It’s all in the family for Newport Harbor water polo
The logo for Newport Harbor High School features an anchor.
That’s appropriate for the school’s highly decorated water polo teams. Alumni of the program often don’t stray too far.
Top-seeded Newport Harbor girls’ water polo brings an all-alumni coaching staff into Saturday night’s CIF Southern Section Open Division title match clash against No. 2-seeded Laguna Beach.
Head coach Ross Sinclair, in his fourth season guiding the Sailors girls, graduated from the school in 2003. A decade-plus later, each of his assistant coaches also competed for the Sailors.
Center Christina O’Beck graduated from Newport Harbor in 2014 before going on to play at the University of Michigan. Goalkeeper Carlee Kapana and defender Rachel Whitelegge both graduated in 2015 — the late legendary coach Bill Barnett’s final season — before heading off to UCLA.
Sinclair welcomed them home. The three women, now in their mid-20s, have been reunited with the Sailors for the last three seasons. The journey has led to Saturday at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center, when the proud program seeks its seventh CIF championship.
“I had always dreamed of coming back to be a coach at Newport Harbor, because I love this school, I love this community, I love this program,” Sinclair said. “I think the three of them are just a byproduct of that as well. Obviously, it all goes back to Coach Barnett, and what he was able to establish. The love of the game and the community makes it more fun for them to come back and give back to the girls, give back to the program. I’m forever grateful for them; they’re amazing.”
On a typical day, O’Beck and Whitelegge will spend much of their time on the Newport Harbor campus. O’Beck is the team’s junior varsity coach, and also the 14s and 16s girls’ club head coach. Whitelegge assists her in each role.
Kapana, who started working as an emergency medical technician last fall, helps out with the goalkeepers when she can.
“It’s honestly super-special,” said O’Beck, who is taking online classes toward her teaching credential. “Not only did we play together, but we’re also best friends, and so are our families. We celebrate the holidays together, like Christmas, Thanksgiving. So coming to this pool deck every single day does not feel remotely like a job. It is not work. It is so much fun, and it’s such a special experience to be able to be with Carlee and Rachel literally all day every day. I couldn’t ask for better people to spend my time with.”
That extends to the team, which is 25-1 and has won 18 straight matches heading into Saturday. The remarkable senior group has four players — Morgan Netherton, Taylor Smith, Lily Gess and Alex Love — who are four-year varsity players and added dynamic senior foreign exchange student Bia Montellato this year.
The assistant coaches never quite had a CIF championship run, though they did help the Sailors make the 2013 and 2014 Division 1 title matches. Now they hope this current team gets to take a celebratory leap into the pool following the final whistle.
“When I was growing up through the program I had people like Leah Robertson and Jenna Murphy, who were alumni who came back and coached here,” said Whitelegge, who is in the application process for nursing school. “I always looked up to them. Being in a position to be that person for the program is really important to me, and I think it’s really special to have the opportunity to influence them.”
Sinclair has encouraged alumni to come back and help out, and the family atmosphere extends to the other gender. Rachel’s older brother Chris Whitelegge is a current boys’ water polo assistant coach, and other alumni like Farrel South, Peter Belden, Matt Russell and Andy Hayes have also assisted Sinclair since he was hired to coach the boys in 2014.
Junior goalkeeper Anna Reed said she has enjoyed working with Kapana, the 2015 Daily Pilot Dream Team Player of the Year.
“She is amazing,” Reed said. “She has really helped me so much, and she really is kind of the backbone of our team. She knows how to pump everybody up, and is really positive.”
“Positive” is a good word to describe the Newport Harbor program in general right now. The Sailors are vying to become just the second team to win both boys’ and girls’ CIF Southern Section water polo titles in the top division in the same school year. Newport Harbor also accomplished the feat in 2007-08.
Sinclair knows he doesn’t do it by himself. On the girls’ side, he has three assistant coaches who have just as much pride in the program as him.
He actually coached O’Beck, Whitelegge and Kapana as 14-and-under water polo players in 2009.
“I would have never thought I would be here now,” O’Beck said with a smile. “I was definitely that annoying, obnoxious girl that would talk and have to do butterfly in practice, and here I am helping him out. It’s super-awesome to work with him, and I think that’s why so many alumni come back. We’re all friends here, and it’s really cool. It’s such a rewarding experience to give back to the same program that gave all of us so much.”
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