Baler water polo goalie ranges high and wide to stifle scoring
efforts of opponents
He’s a 6-foot-3 junior who can shoot out of the water waste-high
to make a save. And his wing span is so long that when San Benito
High School varsity water polo coach Tom Agan saw Kyle Reuther in
his woodshop class at Rancho San Justo Middle School he immediately
encouraged the eighth grader to try out for the sport when he came
to high school.
Baler water polo goalie ranges high and wide to stifle scoring efforts of opponents
He’s a 6-foot-3 junior who can shoot out of the water waste-high to make a save. And his wing span is so long that when San Benito High School varsity water polo coach Tom Agan saw Kyle Reuther in his woodshop class at Rancho San Justo Middle School he immediately encouraged the eighth grader to try out for the sport when he came to high school.
He did.
Since his sophomore year Reuther has been the Balers starting goalie. This season he is one of the team’s brightest spots in a challenging season that saw the defending league champion Balers of a year ago go from an undefeated team to a squad with a 5-9 mark overall and a 2-2 record in league as play heads into its final regular season week of action.
“He’s solid in the goal,” Agan said. “If the shot can be blocked, he will get it. He’s got a real good natural instinct and a really good read on the shooting. He knows to watch a player’s eyes and shoulders.”
Although he hasn’t picked up any shutouts this year in the cage, Reuther is averaging nearly 10 saves a game, and his play in goal has been instrumental in keeping the Balers in the game, nearly every game that he’s jumped into the pool. In the Balers last game in a tournament at Live Oak High School Reuther had 19 saves.
“He’s keeping us in the game. He’s got a great arm and he gets everything started on the counter attack,” Agan said.
Reuther, who swims the 500 freestyle and some breaststroke events during the spring season for the Balers, enjoys water polo most.
“I love how there is always a new challenge in water polo,” Reuther said. “When someone comes up with a new shot, it’s just something else to try and block.”
With his long wingspan and ability to get high in the water Reuther has proved to be a major obstacle for opposing offenses that need to score quick goals. Often times he looks like a big wall in front of the net with his arms extended and his body well out of the water.
“To come out of the water as high as I do isn’t really anything special. It just comes with practice,” he said. “I just do egg beaters with my hands, and then when you need to come up you just do a giant breaststroke kick and it propels you out of the water.”
While Reuther was blessed with his size and strength, the thing that he works on most is “learning all of the new shots that people come up with and how to block them.”
“The hardest shot to block is a low corner shot,” he said.
Being the goalie on a losing team comes with a lot of added pressure. A year ago, the Balers cruised to a 7-0 record in league and went 16-7 overall before advancing to the second round of the Central Coast Section playoffs – the farthest any Baler boys’ team had ever gone in the tournament. This year the wins have been hard to come by, and a trip to the playoffs seems unlikely.
“Sometimes all the pressure can be hard,” Reuther said. “It really all depends on how well the team is doing. During a game I just try and relax and stay calm. I don’t want to stress out or everything just goes down the tubes. I really just try and do my best, become like a robot and not think too much out there once the game starts.”
After getting the ball or making a save, the pressure doesn’t stop there. He knows that as soon as he makes a save he’s got to send a quick pass up the pool to one of his players in order to jump-start the transition game as quickly as possible. An errant pass to a teammate could spell disaster for the team and result in a quick scoring opportunity for the opposition.
“I get the ball, look down the pool and get it to someone as fast as I can,” he said.
With one more year to go in his high school career he hasn’t thought too much about college but would welcome the chance to play at the next level.
“I’m just glad that we have him next year too,” Agan said. “He’s a great kid with a real good work ethic. He’s positive and supportive of his teammates – all the things that coaches like best.”
