Farallon's First Junior Olympics

A Total Team Effort
Ups and Downs that ultimately propelled Farallon to a great end of the season.

Practices at the beginning of this summer were being attended by just a handful of athletes. I had filed the paperwork with USAWP in mid-March, and a steady trickle of athletes kept walking through the proverbial door.

It was a wide variety of age groups and experience levels. As the weeks approached the actual JO tournament, our roster started filling out, roles began to develop, and we had enough players in our final weeks of preparation to play 6 v 6 with 2 goalies.

Things started getting sharper from there. Engagement at practice improved.

Mastery doesn’t just come from from just spending a lot of time on something, it comes from how intensely you focus while you’re practicing the craft. Our guys were clear eyed, and focused headed into the premier tournament of the year, but we really didn’t know what to expect.

Post JO Quals we had scrimmaged locally to continue to build game familiarity. We were going into the JO tournament with a 4-4 record.

The first day allowed us the opportunity to play into a higher tier divisions of the JOs Classic 18u tournament. I really like the structure of the JOs tournament.

Alas, we fell short in our opener against Brea Olinda, the had a couple of players that I as a coach adjusted too late to, and we never really found our footing offensively:

Brea Olinda 14- Farallon 8.

A sloppy first half against the Texas Mavericks put us down big early, and while we started sorting things out, we just ran out of clock.

Texas Mavs 10 - Farallon 9.

The quarter lengths in JOs go 6-6-7-7. Saturday and Sunday, you play 6 minute quarters, and Monday & Tuesday you play 7 minute quarters.

Though we were ranked lower than both of those teams, an 0-2 start was a gut punch.

It was also a humbling reminder that winning any game at JOs is a tall task. These teams had players that clearly take their craft seriously. All sport is a practice in reacting to adversity, and we had adversity staring us right in the face.

When you lose early, you wake up early.

Our first game on Sunday was at 7 am against San Mateo, a back and forth affair that we eventually pulled away late for a final score of:

Farallon 10 - San Mateo 7.

Our mid-day game found us matched up against United Park City. We got off to a bit of a slow start but eventually pulled away late for a final score of:

Farallon 12 - UPC 9.

The third match-up was against Puget Sound, which found ourselves playing man-down for much of the match. Kudos to their drivers for creating opportunities for the refs to call exclusions on us. Believe they drew 18 ejections. However, we were able to string shorthanded stops together and led from the outset. It was a wild match.

Farallon 12 - PS 3.

Our early Monday morning match found us matched up against Central Coast. A solid back and forth bash ensued where we eventually found some space and won:

Farallon 11 - Central Coast 9.

I take my cap off to the next team we played.

We scouted our next opponent in a game between Alameda vs. Northern Illinois PC teams - and Alameda had the game firmly in control. We left after the 2nd quarter believing the game to be over. We took notes on Alameda, thinking they would be the victor.

We went to breakfast and came to find out Northern Illinois had come storming back to secure the victory. So our scout was incomplete, and we had only seen NIPC playing ball less than their best water polo.

In talking with their coaches, they had just come back from a 2 week training trip in Greece.

Watching warm-up we were thinking “we’ve got these guys”.

They then stormed out on us for a 7-2 lead. Do we have this?

They were getting hands on every shot we took, especially on 6 on 5, and our 6 on 5 was completely out of sorts.

Eventually, we found calm execution on the offensive end again. Started putting our shots away, and climbing out of the hole we had dug ourselves. Our back-up goalie (a sophomore last year in high school) came in and he was a brick wall.

Glad we had 7 minute quarters, because we had just enough time to sneak out the win. We had done to them what they had just done to Alameda. Came back in a game that seemed lost, outscoring them 10-4 in the 2nd half.

Farallon 12 - NIPC 11.

Our next match-up found us matched up against the loser of SD Shores B v Vanguard B. These are 2 historically elite programs and they had solid players up and down the roster. Vanguard pulled away late, so we had Shores in the Quarterfinal play in.

We played our best water polo in our most important game to date.

Steadily controlled the pace of play from the outset. Good execution throughout our 4 quarters and frustrated them with our press defense and goalie help.

Farallon 12 - SD Shores B 9.

The next team we faced (in the semi-finals) was Poway. This is another program with a list of illustrious alumni from Northern San Diego. It was a 7 am game, and we just didn’t wake up early enough. They jumped on us early, and we fought back, ultimately coming up just short.

Poway 9 - Farallon 8.

Poway would eventually go on to win the Bronze division that afternoon.

Finally, we took on Vanguard B for a Bronze medal in Bronze division. It was a back and forth battle, and eventually we ran out to a 6-3 lead. Vanguard battled back and sadly, our leading scorer (who was on pace for 8 goals) fouled out mid-way through the 3rd quarter. Vanguard created some distance.

Vanguard B 13 - Farallon 9.

Reflections on the tournament:

First off, winning games at JOs is hard. We came into the summer as a scrappy team that barely qualified for Session 1 JOs in Orange County. Just winning a game or two was going to be a big accomplishment.

What these athletes did was nothing short of incredible. It was an epic response to adversity and gave us a lot to build on in the coming years.

16th in Bronze → 4th Place and a shot at a medal in your first time out is fantastic.

The JOs tournament itself might be one of the most grueling events in age-group sport. 10-12 games over the course of 4 days is an insane workload.

We had contributions from up and down our roster, including from athletes that started the sport when the club was founded, about 5 months ago.

We finished our summer season with a final record of 10-8.

Beyond that, we had great leadership from the more experienced players. It is great to have proxy’s of the coach in the water directing traffic and explaining where people need to go in real time.

We wish our graduating seniors Sawyer Goldberg and Michael Yoder the best as they pursue their academic and club water polo pursuits at Gonzaga and Washington University, STL respectively!