‘Balers land 11 players on All-League teams
Seven San Benito High boys and four girls were honored with selections to the All-Tri-County Athletic League water polo teams.
The entire boys starting squad was selected, with six players making the first team – including senior David Smith winning the league’s Most Valuable Player award.
Joining Smith on the boys first team were James Schafer, Jason Andrade, Rory Bloch, Greg Valenzuela and goalkeeper Matt Thorpe. Blane Curtice was a second-team selection.
Katie Buzzetta, Stephanie Rodriguez and Jayme Telles were first-team selections to the girls squad, while Shelli Reed was named to the second team.
Smith tallied a league-leading 54 goals to lead the TCAL-champion Haybalers. Schafer was second on the team with 24 goals. Rory Bloch added 21 goals, Jason Andrade had 15, Curtice had nine and Valenzuela notched six goals while Thorpe provided steady play in the net all season for San Benito.
On the girls side, Buzzetta was second in the league with 90 goals, finishing behind only Santa Catalina’s Devan Kennifer, who was voted the MVP.
Telles finished second on the team with 56 goals and led the way with 19 assists. Reed and Rodriguez tied for fourth on the team with 27 goals each.
In a banner year for the water polo program, both the boys and girls teams earned the right to host Central Coast Section playoff games for the first time in school history and their respective first-round wins were the first in school history.
The boys team fell to Menlo-Atherton in the second round of CCS, and the girls team was also knocked out in the second round with a loss to St. Francis.
Both teams also advanced to the championship game in the TCAL tournament. The boys beat Salinas to win the league title and the girls fell to Santa Catalina.
