The Mission Bay boys water polo team is off to a solid start this season sitting with a 10-8 record and coming off a tournament final appearance versus Lincoln High from Oregon on Oct. 21.
In order to reach the final, the Bucs had to defeat three San Diego County teams starting on Oct. 20 when they beat Pacific Ridge, 14-8, followed by back-to-back wins over La Jolla Country Day, and Ramona High before losing in the championship match against Lincoln, 13-9.
“It was a fun tournament and they played like a real good team,” said head coach O’D McKewan. Mission Bay kicked off the regular season with a dominating 19-10 victory over Mar Vista on Aug. 30 before dropping the next two to Point Loma and San Marcos. The Bucs were able to bounce back with two straight victories against Del Norte and Mission Hills before losing on the road to Eastlake on Sept. 15.
Mission Bay followed that up with its most impressive performance of the season with a 24-1 drubbing of Canyon Hills and a 14-9 victory over Santa Fe Christian High School before suffering a three-game losing streak at the hands of Clairemont, Oceanside, and Francis Parker, but followed that up with solid wins over University City and SFCHS.
The team has gotten impressive play all over the pool with the most noteworthy performances coming from junior Julian Morrison, along with the lone senior on the squad, Gavin O’Neill. Mission Bay has already surpassed its win total from last season and has a rematch coming up versus University City on Tuesday.
“We’ve played them once and they were in the tournament as well,” McKewan added. “It was a good game where we came out on top, so I’m expecting us to do the same on Tuesday as well. Our big challenge is going to be Francis Parker on Friday, they’re a Division I team but they’re in our league and we’re Division II.”
This is McKewan’s first season as head coach of the water polo team and came to the role just before the season started. He previously coached softball at Madison High School and played water polo in college.
