"We always like to get into trouble."

"What do you mean, we?"

Like so many New Englanders, Harvard women's water polo Coach Chris Hafferty has trouble saying the letter "r" ("I pahked my cah"). So whenever he says the word "rookie," it comes out "wookie."

Naturally, there have been many rookies on Harvard water polo teams over the years.

But never have there been Wookies.

Freshmen Valerie Nellen and Julie Hopkins were fresh off a highly successful swimming season in which they and their teammates snagged the Eastern Championships. Initially, they were just going to clean three months of chlorine out of their systems and have an easy spring.

"We thought we'd hibernate until fall," Nellen says.

But when they inquired about the women's water polo program, one of the first persons they met was Leean O'Connell, who, like a mother hen, took the two players under her wing and helped them get used to the sport.

"I have a soft spot for swimmers," O'Connell says.

Despite their swimming experience, the two needed some help. After all, Hafferty had to make preseason cuts for the first time ever.

"We were so totally clueless at the beginning," says Nellen, a native of Sea Cliff, N.Y.

And O'Connell wanted to help out any way she could.

"I like to work with the freshmen," O'Connell says. "I've been around the block, as they say."

But the two survived the cut, after which O'Connell dubbed the duo "The Wookies."

"Leean is our `Wookie Mom,'" says Hopkins, a native of Palo Alto, Cal. "When we get out of the pool after scoring a goal, she looks like a proud mother."