Tony Azevedo won three, bonnani won two and Hallock won two.
I think Kevin Robertson won two in the 70s for Newport as well, maybe the greatest lefty we ever produced.
The water polo tie is they all played in an Olympic Games, but that wouldn’t count for the recent Newport kid.
An interesting note on the undefeated seasons: Sprague and Sunny Hills almost had a second undefeated season in 1985 with the Santiago brothers and goalie Michael Day but lost in the championship game to CDM in sudden death OT.
The following year, they got their revenge beating an undefeated CDM team in the title game.
I think those were the last two SS D1 teams to suffer their first loss in the championship game.
One point to OCL for correctly telling us that Newport Harbor’s Ben Liechty, Harvard-Westlake’s Ben Hallock, and Long Beach Wilson’s Tony Azevedo won multiple CIF Southern Section Open Division (or its equivalent) player or co-player-of-the-year awards. Liechty and Hallock won the award twice. Azevedo won three times.
One point to CaliWaterPolo for correctly telling us that Newport Harbor’s Kevin Robertson won the award twice. One point to CaliWaterPolo for correctly noting that, except for Ben Liechty, the players in question are all Olympians.
Note: We’re missing the names of three other players. Two played at Stanford.and one played at Long Beach State.
The younger Bergeson would be my guess on the Stanford player.
My guesses:
Bret Bonnani
Doug Kimball
Ethan Shipman? Harvard Westlake?
I’m going to cordially request that the high school discussion and the trivia contest be separate threads.
Thanks for your message, Gibson. I’ve been asking trivia questions as part of my unofficial rankings for many years now. It’s a good way to recognize some of the great coaches and players from the past. I didn’t intend for this thread to be a general discussion about high school water polo. The focus is on my unofficial rankings. Feel free to start a separate thread that focuses more generally on high school water polo.
What happened to the Orange Lutheran’s program?
Orange Lutheran’s water polo program is thriving on the girls’ side and a work in progress on the boys’ side. Former Foothill and Cal player Joe Molina is the new coach of the boys’ team. I’m often wrong but I don’t think the boys’ team will finish in the top 20 this year. The boys’ program hasn’t had a stable coaching situation since Steve Carrera was the head coach. Molina has played for some excellent coaches. If he stays at Orange Lutheran, I doubt it will take long for Orange Lutheran to be a top 20 team again.
Boys Water Polo Season Preview '24-'25 - Orange Lutheran High School (oluathletics.org)
Ok. Thanks. I didn’t known it was a longstanding practice/tradition.
CdM beat Foothill 10-8
Foothill looks like a very solid team this year with a very high possibility of being an Open Division team. They held CDM to a 5-4 first half with both teams playing excellent defense. Going into the second half the Sea Kings adjusted and senior Jackson Harlan (UCSB) really stepped up to the plate leading the Sea Kings with 5 goals. The Sea Kings capitalized on simple Foothill mistakes which led to their 10-8 victory over the Knights. I do believe we will see more of foothill this season potentially up there with the top 8 teams.
One point to CaliWaterPolo for correctly telling us that Newport Harbor’s James Bergeson was the CIF Southern Section Open Division (or its equivalent) player or co-player of the year more than once. He is a 1x Olympian.
One point to Oldschoolpolofan for correctly telling us that Mater Dei’s Bret Bonanni was the Southern Section Open Division (or its equivalent) player or co-player of the year more than once. He is a 1x Olympian.
Long Beach Wilson’s Jackson Kimbell was the Southern Section Division 2 player of the year in 2011. Brett Bonanni was the Division 1 player of the year in 2011. Harvard-Westlake’s Ethan Shipman did not win a Southern Section player or co-player-of-the-year award.
Heard Foothill was 1-of-7 on man-ups as well.
Orange Lutheran has an excellent D1 prospect at center in junior Logan Hetland. Played for SOCAL 16s this summer.
Multiple coaching changes in a short amount of time. This led to players transferring out (Junior Luke Wiechert, Alex Piccin (back to Connecticut), etc…).Joe Molina should get the ship headed in the right direction. They have improved since the summer and have a very good center in Logan Hetland
The Santa Barbara Invite schedule was just posted, it seems like some interesting seeding. Mira Costa and HB look too low. I predict the following for the top 8:
If St. Francis didn’t have such a tough bracket I would probably have them on this list.
CDM 17 LB Wilson 14
Harlan with 11 goals.
It was tight up until about a minute and a half, like a 1 goal lead for CDM. Wilson led at halftime and was up at one point in the 3rd or 4th quarter. Wilson, from what I read, is a young team full of potential in the next couple of years and maybe CDM is as well. Good matchup. Yeah, that one dude is a one man band.