The team picks up back-to-back wins, but has long road ahead
Despite picking up back-to-back wins over Monterey and
Watsonville this past week, San Benito High’s water polo coach
doesn’t try and hide the fact that the Baler boys’ varsity squad is
struggling this season and expectations for the defending league
champions aren’t exactly soaring.
The team picks up back-to-back wins, but has long road ahead
Despite picking up back-to-back wins over Monterey and Watsonville this past week, San Benito High’s water polo coach doesn’t try and hide the fact that the Baler boys’ varsity squad is struggling this season and expectations for the defending league champions aren’t exactly soaring.
“We lost 12 of 15 guys to graduation, seven of which were starters,” San Benito High coach Tom Agan said. “When that happens it makes for an interesting year.”
Even with the lack of experience and depth this year the Balers have still managed to play respectably. They are still 2-1 in league play and 5-5 overall. To make the Central Coast Section playoffs a team must have a .500 or better overall win percentage, which means that if the playoffs were held today the Balers would qualify.
“It’s really hard to tell what the future looks like,” said Agan, who has been coaching the Baler boys’ team for 17 years. “We have really improved since the beginning of the year. The guys are getting really frustrated though because we aren’t winning a lot. The flip side of that is that we are improving and in time we will get there.”
Despite the respectable record in the early going, Agan expects Salinas to win the league title this year, especially after seeing his squad fall 15-2 to the Cowboys in the season opener at the beginning of the month.
“That team has pretty much been playing together for the last three years,” Agan said. “I really didn’t want to start the season on the road against them. It wasn’t even close. I don’t see anyone challenging them this year.”
Last year the Balers posted a record of 16-7 overall and went undefeated in league play before advancing to the CCS playoffs where they advanced to the second round for the first time in school history.
This year, they’ve had to make due without their starting seven all-league players from a year ago.
“We’ve had to step our goals back a bit this year,” Agan said. “We’d like to get another shot at the TCAL (Tri County Athletic League) championship, and go into the league championship as the No. 2 seed, but I really don’t think a trip to CCS is going to happen for us this year.”
Even with the lowered expectations the Balers have gotten solid play in the pool out of a handful of players this year, including junior goalie Kyle Ruther, and drivers Jordan Schafer and Adam Rianda.
“Kyle is doing a nice job for us this year,” Agan said. “He’s real solid at blocking shots, a hard worker, and he can accurately get the ball down the pool.”
Schafer has split time this season with Rianda at both the two-meter hole set position and in the driving lanes. He currently leads the team in scoring with 22 goals.
“Jordan knows the game really well,” Agan said. “He’s improving at being the team’s ‘quarterback’ in the water and directing things. He needs to work on his shot percentage.”
Second on the team this year in scoring is Rianda, one of two seniors on the team. This year Rianda has split time with Schafer at the two-meter position and has racked up 10 goals in the process.
“He’s doing a great job too,” Agan said. “We don’t have anybody who is physically dominant enough for that position so I switch Rianda and Schafer back and forth and it seems to be working well. The real truth is that we’re just real green this year and we’re rebuilding.”
