By this evening all six East Bay water polo leagues will have started up. Here’s a quick rundown on how the league title races might play out with predicted champions.
Read the rest of this entry »

The season is about four weeks old now, and so far there haven’t been too many surprises. The perennial top teams are still dominating in nonleague games and the big tournaments, but some of the smaller tournaments have given other teams time to shine.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Miramonte boys earn a one-goal win over Acalanes. The Monte Vista girls top Campolindo decisively.
Sound familiar?
That was how the NCS championship games played out last year. It’s also the way the 2010 season began.
Read the rest of this entry »

Dating back to 2006, the only teams to win North Coast Section water polo titles have been the Miramonte boys and Monte Vista girls.
That is guaranteed to change this year.
Read the rest of this entry »

Monte Vista High incoming senior Maggie Steffens was named USA Today’s Athlete of the Week after helping the U.S. national water polo team win the FINA World League Super Final title last weekend.

Steffens, the only high school player on the national team roster, made the team’s fifth and final penalty shot in a shootout to give the U.S. a 12-11 win over Australia in the championship game.

Monte Vista High’s Maggie Steffens is playing with the U.S. National water polo team in the FINA World League Super Final in La Jolla this week and USA water polo is streaming every match live on their website. You can check it out here.

Steffens, who will be a senior at Monte Vista this fall and is the team’s youngest player, scored in all three of the U.S.’ preliminary round wins. The team defeated Canada last night in the quarterfinals and today play against Greece in a 7 p.m. semifinal.
Read the rest of this entry »

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will be facing each other in both the boys and girls divisions and both have the potential to be pretty good matchups. Both matches will be held at Miramonte High School with the girls kicking things off at 1:30 p.m. and the boys following at 3 p.m.
Read the rest of this entry »

We are running a three-part series on high school coaches. The series started Monday with stories on coaches who are starting out. Tuesday’s package will be on coaches and what they endure to stay at it, and Wednesday we will close with coaches who got out. What’s surprised me is the candor of which coaches spoke of their respective hardships, especially in dealing with parents. It used to be whenever a coach told a reporter about anything in that realm it was prefaced by “this is off the record.” These days dissatisfaction with a coach is much more out in the open and thus many coaches are more willing to talk about these instances. Just checking the Times discussion boards or any other such boards demonstrates that. Another example of how life has changed in the cyber-era.

Well it’s that time of the decade again where the North Coast Section sits all its member schools down at a table and everyone reminds themselves how much they don’t get along. Cynical, yes. Out of touch with reality, no. In today’s Times, Chace Bryson explores the new proposals for league configurations. I looked at these changes this morning and suddenly the new hotbed for controversy is the Bay Shore Conference, within whose boundaries I happen to live.

First thing’s first: This is one of the most political processes you’re ever going to see in high school athletics. Why? Because it directly affects the purse strings that govern competitive equity. That’s especially true when it comes to the ACCAL and BSAL. The new alignment puts Kennedy back in the ACCAL with fellow WCCUSD schools De Anza, El Cerrito, Pinole Valley, and Richmond and also adds John Swett and St. Patrick-St. Vincent to the mix. Does anyone actually believe the Eagles are equipped to compete in any sports other than soccer and basketball in this league? No. What this does is lessen the travel costs for the WCCUSD, and that’s what dictated this move.

We have to put this proposal in perspective. Yes, money is a major factor in these talks whereas the new Valley Conference had concerns over competitive balance. The most popular dissenting opinion for these new leagues is that some schools are concerned with the fact that they can’t compete. I’m not indifferent to those opinions and I can tell you watching a blowout night after night is much less fun than seeing a good game. But the bottom line is this: We need to get these kids on the field and on the court. These moves allow teams like Kennedy and Richmond to cut costs and might allow them to establish some consistency in fielding teams. I care less about the ability to compete than the opportunity to compete and, to a large extent, these moves show that the NCS Board of Managers does too.

Beijing’s 2008 Olympics, the event’s official Web site tells us, will run Aug. 8-24. Olympic water polo will run Aug. 9-23. But will the teams get to the appointed venues at the appointed times?

OK, so we’re being facetious, here. But at the high school level, the sport has problems that have nothing to do with the action in the pool. Postponed matches, changed times, games canceled (or occasionally added) with no notification beyond the team members. Schedules sometimes seem meaningless.

A few years ago, a coach of another sport called high school water polo a "logistical nightmare." He added that if he had been a water polo coach, he would not have lasted half a season.

Admittedly, things have improved since then. But the logistical mish-mash monster reared its ugly head at a school that shall remain nameless when those in charge took it on themselves to start with the varsity matches and follow with the JV instead of following the usual girls-boys pattern of varsity-JV-varsity-JV. Sadly, coverage had been planned in advance, and an opportunity to cover at least one potentially great varsity match was lost.

At its best, water polo is soccer in H2O, blending art with athleticism. Having covered an international match once many years ago, I can say the sport is action-packed and exciting. I’ve seen some good high school matches over the years, as well. But the sport’s logistical problems can drive some of us up a wall and down a creek.