The buzzer blared as the clock reached zero, and, stunned, the boys water polo team took in the sight of Coggan Aquatic Complex’s scoreboard. In the Division II CIFs championship game against La Costa Canyon (LCC), Wolverines had lost 12-8.
Prior to this game, the team had not anticipated this heartening CIF run; after many key seniors graduated last year and the team dropped to Division II, co-captain David Carr (11) said that their enthusiasm toward the possibility of reaching the point of the 2019 team’s Division I CIF domination faltered.
Carr said that many of the veterans were demotivated by their standings at the beginning of the season, but were determined to restore the team’s structure. This took the form of rigorous drills and analyses of past plays, which allowed them to develop new strategies to embrace the players’ diverse strengths.
“[Last year’s center] was kind of who we played through,” left wing Luke Christopher (10) said. “I think after he left, we had to start analyzing the other players we had on the team and building more of a complex offense that worked through other guys, not just the center.”
With their main focus being this restructuring, Christopher said they did not originally believe their CIF performance would be notable. However, as the season progressed, a wave of confidence swelled, cresting after the team won the season’s final game against Division I’s highest-ranked team, said one of the team’s two freshmen, utility player Evan Ferreira (9).
“The win against Valhalla raised our team morale,” Ferreira said. “This game also showed us what we were capable of, which gave us something to reach for.”
This assurance and their first-round bye gave the team the security they needed to work on self-improvement, mainly synchronization, utility player Hansen Peterson (11) said, in the week between the season and the competition.
“I think the most important part is cohesiveness, and I think that’s what [our] coach was focusing on,” Peterson said. “If everyone’s on the same page, games will run a lot smoother.”
Throughout the season, the players fostered this cohesion by building communication and trust between veterans and new players. Left driver Isaac Baloun (12) said this collaboration allowed the team to expand and evolve their prowess.
“It’s always important to have new views because we can change our playstyle,” he said. “If we keep the same playstyle for four years straight, teams will know what we’re going to do and learn to stop it, but if we’re constantly changing, it’s really helpful.”
When the tidal wave of CIFs washed over the team, this flexibility was one of their most essential strengths.
The quarterfinals saw their unexpectedly hard-fought victory against San Marcos, the division’s second-lowest seed, Nov. 9.
“We had a week break, so we came in cold and they came in off of an upset,” Baloun said. “They had a better mentality than us and I feel like we didn’t adapt quick enough, and it was just a lot closer than it should’ve been.”
Their first goal was scored by Baloun during a five-meter foul drawn by center Ethan Diep (9).
After a second goal scored by Diep, the team found themselves down 6-2, which forced them to reframe their mindset. They identified the opposing team’s two vital players, locked them down, and were then able to execute efficient steals and open opportunities for the strong offense of drivers like Baloun, Christopher, and Diep.
Tied at 9-9 after the standard four quarters, the teams were allotted two three-minute periods of overtime in which Christopher scored his sixth and seventh goals of the game, a feat that boosted the boys’ hope for CIFs even higher.
“I noticed that their goalie was slow to move into near sides when I saw some other people shoot, so I just started taking quicker shots and shooting to the near-side cage,” Christopher said. “Even if he got a hand on it, he wasn’t in a good enough position to knock it out.”
Diep’s final goal clinched a 12-11 win, a close call that motivated the team to revise their technique for the semifinal game against Granite Hills. They prepared more thoroughly even though they were confident due to a good performance in their prior game against the school in which Carr was absent; practices leading up to the game were filled with analyses of the opponents’ unique driving formation, which relied solely on one player; to counter it, the boys’ defense had to be fluid.
“For the type of defense that we ran [during semifinals], it was really important that they were constantly talking to each other because they had to switch guys a lot and shift over and help each other out,” coach Cameron Rath said. “It wasn’t a man-to-man [formation], it was more of a zone.”
According to Christopher, this efficient communication allowed for their swift steals and dynamic passes, which ensured defense and synchronization that were unmatched in their previous games; nearly every player in the water scored, securing them a 12-8 win.
Keeping this preparational process, the team analyzed film of their final opponent: LCC. Their single practice before the championship game was centered around drilling formations to counter LCC’s right wing, who had a natural advantage in shooting because he was left-handed.
“When watching their game against Francis Parker, we noticed that they did a lot through their lefty,” Christopher said. “They posted him up almost every play, and our initial assumption was [that] they did that just because he was their best player. Looking back on it, it was probably because Francis Parker lacks two defenders over there.”
Once the match began, the team found it difficult to adjust their offense and defense to the all-sided threat that was LCC. Ferreira said that in a hard-fought game with many clever plays, masterful shots, and ceaseless effort, this loss is far from the Wolverines’ last lap.
“It was disappointing, but overall the season was a very fun experience,” Ferreira said. “Losing the game just gives us more motivation to work harder and try to do better next season.”
