LJ g water polo: Smokin' 'em

By Ed Piper

"Hi, my name is Claire Andrews," she said, sticking her hand out.

Andrews, a senior, had been standing alongside Weston Clark, former Viking baseball player, who was chatting about Cal Lutheran ball, which he is involved in as a freshman at the Thousand Oaks school.

Andrews introduced herself after another Vikings water polo win. Coach Keller Felt's team is undefeated (11-0) up to the New Year.

The senior was informed that the local paper had just ranked her team second in CIF. Was she aware? No, she wasn't. Was that a reason for more motivation? She didn't answer directly.

It was a problem taking photos of the Vikings' starters. A photographer arrived, La Jolla was already blowing its opponent out, and subs were mostly filling the Vikings' positions.

Great for taking photos of the whole roster. Not good for getting pictures of the core players.

That's a good problem to have.

In the Dec. 16 game against Westview, the Vikings led 6-1 after one quarter. That's a blowout. They went up 8-2 by halftime. The final was 12-5, with regulars sitting out large chunks of time and the game turned over to reserves.

That win made La Jolla 10-0. A win the following day over Rancho Buena Vista upped the spotless record to 11 wins without a loss.

The stars include seniors Nicole Bertrand, Summer Broekema, and Lexi Atwell. Juniors are Karli Canale and Ciara Franke.

Water polo is a funny community. There is a secretiveness to the point of not posting statistics on MaxPreps.com, which most of the other CIF sports do. One coach said, "We don't want to give other teams an advantage."

It's kind of silly. The problem is, it's hard to get information on the team. Which only hurts in publicizing and promoting the sport.

One time I thought I had it all solved. This is for a team I won't identify. The assistant coach said, "Oh, sure, I'll let you know what the results are." The only problem was, when I contacted him, he didn't respond with any info! After multiple tries, it was back to the drawing board.

The rivalry between local coaches, some of whom coach club teams and some who don't, is fierce. Their territorial spirit is vast.

The good result is that the girls, and the boys, get great coaching.