LJ b water polo: Game story 9/21

By Ed Piper

It was an execution. A murder.

In broad daylight.

In the American's Finest City Tourney at Coronado, La Jolla dismantled Westview, 16-4. It stretched from the opening ball drop, to the final holding of the ball on offense as time ran out.

Similarly, the night before, in day one of the AFC--before COVID a two-site competition that stretched down the Strand to the community pool there--Coach Tom Atwell's Vikings ruthlessly tore into their opponent 21-3 to advance.

What I viewed brought back memories of facing Ventura, then Santa Barbara (when he transferred) in basketball, with Keith Jamaal Wilkes, who went on to star at UCLA and for the Lakers: the game moving too fast, the ball itself moving too fast, an enormous home crowd hooting-and-hollering for the Cougars, then Dons, as they feasted on yet another opposing team, building a humiliating 30-point lead. And I, on the losing side, watching all this.

For Westview, that's what it must have been like, I imagined.

For La Jolla, the big kid in the pool, the bully on the block, all the athletes, all the coaching, all the facilities. Their easy smiles as they warmed up in the side pool.

At CIF, the "white shirts" taking over Coggan Pool, La Jolla's home pool, filling the scorers' tables under the exclusive white awnings, doing all the refereeing. A very secret society.

Back at the AFC, in the main pool, the one to the south of the two, there was transfer George Gaynor in goal. Atwell employed his starters on Saturday morning, then sent in a whole new group from a wealth of riches in talent when the score amounted to 4-1.

By 7-2, I wrote in my notepad, "LJ scoring at will". Westview cheered when their goalkeeper, David Carr, blocked a shot in a rare occurrence against the behemoth of La Jolla.

As Westview coach Cameron Rath said, water polo is a "very small community". No statistics are ever published, no all-star teams are ever announced (except posting on the CIF website under "All-league teams" and "All-CIF teams"). Talking about changing cap numbers, Rath said, "Some coaches will do that to confuse opponents. We know who the good players, because we recognize them."