A Bolt to the heart

Agoura completes emotional season



BE COOL—Above, Agoura High girls’ water polo senior Rachel Hughes fires a shot against Santa Monica on March 18 at AHS. At left, Agoura’s Chloe Gardhouse, left, and Santa Monica goalie Story Waxman battle for the ball. The Chargers won seven of eight games this season.

The Chargers spent seven months training for a season they didn’t know would materialize.

It all worked out in the end: Agoura High’s girls’ water polo team played eight games in three weeks.

“Even if I got an hour to swim or an hour to pass, if we had one game or eight games in three weeks, I’d take that over anything,” said Grace Hathaway, a senior driver bound for Indiana University.

An athlete’s life is never long. There are never enough games. “What if?” are two most tantalizing, and agonizing, words in sports.

There’s never enough time.

For these Chargers, eight games were enough.

The Bolts made a triumphant return to the pool, finishing with a 7-1 record under the guidance of Jason Rosenthal, the only head coach in program history.

For Agoura’s senior day, the last day of the truncated season, the Chargers battled Westlake on March 20. Rosenthal gathered everyone in a postgame huddle.

The skipper looked at his charges.

Photos by Michael Coons/Acorn Newspapers

“I don’t get super emotional. I’ve been doing this 30-plus years,” Rosenthal said. “After the game, I got choked up.”

The Chargers have seen Rosenthal fired up, angry, flustered and happy on the deck. They’ve never seen him with tears in his eyes.

“All the years, I’ve known Jason, I’ve never seen him cry,” Hathaway said. “‘We’ve been through so much this year.’ Then he said, ‘I’m never going to forget this class.’”

“None of us had seen that side of Jason,” said Emily Geld, a senior utility who committed to Wagner College in New York. “It was just so emotional.”

“It was definitely very emotional. A lot of us were laughing before the game saying, ‘Who’s going to cry?’ Jason was the first one to shed tears. All of us were like, wow, we’ve never seen this before,” said Liana Hunt, a senior driver who will continue playing at Fresno State.

“He got real with us. He got serious. He said life outside water polo goes on. Life goes on,” Hunt continued. “We were struggling. Life was moving on without water polo. To have this outlet from stress of homework, from distance learning or whatever your home situation was during the pandemic, to be able to step away from that and come to practice and forget about everything else was really pivotal for our mental health.”

The Marmonte League did not crown a champion, and there were no CIF-Southern Section playoffs in girls’ water polo.

These Chargers, however, made the most of their limited time together after reaching the section semifinals in 2020.

“We wanted to redeem ourselves,” Geld said. “I really thought we had a shot to win CIF this year. We were thankful to get what we could get. We all wanted to make the best of it and play our hardest. It showed. I really think we played as a team.”

Geld said Rosenthal called the senior group the Beatles.

“It’s heartwarming to know that we were that memorable of a group,” Geld said.

Almost every senior on this squad will continue playing water polo in college. In addition to captains Hathaway (Indiana), Geld (Wagner) and Hunt (Fresno State), senior driver Rachel Hughes committed to Ottawa University in Arizona.

Karissa Kantz, a senior utility, is considering playing at Ottawa, Cal Lutheran and other schools. Noah Inbar is a senior goalie.

Molly Blosser, Claire Daland, Sophia DeMattia, Gabriella Vincze, Kai Blankenship, Chloe Gardhouse and Roni Perlman are juniors. Cate Daland is the lone sophomore on the varsity roster.

Geld, a 3.9 GPA scholar athlete who will study sports administration in college, noted that this senior class endured disruptions every school year.

As freshmen, tournaments and games were cancelled to the Thomas Fire and ensuing mudslides in the Santa Barbara area. The following winter, the devastating Woolsey Fire grazed the campus and forced school to close for three weeks. COVID-19 shut down sports in March 2020, and all California teams are still reeling from the pandemic this year.

“I want to remembered for fighting through it,” said Geld, a Los Angeles Kings fan whose dream job is to become general manager of an NHL ice hockey team. “We’ve just been fighting through every situation.”

Hunt, who’s currently sporting a 4.5 GPA, is leaning toward studying business with a minor in interior design.

Hathaway, a 4.5 GPA honors student who enjoys hiking and drawing, plans to study biology or possibly business with the Hoosiers. Her younger brother, Benett, is a sophomore midfielder for Oaks Christian’s soccer team. Grace Hathaway used to dread waking up at 5:30 a.m. She’d groan and stare at her bedroom ceiling before getting trudging off for early-morning practices.

This season has given her a new perspective on water polo.

“I have such a love for the sport, and I appreciate the love I have for the sport,” she said.

“Water polo season in general goes by so quick. There’s so much going on, and it goes by in the blink of an eye. This one felt like it went by in two days,” Hathaway said. “I’m a little angry I didn’t have the senior season I’d been hoping for since my freshman year, but I’m grateful that I got anything. It’s the sport I love.”

Santa Monica’s Melia Orozoco, left, blocks a goal attempt by Agoura’s Karissa Kantz during a girls’ water polo match on March 18.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Agoura High girls’ water polo team, which reached the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 playoff semifinals in 2020, won seven of eight games this season.

Senior captains Grace Hathaway (Indiana University), Emily Geld (Wagner College) and Liana Hunt (Fresno State) will continue playing in college.

Rachel Hughes (Ottawa University in Arizona commit), Karissa Kantz (undecided) and Noah Inbar are the other seniors.

Molly Blosser, sisters Clare and Cate Daland, Sophia DeMattia, Gabriella Vincze, Kai Blankenship, Chloe Gardhouse and Roni Perlman play for the Chargers.