Coaches: Jordan Jaime (head coach), Sergio Dorrego (assistant coach), Andrea Lantz (assistant coach)
Top Returners: Kastuv Aryal (12), Dante Gelles (11), Chase Lee (12), Evan Sereg (12)
Top Newcomers: Troy Jung (10), Justin Lee (9), Ethan Park (9)
Last Season: The boys water polo team finished 2-6 in the Freeway League, coming in fifth place, while its overall record was 15-14. The Lancers had the opportunity to enter CIF playoffs after they won 50% of their matches in the season, making it the second year in the row they qualified. The team played against Diamond Bar for the first round but lost against them, 13-5.
Outlook: Though some Sunny Hills sports teams have been assigned to a new league within the Century Conference, the boys water polo team ironically has been placed in a section that goes by the same name as in previous years: Freeway League. The main difference is that only La Habra (23-8 overall) and Troy (17-11 overall) remain in the same division, while Pacifica (16-11 overall) in Garden Grove and Villa Park (16-13 overall) in Orange have replaced Buena Park and Fullerton (both switched to the Orange Empire Conference) and Sonora (dropped to the North Hills League in the Century Conference).
“Part of what was exciting about the new conference-style organization was the potential to play new teams,” Jaime said. “Unfortunately for us, we are still playing two teams, La Habra and Troy, that we have been playing for decades already.”
The team has never played against Pacifica and Villa Park, so though he could watch their future opponents’ past matches, they need to be ready for anything, utility player Gelles said.
“I am anticipating Pacifica and Villa Park to be difficult opponents, but our team’s performance is improving at a rapid pace and I believe that these could be competitive games,” Jaime said. “We have spent a lot of time developing an energy-efficient defense that allows us to be very active and mobile on offense.”
Nevertheless, the head coach remains optimistic of his team’s potential.
“We have a highly motivated and experienced team this season,” Jaime said. “Staying resilient and willing to put in hard work will help us achieve the goals we have for the season.“
Jaime’s main goal for The Lancers is to finish within the top three teams of their league in order to qualify to CIF. Alternatively, the team can win half of their total games throughout the season, he said.
This year, Jaime said he hasn’t appointed anyone as a captain as a tradition left over from the previous coach, Keith Nighswonger’s tenure, and that he believes the team is lucky to consist of athletes from all grade levels that Jaime can ask input from. Instead of specific roles, the coach said he refers to the top team members as his “utility players.”
“I feel proud [to be a utility player] because I have the skill to play all positions on the team, besides goalie,” said utility player Aryal.
Jaime noticed The Lancers had a lot of speed, which is important to games, as beating the opposing team down the pool is the easiest way to score goals, he said.
“We’re constantly moving,” he said. “We realized early on that if we just kept moving around, we would tire the other team out before we tire ourselves out.”
One weakness that Jaime wants to work on this season: the size of each player.
“[We] don’t have a lot of size – water polo is a full contact sport,” he said. “There’s a balance. You have to walk between size and speed. We’ve got speed, not a lot of size.”
To offset this disadvantage, the coach said he is working on training the team’s transition from defense to offense.
“Fluidity in this area is the cornerstone of a successful offense,” Jaime said. “It is also one of the most complicated parts of the game, so it requires a large portion of our practice time.”
Aryal agrees with Jaime focusing on the team’s speed to combat size. As all teams need to find a strength to work on, speed is theirs, Aryal said.
Gelles, acknowledges that he still has some skills he needs to work on, such as increasing stamina, ball awareness and consistency.
“I would like to improve on my shooting and my stamina,” he said. “I think I’m really good at defense, and I think I’m good on fast breaks.”
For his final year on the team, Aryal said he wants to focus on helping his teammates.
“Instead of just being about me, I want everyone else to also have the opportunity to score and get better as well,” he said. “We just want to keep producing athletes that are reaching the peak of their skills as fast as possible.”
The Lancers (5-7) finished non-league play by competing in the Saddleback Tournament from Sept. 27-28 at Saddleback High School, Santa Ana. They will then play their first league match at home on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 4 p.m. against La Habra (15-2).
