For Oaks Christian boys’ water polo teamsuccess a direct result of hard work

ADAM DAVIS/Acorn Newspapers CAN’T BE CAUGHT—Oaks Christian’s Sam Duimovich blows past an Oxnard defender during the Lions’ 16-3 victory Tuesday afternoon. OCHS currently has an 11-0 record and won the Thousand Oaks Tournament early in September. To a man, the Oaks Christian boys’ water polo team said they believed they had an outside shot to win the Thousand Oaks Tournament earlier this month.

And then they went out and did it, defeating ranked schools such as Buena (No. 8), Thousand Oaks (No. 10) and then Moorpark (No. 7) in a splendid final that went into overtime before the Eagles pulled out a 7-6 comefrom-behind victory.

“We definitely thought we had a chance going into the tournament,” senior two-meter guard M.G. Gonzalez said. “We probably had the toughest seed out of any team because we had to play Buena in the first game and they’re a good team.

“Once we beat them, it was a much more achievable task to win the whole thing,” he said.

Gonzalez is the lone senior on the roster.

Junior two-meters John Pare said capturing the tournament title has given the squad tremendous confidence that they can beat anybody on any given day.

“Actually, I don’t think we’ve really come off Cloud Nine yet after the tournament,” Pare said.

“Now that we know that we beat Buena by four goals and T.O. by four or five goals, these other teams like Agoura and Royal are beating those teams by about the same amount,” he said. “Santa Barbara beat T.O. by the same amount we beat them. Looking at that, we can be one of the top three or four teams in the CIF.”

Fast forward three weeks from the conclusion of the tournament and the Lions are 11-0 on the year and have seen their ranking ascend to No. 6 in Div. IV.

That type of success is forcing other schools to take notice that there’s a new, budding power on the boys’ water polo scene.

“We’re kind of on the map now,” junior two-meters Ryan Balikian said. “Other teams are going to give us their best shot every time. They’re going to be shooting for us. We definitely have a target on our chests.”

Much of the Lions’ success thus far can be attributed to team balance and contributions from all 12 players on the roster during every match.

Offensively, Oaks Christian is scoring a lot of goals—they outscored Pacifica, Milken and Alemany 46-13 during a threegame stretch from Sept. 13 to 19— and defensively they’re a stingy group that hasn’t allowed more than six goals in any game this season.

“(Our balance) is a combination of being a year older, a year bigger and stronger, and our goalies being much improved,” second-year head coach Stuart Craft said. “We’re really trying to stress defense because we know our offense, with its speed, is going to do really well in counter attacking even if they are off a little bit on a particular day.

“So we’ve been really trying to stress defense first and getting out hard on the counter to set up our offense,” the coach said.

Craft led OCHS to a 16-6 record in his first season and a second-place finish in the Frontier League behind perennial power Malibu. And despite having eight freshmen on the roster in ’04, the Lions made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round.

Two of the returning youngsters, sophomore goalies Aric Avidissian and Doug Chespak, are currently splitting time in the cage and doing a very efficient job, Craft said.

Also on the roster are sophomores Michael Craft, Sam Duimovich, Nolan Koon, Daniel Nelson, Tyler Reardon and freshman Colin Barrett.

Junior utility Mickie Blanchard, a first-year varsity player after transferring from Thousand Oaks two years ago, said this year’s team is a very close-knit group that gets along extremely well in and out of the pool.

That closeness, he said, should help the Lions overtake Malibu as the top team in the Frontier League and allow the squad to advance deep into the playoffs once the postseason gets underway in early November.

“These aren’t just the guys I have water polo practice with every day,” Blanchard said.

“These are the guys I hang out with in school. These are the guys I hand out with on the weekends,” Blanchard said. “They’re kind of not just water polo players or even friends; they like my brothers.”

OCHS plays again Thursday afternoon against Notre Dame.