Katya Eadington

Steve Virgen

Throughout the summer and fall, and into the girls water polo season,

maddening pressure mounted on the shoulders of Katya Eadington.

The Corona del Mar High senior did her best so that her effort

would match high expectations, but that turned out to be a mistake.

She knew she had to be an offensive threat this year and she worked

hard to fulfill that role.

She worked very hard.

She also became very nervous. It seemed as if she held her breath

while she got all her work done. But finally she exhaled, and the Sea

Kings benefited.

“She was just trying too hard,” Corona del Mar Coach Aaron Chaney

said. “When she started to relax and let the game come to her that’s

when she really started to improve.”

When the Sea Kings experienced pressure throughout the year,

Eadington remained calm and continued to let the game come to her.

Corona del Mar was ranked No. 1 in CIF Southern Section Division II

all year and the Sea Kings were expected to win their third straight

CIF championship.

However, with the offensive punch of last year’s core group gone

because of graduation, the Sea Kings needed to find new ways to score

and believe in themselves. Eadington and her teammates thrived on

that challenge.

“At the beginning of the season, I knew that not too many people

had confidence in us,” Eadington said. “They said we would have a

rebuilding year. Last year we had star players. This year we didn’t

have any standouts so we played real well as a team and we came

together. We did prove people wrong. We didn’t beat Foothill or

Newport, but we did give them a game, and I bet people said we

wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

Eadington scored 60 goals this season to lead the Sea Kings. At

the beginning of the season her shot was a bit off, but Chaney told

her to just keep shooting and by season’s end, she was on target.

During Corona del Mar’s playoff run, Eadington, the Daily Pilot

Athlete of the Week, scored 15 goals in the Sea Kings’ four

victories.

She scored a game-high five goals in the Sea Kings’ 13-6 victory

over visiting Canyon of Anaheim in the semifinals Feb. 25. Corona del

Mar had just come off a 7-4 win over Villa Park, in which it

struggled offensively in the first half.

But Eadington helped the Sea Kings break out with the semifinal

win.

“This year I was looking for ways to get open,” Eadington said.

“Instead of waiting for it to come to me, I would go get it. I would

try to drive more and create more opportunities.”

Eadington displayed her aggressiveness in her final game for the

Sea Kings. She scored a game-high four goals to help lead Corona del

Mar to a 13-3 win over Peninsula in the CIF Division II final. The

victory gave the Sea Kings three straight CIF titles. In 2002, they

won Division IV, and last year they took home the Division II crown.

“It was just exciting this time to be a senior and to be playing a

lot,” Eadington said. “We just had a real well-rounded team. Everyone

can score from everywhere. It was a lot fun.”