The Ernest Righetti High School boys’ water polo team stepped out of the heated pools they’re accustomed to and braved the open water for a summer tournament on Foster Lake in Oregon.
“Once in a while you’ve got to change it up,” head varsity coach Kyle Shaffer said.
This July, it wasn’t necessarily other teams or players that tested the Warriors’ skills, but rather the unusual playing conditions. Boat swells, cold water, undercurrents, and moving goals were the biggest challenges to the team, and they had to adapt.
“It was different,” team captain Nick Hurdle said. “Everybody had a hard time adjusting to it at first.”
But rough water didn’t stop the Warriors from dispatching the competition. The boys took first place in their age bracket and won every match by a big margin. They played two teams from California and a handful of teams out of Oregon.
“They cleaned house up there,” said Jami Peters, who has a son on the team. “It was really fun to watch.”
Playing in open water wasn’t the only thing that set this outdoor tournament apart from others the boys have competed in. Surrounded by big, beautiful trees, players, coaches, and parents camped out at the lake for the three-day event.
The 17 teammates are already a tight-knit group, but they got even tighter after sleeping eight guys to a tent. Hurdle said experiences like these help the team form close bonds that will ultimately benefit their performance during the season.
“We were all together all the time,” Hurdle said. “We grew together as a team.”
Between matches, the Warriors played flag football with pink and teal ribbons wrapped around their heads, wrists, and ankles. Despite their teenage shenanigans, the team was well prepared for the Foster Lake tournament, which was the culmination of a 10-day trip down the northern Pacific Coast.
Their journey began in Canada, where the team flew into Victoria for a Hungarian-style training camp with water polo legend and former Olympic trainer, Ferenc Vindisch. Vindisch has a water polo boot camp in Saanich, just outside of Victoria. Hungarians are world-renowned water polo players. For them it’s a national sport, much like baseball is for Americans.
Vindisch visited Righetti last year to help the team train, but this summer Coach Shaffer decided to go to him.
With help from his Hungarian protégés, Vindisch worked the Warriors twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening for 2 1/2 hours at a time. For five days, the 6-foot-plus coach with a heavy accent ran unique drills designed to help players maneuver the ball better, strengthen their swimming, and think as a team.
One drill demanded the players pass the ball solely with their feet.
“It was pretty tough, but it helped us a lot,” Hurdle said. “He expects a lot and is all about the fundamentals.”
And between workouts, the students got to be tourists. They learned about local culture with visits to parliament buildings and the Royal British Columbia Museum, and took in the scenery on a 2-mile hike through a provincial park that ended at a waterfall.
After they had survived Hungarian boot camp, they drove down to Tacoma, Wash., where they swept the competition at an indoor tournament. Although, there was an opponent in Washington that did give the boys a hard time: It was the White Salmon River, where the boys went whitewater rafting. One of their rafts flipped on a class-5 rapid, but luckily, in a boat full of water polo players, everybody can swim.
Once they tamed the White Salmon, they took on the competition at Foster Lake, and made one last stop in Davis for a scrimmage against the Davis Water Polo Club.
The Davis club was the strongest opponent they played on the trip, and even though the Warriors were on the last leg of a long journey, they held their own.
“To see them finish strong was the best part,” Shaffer said.
The Righetti boys’ water polo program has made a tradition of summer trips. In 2011, the team traveled all the way to Hungary, and last summer they went south to compete in scrimmages.
Traveling together as a team is important for player development both in and out of the water, Shaffer said. It helps the guys who moved up from junior varsity get to know their new teammates, and gives everybody a chance to form friendships that will continue beyond high school.
“When you’re spending a lot of time together you’re building a family,” said Shaffer, who is an ERHS alumnus in his 11th season as the school’s water polo coach.
“They’re like brothers,” said Barry Dacus, whose son plays for the team. “It pans out in the pool because they know each other so well from having this close relationship on these trips, that they know what the other guy is going to do.”
The Warriors’, next scrimmage will be against San Marcos on Sept. 2, and the team competes in the Santa Barbara tournament beginning Sept. 11.
Contact Staff Writer Aaron Salazar at asalazar@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2014.