Sports
Campolindo Boys Water Polo Preview: Young, Talented Team Carries High Expectations
The Cougars should remain one of the North Coast Sections best teams.
School: Campolindo
Sport: Boys water polo
Coach: Dan Reyes
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2009 record: 14-11
Key returners: Jeffrey Strausser, senior, driver; Peter Price, senior, goalie.
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Top newcomers: Grant Sivesind, driver, freshman.
Quote: "We're young and inexperienced, but we have a lot of talent and a lot of speed." — coach Dan Reyes
Website: http://www.campomenspolo.com/
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When Campolindo boys water polo coach Ray Meadows took an exotic job offer, junior varsity coach Dan Reyes got an unexpected promotion. Meadows left Campolindo to coach and teach in New Zealand in the offseason, leaving Reyes in charge of the varsity squad. He also left behind a program that expects continual success.
With an athletic but relatively inexperienced team, Campolindo reached the North Coast Section quarterfinals in 2009. Now, the Cougars return a unit that is still young, still fast in the pool and still carrying expectations to be among the best in NCS.
"We're young and inexperienced, but we have a lot of talent and a lot of speed," Reyes said. "We have to be able to make the most of our talent and capitalize on our strengths. We have to figure out a way to use our speed in the right way."
Campolindo lost only three seniors from last year's 14-11 team. The 2009 squad fell short of the standard set by previous versions — the Cougars won 22 games in '07 and 20 in '08 — but still managed to extend Campolindo's streak of five-straight NCS quarterfinal appearances.
This year's team will try to make up for its inexperience by using its team speed to trigger a strong counter-attack, which will often be led by senior driver Jeffrey Strausser.
"We're going to be fast, and we're going to be in great shape," Strausser said. "We have a lot of really fast swimmers."
While the Cougars have good size overall, Strausser said they will sometimes face mismatches defensively.
"We're going to have to make up for our lack of size at some positions by always being in the right position," he said.
And with the teams youth comes a need for leaders to emerge.
"We haven't played together that much so we have to develop more cohesion as a team.," Strausser said. "In the past, seniors have really taken on the role as the vocal leader, and now it's my turn to step into that role."
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