Sage Hill dealing with new coach

LAGUNA BEACH — One of the few sentences coming from Coach Tom Norton that caught the Sage Hill School girls’ water polo team’s attention involved a head count.

“Who’s going on the bus?” Norton said.

Everyone appeared to be going their separate ways, until two players said they needed a lift. The rest of the Lightning could’ve used one during a 17-2 loss at Laguna Beach in an Orange Coast League match Monday.

At least the Breakers (14-4, 4-0 in league), ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division II, pulled their varsity starters before the second and fourth periods. They threw in the junior varsity team.

The gesture was well-received by Sage Hill (8-6, 1-3), which is trying to stay above water since Norton took over as coach on Jan. 2. He stepped in for Aleah Amr, who resigned due to personal reasons during the holiday break.

“It’s nice to have a break,” said Sage Hill sophomore Cameron Cline of not having to deal with Laguna Beach’s varsity players the entire match. “We know this team is awesome. I think it was awesome that it wasn’t a shutout.

“It’s better to play such a great team because it gives us more practice. I think we play up when we play [great teams].”

Norton’s doing his best to not allow the Lightning to sink. The Breakers tried to, as the former UC Irvine and Corona del Mar High water polo player watched.

Laguna Beach overpowered his players to go up, 7-0, in the first. During the break, Norton encouraged the Lightning. This isn’t the only girls’ team Norton has to prod during the week. He’s also an assistant at University, which at 6-10, 1-2 in the competitive Pacific Coast League, is struggling just as much as Sage Hill, which is in third place in the Orange Coast.

Before taking the reigns, Norton, also the Lightning boys’ coach, knew the situation at the Newport Coast school.

Not many players, just nine, but against Laguna Beach, he could only substitute for one player at a time.

Eight players were available, complicating things when fatigue set in trying to stop Laguna Beach’s Breanna Duplisea (two goals), who’s bound for UC Santa Barbara, and Jessica McKee, Annika Dries and Maddie Duncan, who each scored three goals.

“That’s a disadvantage,” Norton said of the low numbers, which also hurts the Lightning when they’re not playing. “You can’t really scrimmage at practice and get the game speed up to play.”

Sage Hill turned it up in the second, when Laguna Beach’s JV team splashed in. It needed playing time, since Sage Hill does not field a JV program to compete against.

Still, the Lightning couldn’t keep up. They got outscored, 4-2, in the quarter.

The two Sage Hill goals came on shots by junior driver Sarah Wesley and Cline, a two-meter player.

Scoring against a program that, since 2001, has only missed the section semifinals once, proved to be a feat for the duo.

“We were just doing our best not to get discouraged, because even though they are in our league, they’ve had a polo program here for like 25 years,” Wesley said. “We’ve had a polo program for like five years. We’re just getting started.”

Things appeared headed in the right direction this year for Sage Hill, when it was 6-3 and entering a league. It was a freelance school last season.

Then the unexpected hit, as Wesley and Cline learned Amr, the coach who guided them since they were 10 and 9, respectively, left to vacation in Egypt.

Wesley said some players considered quitting because of having to adjust to a new coach. “It was a tough thing to handle just because it was midseason,” Wesley said. “But you know Tom Norton came in, and he’s been really good. We’ve been interacting better lately. He’s been giving us really positive criticism. We’re getting better.”

Orange Coast League

Laguna Beach 17, Sage Hill 2

Score by Quarters

Sage Hill

0

2

0

0

—

2

Laguna Beach

7

4

3

3

— 17

Sage Hill -- Wesley 1, Cline 1. Saves -- Smith-Newman 5.

Laguna Beach -- McKee 3, Dries 3, Duncan 3, Duplisea 2, Ross 2, Meek 2, Fait 1, Reid 1. Saves -- Huling 4, Zuziak 2.