They may be the defending champions of the Tri-County Athletic
League, but it’s a clean slate for the San Benito Haybalers, who
lost nearly their entire team last year to graduation.
Hollister – They may be the defending champions of the Tri-County Athletic League, but it’s a clean slate for the San Benito Haybalers, who lost nearly their entire team last year to graduation.
Last season, the ‘Balers went 16-7 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the TCAL for first place over 5-1 Salinas. They scored a whopping 268 goals – 126 goals better than Salinas – and won their first-ever Central Coast Section playoff match against Lynbrook.
New season. New expectations.
But the ‘Balers are returning only three players from last season’s team, as approximately 13 players were graduating seniors.
“I’m not kidding when I say we lost a lot last year,” boys water polo coach Tom Agan said. “It was virtually the entire team.
“On the flip side to that, we have a good group of guys that have been working hard, that are dedicated, and they know what they have to do. I think they’ll be respectable. What they need right now is a lot of playing time together as a unit.”
The three returnees – captain Adam Rianda, Jordan Schafer and Phil Torres – will anchor the boys varsity team in an effort to repeat last year’s performance. And after this weekend, they should have a fair estimate as to where they stack up against both conference and non-conference opponents.
Today, the ‘Balers will open their season as they host the Monterey Bay Varsity Tournament. Teams from Carmel, Leland, Pioneer, Mount Pleasant, San Lorenzo Valley, Stevenson and, of course, league rival Salinas, will converge in Hollister.
Agan said the last couple of years it’s been San Benito and Salinas near the top of the TCAL standings, so today’s tourney should at least provide the ‘Balers with some insight as to where the team is going and what needs to be improved upon before league opener against Salinas on Tuesday.
“It’s really kind of hard to know where you stack up until you play that first tournament and you get to see a couple different teams,” Agan said. “My gut instinct tells me we have a lot of work to do.
“Personally, I’d like to see them challenge for the TCAL championship. It’s realistic, but more so than last year, we’re really going to have to work our tails off.”
One advantage that may be playing toward San Benito’s favor this weekend is their pool. Agan said the pool is outdated, and is a far shorter pool (25 yards) than what other teams are playing in (30-50 meters).
While the smaller-than-normal playing surface may give the ‘Balers a leg up on the competition, Agan said it makes it difficult to get top-quality teams from the Santa Clara area to come down to Hollister, with the pool size and the distance Hollister is to the Santa Clara area.
“We’re handicapped a little bit with that,” the coach said. “We’re certainly handicapped by having to go to Santa Clara to get big games most of the time.”
Nonetheless, the team will look to take advantage this weekend on the competition. The ‘Balers will play in the first match at 7:30am against Carmel. They’re guaranteed to play at least three games, with the championship match held at 6:30pm.
“When we play a team in our pool, the other team is at a disadvantage,” Agan said. “It’s a different game here and we know that game.
“I can’t remember the last time this team finished out of the top three. We’re usually in the top two. That’s hard to do. That’s really hard to do.”
