The Ernest Righetti High School varsity boys’ water polo team won the Pacific Athletic Conference 8 championship on Nov. 7.
The Warriors sunk the Arroyo Grande High School Eagles 12-7 in their home waters. Righetti held the lead the entire game. At one point, the Eagles scored three unanswered goals, which brought them within two goals of the Warriors.
The Warriors widened the gap and held onto the lead until the final buzzer. No. 12 on the Warriors, Justin Murillo, scored two goals, had two assists, nabbed one steal, and drew two ejections in the game.
“It was a hard-fought game by both teams,” he said.
Murillo is a senior at Righetti and started playing water polo his freshman year. He became interested in the sport after suffering two concussions on the football field as a wide receiver.
He wasn’t a strong swimmer when he started, but gained strength over the years, head coach Rob Knight said.
As a sophomore on junior varsity, Murillo started working out and training with the varsity players. He was brought up to the varsity team his junior year, and although Murillo wasn’t a starter, he did get a lot of playing time and finished strong at the end of last year’s season.
During spring water polo, Murillo broke his finger and had to sit out during the summer. Even though he couldn’t play, the 17-year-old attended practice every day.
This season, the coaches put him in as a starter. The position he plays is driver, and his job is to attack the net when the other team is playing with one man down during a penalty, Murillo said.
“He’s creative offensively,” Knight said. “He’s got his bag of tricks to get around the other man.”
Murillo hopes to go to San Jose State University and play water polo for the Spartans.
Like Murillo, most of the Righetti water polo players started from scratch their freshman year, Knight said. But because the program has had a tradition of competing at a high level, the new players are often able to rise to the occasion.
The water polo program operates year round, which keeps the guys in shape, and the majority of the players are also on the swim team.
The Warriors dominated this season, finishing with a perfect record of 8-0. They also played against the Eagles in last year’s championship match, but barely beat their opponents, 6-5.
At this season’s championship match, the noisy crowd made it feel like a CIF game.
“It prepares us a lot,” Murillo said. “We call a time out and we can’t hear anything.”
This article appears in Nov 13-20, 2014.