of 1998, following Brenda's graduation, the younger Patty 
entered Bell Gardens High School just in time to join the school's 
newly-formed Girls Water Polo Team. At that point, CIF rules prohibited 
Patty from playing on the Boys Water Polo Team. With Patty as part of 
the high school's first girls team, the female players went on to win 
four consecutive CIF Championships.
  Following high school, both women would go on to realize their dreams 
of playing competitive women's water polo in college and in the 
Olympics.
  At Stanford University, Brenda took a leave of absence to train with 
the Olympic Women's National Team for the 2000 Olympic debut of the 
women's water polo competition in Sydney, Australia. The team won the 
Silver Medal. Two years later, Brenda was awarded the Peter J. Cutino 
Award, an honor given annually to the top female collegiate water polo 
player in the nation. In 2004, as a member of the U.S. Women's National 
Water Polo Team at the Athens Olympics, Brenda and her teammates took 
home the Bronze Medal.
  Between Olympic Games, Brenda achieved another victory. In 2003, when 
she graduated from Stanford with a degree in Political Science, she 
became the first member of her family to earn a college degree.
  Patty stayed closer to home after high school. She enrolled at Golden 
West Community College in Huntington Beach, California. There, Patty 
helped her team win the 2002 California State Championship. In 2005, 
Patty transferred to the University of Southern California where, for 
the past couple of years, she has trained on the U.S. National Women's 
Polo Team.
  The Summer Olympics in Beijing will be Patty's first Olympic 
competition and Brenda's third. This time, with both Commerce athletes 
on the same team, they hope to work together with their other teammates 
to bring home the Gold.
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of the 34th Congressional District and the 
state of California, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating 
Brenda and Patty on their incredible achievements and extending to them 
and their teammates our best wishes for a victorious trip to the 
Beijing Summer Olympics. I can assure you, regardless of how the team 
places, these two remarkable athletes will always be champions to their 
many devoted fans in the City of Commerce. They are among our hometown 
heroes, and we are very proud of them--in and out of the pool.

                          ____________________