Rob Clinger enjoyed playing basketball growing up, but once he jumped into a swimming pool with a different type of ball, he never went out on the court again.

Water polo has always been a fringe sport in the Pittsburgh area, but Clinger is part of a group of young players working to change that. Clinger, who will be an eighth-grader in the North Allegheny School District this fall, is one of the area's top water polo players.

"Whenever I get asked about if I play any sports I say water polo, and either they say, 'I've never heard of it before. What's it like?' Or they tell me, 'That's a tough sport,' and that I should be kind of lucky I even found a club around here to be able to play it," Clinger said.

The Pittsburgh Water Polo Club is striving to make sure neither of those reactions becomes the norm. Barely 2 years old, the organization already is making a splash on the national level. Eight members of the club were selected to compete in the water polo Junior Olympics that begin Saturday in Irvine, Calif.

"Everybody is really excited about this competition," coach Damir Matanovic said. "We really want to get there to show what we know and how well we can compete."

Clinger is making his second consecutive trip to the Junior Olympics. He will compete this year on a 14-and-under boys' team with fellow North Allegheny School District students Kiean Ashtari, Dominic Caputo, Gabe Gaspar, Zach Presto and Steven Siclari.

Those six will join athletes from the Washington, D.C., area on a team dubbed the Pittsburgh Renegades at the national competition in Irvine. The tournament is Saturday through Tuesday.

Plum School District resident Greg Kinzler and North Allegheny's Max Staresinic were selected to play for a 12-and-under team the Naval Academy Aquatics Club has put together for the tournament.

"We've had a couple players hand-picked by other teams [to compete in the Junior Olympics] before, but this is the first time we have had a local team contingent," said Renee Illes, Pittsburgh Water Polo's marketing coordinator.

To qualify for these teams, the local players competed in tryouts and then each team had to qualify through a zone tournament.

More than 200 teams will compete with the vast majority of them being from the water polo hotbed of California.

According to Illes, there are no more than two dozen organized water polo teams at any level in Pennsylvania, The nearest to Pittsburgh is in Erie.

The Pittsburgh club was formed out of a team at North Allegheny, which, for obvious reasons, had trouble finding opponents in the area. Matanovic came to this country 10 months ago from Montenegro, where water polo is a national sport.

Montenegro, formerly part of Yugoslavia, is the reigning European champion. Yugoslavia was a regular Olympic gold or silver medalist throughout that country's history.

Matanovic said he wants to introduce more American youngsters to the sport and make them more passionate about it.

"After only 10 months, I can see the progress of my team," Matanovic said. "They've learned a lot and they've learned really fast. I'm excited about it. It's my hope that in the Junior Olympics competition, they will show what they know. I think they can play against [the more-established] teams. The California teams still have the advantage against us, but also teams like Navy and Greenwich [Conn.,] are among the favorites to take first place. But I think it's a good learning experience for us to watch the game played at a high level."

For now, the top players in this part of the country are exposed to a high level of water polo at the Naval Academy, arguably the sport's top breeding ground in the East. That's where Clinger first was noticed and where he began to become passionate about the game. So much so, that he renewed his dedication to academics -- driven by the prospect of attending the Naval Academy so he can play water polo there.

"I want to work on getting all A's now," said Clinger, who plays the right driver position. He practices at least an hour a day. "Water polo is really fun. It helps build up endurance and makes you so much stronger. Once I played it for the first time, I was hooked."