Prep column: Pursuing perfect ending

Barry Faulkner

Corona del Mar High boys water polo coach John Vargas doesn’t think

in these terms, at least for public consumption, and he’d probably

appreciate it if his players also abstained. But there are aspirations

within the Sea Kings program for an unbeaten season this fall.

Such an accomplishment, which would include the program’s third

straight CIF Southern Section championship, would be a first for the

storied water polo program Vargas has helped maintain since he took over

as a 21-year-old head coach in 1983. The Sea Kings have won six of their

11 CIF championships during Vargas’ first 18 seasons, which have also

included four CIF runner-up finishes.

“There was one other team that was undefeated heading into the CIF

title game, but they lost,” CdM senior driver Bobby Messenger said.

Messenger, who helped the Sea Kings win their first South Coast

Tournament title in seven years with an 8-6 triumph over The Bishop’s

from La Jolla in Saturday’s title game at Newport Harbor High, said part

of the players’ motivation for success this season is to send Vargas off

to Stanford with a special memory.

“We really want a perfect season as a gift for Coach Vargas,”

Messenger said. “There is so much respect for him in the water polo

community. You almost have to come out and get into the water to realize

how good a coach he really is. He knows everything there is to know about

water polo.”

Vargas, who played on two U.S. Olympic teams and coached the American

squad at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, will leave CdM after the current

boys season to take over as men’s coach at Stanford.

“I don’t know what people expect, but I think we’re on track,” Vargas

said after his team improved to 5-0 with Saturday’s win.

Vargas denied any talk of running the table this season.

“That’s nothing we focus on,” he said. “Our approach has always been

the same. We want the kids to perform well, play within the system, do

well in league to set ourselves up for a good seeding in CIF, and make a

run at the (Southern Section) title.”

Vargas acknowledges the competition at two remaining regular-season

tournaments, the SoCal Invitational Oct. 5-6 in Irvine and the Cal State

Invitational, Oct. 26-27 at Stanford, should provide ample competition to

occupy his players’ short-term attention.

Perfect season aside, Vargas admits a third straight section crown, a

feat Vargas has already pulled off (1987-89) would be a fitting way to

complete his career at CdM.

“There would be no better way to go out,” Vargas said.

Turns out, the varsity football debut for Sage Hill High will have to

wait until next season.

Lightning Coach Tom Monarch, who had scheduled what he thought was two

varsity games to go with the six junior varsity contests this fall, will

have to consider those two games against varsity opponents as junior

varsity games, as well, according to CIF Southern Section officials.

Southern Section Assistant Commissioner Rob Wigod, who administrates

football, said schools need to file a varsity schedule for inclusion in

the section’s master schedule to be considered a varsity team. Since Sage

Hill did not, it is considered a junior varsity team, which, by all

accounts, it should be anyway this season.

Consulting the master schedule, however, can sometimes add to the

confusion, particularly when small schools are involved.

Saddleback Valley Christian, which Sage Hill played Friday, has games

with junior varsity teams listed on its schedule, with “(JV)” next to the

school’s name.

That designation, however, does not appear next to the Sage Hill

listing. Further, Saddleback Valley’s game with California School for the

Deaf in Riverside, originally scheduled for October but contested

Thursday night as a varsity game, hours before the Sage Hill JV game, is

listed with the JV designation on the Warriors’ schedule.

Saddleback Valley Christian is also scheduled to meet St. Margaret’s

in a varsity game Sept. 28, then play the St. Margaret’s JV to conclude

its regular season Nov. 7. Hmmm.

Among the estimated 7,000 who took in Friday’s Battle of the Bay XL,

was Fox Sports Net broadcaster Bill Macdonald, one of CdM’s more famous

alumni.

Macdonald, joking during the third quarter with Cox Cable

sportscasters on hand broadcasting the game to parts of South Orange

County, wondered aloud what had gone wrong with his Sea Kings, down,

34-0, at the time.

“I think I still have some eligibility left for football,” Macdonald

quipped.