Winning the CIF Sourthern Section Division boys’ water polo championship on Nov. 22 was as much of a team effort for the Ernest Righetti High School team as getting there was.
“It’s hard to pick out just one guy,” said co-coach Rob Knight.
“They’re competitive and they push each other very hard. It came from within the team rather than from us coaches,” said co-coach Kyle Shaffer.
And although the final score put the Warriors up 8-4 over the Cerritos High School Dons, both coaches agree: It was defensive battle. At the end of regulation time, the score was tied at three apiece, but by the end of two overtime periods, the Warriors had chucked five goals into the back of the net.
Shaffer said good leadership was one of the keys to the team’s success this year. Captains Terry Franklin and Nick Hurdle, both seniors, were what Knight calls the “unsung heroes” of the season. While Franklin and Hurdle didn’t necessarily stand out on the score sheet, Knight said that without them, the Warriors wouldn’t have had the season they had.
The 2014 water polo season unfolded with the same tenacity and aggression that one would expect from a team boasting seven seniors, most of whom experienced a similar trek to the division finals last year, only to lose 6-4 to Los Osos High School in the championship.
Knight said that was a huge motivator for this season.
“It was pretty much straight ahead,” Knight said. “The players were on the same page with the coaches.”
The goal was to get to division finals and take the title home (there’s no state water polo championship). The team had a couple of close losses to Division I teams, which was good for the team to experience, he added, because they learned from those games and used it to their advantage in the finals.
“They kind of took all the things that we try to do with our team to the extreme,” Knight said. “They are extremely tight-knit, extrememly hard working.”
Knight has coached the Righetti boys’ water polo team for most of the past 24 years. He said in his time, the Warriors have made it to the CIF division final eight times and come away with the championship four times; 2002 was the last title win.
Of the seven seniors on the team, five were consistent starters, and that’s something that Shaffer said the team is going to miss next year, but he added that the juniors and sophomores have something to take with them into the next season. For a couple of years now, the team has become more and more tight-knit, working hard and leaning on each other as needed.
That comradery is something that can push a team to success.
“What they saw this year—hopefully, they can continue into the future,” Shaffer said.
