Boys Water Polo Dominates their Division

By Eja Fromm

Photo Creds: Maddie Colitz


Mission Viejo boys water polo team proves themselves this season with big league game wins as they are ranked first in division 5. 

     As of Monday, October ninth, the Mission Viejo boys water polo team, led by coach Kevin Mitchell, is number one in division five. They expect big things this season and to make it far into CIF. 

     On Tuesday, September 24th, they played one of their rivals, Trabuco Hills High School. At the time, Trabuco was first in the division and Mission was 3rd. It was a tough game but the Diablos ended up being victorious with a 9-7 win, and bumped Trabuco down in the division. Mission Viejo was moved back up to first place.  

     Last year, the boys made it to the first round of CIF. They played Cajon High School and had a tough loss with the final score being 10-8. 

     Team captain Jude Gallagher has high hopes for this season as he claimed, “We have a good shot in going all the way in CIF.”

     His personal goals include, “I want to continue to improve in set defense and to become more of a threat on offense.”

     When reflecting on this season, Jude mentioned, “It’s been a tough season with a lot of injuries, but I’m proud with the team and all the hard work we’ve put in.” 

     The team is currently 1-2 in league with losses against opponents Aliso Niguel and Capo Valley. Their only league win so far was against Trabuco Hills. 

     Varsity goalie, Joe Carlucci said,  ̈I expect us to come top three in league this year.¨ 

     When asked how he feels about this season he replied, “I feel good about our season so far, and I think we could win CIF because we ́re first in our division.¨

     In Sea View League, the boys are placed fourth against nearby schools. Laguna Hills is currently number one in league. 

     Varsity utility player Matt Rodriguez stated, ̈ I expect good, hard played games for the rest of the season, and would like to not lose any more games.¨ 

     Rodriguez feels that, “The team and I have underperformed but I expect us to not have any more bad games and win CIF this year!¨

     A personal goal he has is, ̈To become more of a team leader my team needs and to show off the gifts God has given me.¨ He expects a lot of hard work next year and for it to be overall successful. 

     Over the summer, the boys flew to Hungary to play against other countries. They played a team from Russia, Germany, and the local team from the city they were staying in, which was Eger, Hungary. 

     Sophomore varsity player Kadin Kendall mentioned,  ̈It was a really good learning experience because the European teams were a lot more physical.”

     According to Kendall, they didn’t do so well playing the European teams at first because they weren’t used to their aggressiveness, “It gave us advantage back in the US because the teams we were playing against in California weren’t used to how physical we began to play.” 

     Overall, Missions boys polo team has many games in front of them, and they expect nothing less than a successful season this year. 

 

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