NEWPORT BEACH, CA. THE Sea Kings are still kings of the pool!<\/p>\n
Coach John Vargas' Corona del Mar High Sea Kings, defending CIF champs, edged La Jolla The Bishop's, 8-6, last week in the finals of the South Coast boys' water polo tourney at Newport Harbor High.<\/p>\n
Vargas, who will take over the Stanford men's program next season (and who is hoping he can bring along his star player, 6-4 senior Michael March), pulled out all the stops to help guide his Sea Kings to the championship.<\/p>\n
And he had to too.<\/p>\n
The Bishop's reached the semi-final game via wins in the first two rounds with a combined 35-8 margin, then trounced fourth-ranked Lake Forest El Toro, 12-7 to gain the championship match against CDM.<\/p>\n
The Bishop's, a San Diego CIF Division II finalist last season, have emerged as a Southern California prep powerhouse the past few years by keeping a nucleus of players intact since junior high. Five players on this year's squad won the 1997 Speedo Cup national crown in the 13-under division.<\/p>\n
La Jolla had nearly three times as many man-advantage opportunities, but the top-ranked Sea Kings were able to stop eight of 11.<\/p>\n
"They're a very good team," said Vargas afterwards.
\n"It's good for us to beat a team like that."<\/p>\n
CDM led by a single goal, 7-6, with 32 seconds remaining. Then the Bishop's coach, Jim Fales, had one of his players jump into the pool, stopping the
\nclock and awarding the Sea Kings a penalty shot. March was on the money and that was the "old ball game."<\/p>\n
Just 33 seconds earlier March succeeded in swiping the ball off a Bishop's player's hand as he was preparing to shot for what might have been the tying goal.<\/p>\n
"The mark of a good team is how well they play [man-advantage] defense," Vargas said. "In practice we haven't been playing good 6-on-5 defense, but today we did."<\/p>\n
March and teammate Artie Dunn, the Sea Kings' primary scorers, were held to a single goal by the Knights, but Bobby Messenger rifled home three goals from outside and Jason Dorocco had two.<\/p>\n
March, a southpaw, has as much an advantage in water polo as a leftie pitcher does in baseball, according to his coach. "The majority of players are right-handed so this gives us an added dimension on offense," Vargas explained, noting that March has come a long way in a short period of time.<\/p>\n
"He's aggressive, he's real strong but totally composed and under control, so you have this sense that maybe he's not. It would not be the most unbelieveable thing to think he has a chance the make the U.S. Olympic team in 2004," Vargas said in a recent Los Angeles Times<\/i> interview.<\/p>\n
Regarded as one of the best young players in the nation, March spent a week in Australia during the summmer training with the U.S. national junior team,
\nthen was in Greece for a week and Turkey for two while competing in tournaments. He also trained for a week in Croatia with the U.S. national team itself.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, all the top collegiate polo programs are after March's services for next season but the Newport Beach native says he's "keeping my options open.<\/p>\n
"I want to win a ring (CIF Championship) and then I'll decide about college," he says.<\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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