Quest for a state title begins today

Now is the time. The time for the Orange Coast College women’s

water polo team to strap on their caps, test the waters and go all

out because it’s playoffs time in the community college water polo

world as the California Community Colleges Women’s Water Polo

Championships begin today at the USA Water Polo National Training

Center at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base in Los

Alamitos.

The Pirates, (26-9, 5-1 in the Orange Empire Conference) and

seeded third in the Southern Division, attempt to capture their

second straight state title after going undefeated through the state

championships last season.

Orange Coast plays second-seeded Merced from the Northern Division

today at 3:30 p.m. in the top half of the bracket. The Bucs won both

matches between the two teams this season, a 6-4 decision on Sept. 6

and a 5-4 overtime victory Oct. 19.

Should the Pirates prevail, they would play the Long Beach-San

Joaquin Delta winner.

A daunting task awaits should Long Beach prevail over Delta. The

Pirates lost all three matches to Long Beach this season.

Sierra has the No. 1 seed in the north and faces the south’s

fourth seed, Riverside, today at 4:45 p.m. in the bottom half of the

bracket while the south’s second seed, Golden West, takes on the

north’s third seed, American River, today at 2:15 p.m.

Golden West has been a thorn in the Pirates’ side this season,

beating the Pirates all three times the teams have faced one another,

the most recent a 9-4 decision Saturday in the semifinals of the

Southern California Regional Championships, in which OCC took third

place.

There is reason to be optimistic about Coast’s chances in the

state championships with the Pirates featuring three 40-goal scorers

in Nicole Sonnenfeld (49), Sheri Meyer (45) and Erica Nicholson (43).

Nicholson and Sonnenfeld lead the team in assists with 19 and 10,

respectively.

Defensively, Amber Braly leads the Bucs with 49 steals followed by

Sara Natalizio’s 46, and goalkeeper Heather Deyden has made 256 saves

and tallied 29 steals.

*

Golden West College goalie Brandon McLain, a 2001 graduate of

Newport Harbor High, who was the goalie on the Sailors’ boys water

polo 2000 CIF Division I championship team, is taking the same

mentality into the community college men’s state water polo

championships at Los Alamitos, which begins today, as he did going

into last year’s tournament, which the Rustlers won.

McLain finished with 15 saves in the state championship game

against Riverside last season and ended 2001 with 185 saves. He was

named to the All-State Tournament team as the Rustlers went 33-2.

“I felt really strong last year,” said the 6-foot, 175-pound

McLain who turned 20 in May. “I had been through a CIF championship

so it wasn’t a scary thing. I was used to the crowd at Belmont Plaza

and nothing can be scarier than that. I just took what I learned last

year and go with it for this year to get myself ready.”

The Rustlers are 27-2 this season and face the No. 4 seed Modesto

today at 8 a.m. at the USA Water Polo Training Center.

McLain shared time in goal with freshmen Kyle Celinder and Jeremy

Randall earlier this season, but now he is the No. 1 man in net,

though all three goalies work together in practice.

“We help each other out to find out what is good to practice,”

McLain said.

McLain has also dealt with a coaching change at Golden West this

season as Scott Taylor (former Costa Mesa boys and girls water polo

coach and Mustang water polo player) took over head coaching duties

after Brian Kreutzkamp resigned following last season’s championship

to take a job with Stanford University’s aquatics program.

Players learn to take responsibility for their progress at the

junior college level, McLain said.

“In high school a coach will push you to do all the right stuff

and give workouts to get everything done,” McLain said. “In college,

you find out different drills to do in practice and make sure you do

it. There’s not a coach on my back telling me, ‘You have to do this.

We work together and figure out what to practice.”

McLain has not committed to any four-year universities yet but

said he would like to stay and play water polo in Southern

California, possibly attending UC Irvine, UCLA or USC, but he also

mentioned Northern California schools such as the University of the

Pacific, Stanford and UC Berkeley.

The goalie gene in the McLain family doesn’t stop with Brandon.

He has three younger brothers who all play goalie and either

currently play for Newport Harbor or will in the coming years.

Nathan McLain is a senior goalie for Newport (18-9) that begins

its CIF Division I playoff push against Northwood (13-5), while Evan

McLain is a goalie for the Sailors’ freshman team and eighth-grader

Bryce McLain will play for next season’s Tars.

“I don’t know why they followed me,” chuckled McLain when asked

about the family’s line of water polo goalies. “I was pretty much the

first one in my family to play the sport.”

He started a trend that should keep a McLain around the net at

Newport Harbor for four more years.

*

Frough Jahid approached Orange Coast College kicker Bryce Sheridan

at halftime of the Pirates’ Oct. 12 game against Pasadena and asked

the kicker if he would like to help out the kicking team at Corona

del Mar High, where Jahid coaches the receivers and the secondary.

Sheridan (Costa Mesa High) and Jahid’s younger brother, Fahad

(Estancia High), are now teammates on Coast after playing against one

another in high school.

Sheridan accepted the invitation and said he’s been at practice a

couple of times assisting Corona punters.

He hasn’t advised on place kicking.

The Sea Kings have been solid in that department, netting 21 of 23

point-after-touchdowns (PATs) this season.