There’s something appealing about a role player who has special skills, accepts his unique assignment, and fulfills it for the betterment of his team.
Trevor Kula, a 5 feet 10 inches tall 4-5 player (on the offside of the offense), is one of those unique beings on La Jolla High’s water polo, which is prospering this season as the junior fills his slot, complementing the big guns of center Soren Martin, and fellow senior captains Weston Bancroft and West Gartland.
It was particularly evident last week in the Vikings’ 10-6 win over top-three Western League rival Cathedral Catholic in the Bishop’s School pool (that’s another story), to avenge La Jolla’s 10-7 loss the week before in the Dons’ home pool.
Kula and his teammates implemented a game plan installed by Coach Tom Atwell in practice the day before — “We wanted their worst player in the pool to shoot it”, so that they wouldn’t get beat by Cathedral’s center and guard. “We executed and played great.”
“Trevor is a good passer, and with the opponent’s focus on our shooters, he becomes an effective shooter” on the 4-5 side, says Atwell. (Picture a rectangle in front of the goal, with 5 and 4, front to back, respectively, occupying the spots on the far right; 1 and 2 on the opposite end of the rectangle; 6 and 3 in the middle.) A right-hander naturally shoots from the left, so a 4-5 player on the right offside can be a key scorer.
Alongside the Vikings’ feature players, Martin, Bancroft, and Gartland — the latter an All-CIF selection as a junior last year — goalie Vinny Vega “is the team leader in the pool,” says his coach. The expert shot-blocker, who has committed to playing at UC Irvine next year, is also adept at directing the defense because, from his perspective, he can see the whole pool. Vega plans to study biology — “I’m interested in how the human body works, and helping people,” modeled by his father – toward an anticipated career as a doctor.
Vinny receives pointers from Viking assistant Cameron Ravanbach, Class of 2010, himself a Division 2 All-American at UCSD during his career. Says Vega: “I try to encourage bad shots, so I run the defense verbally. I’m the backbone, so I try to communicate (to teammates).”
On technique, Vega says, “I try to stay low in the water. I try not to get my hands out of the water before I need to. It conserves energy, and makes you more mobile in the goal.”
Coggan Pool, on the LJHS campus, is the Vikings’ home pool. But it has been under renovation after 20 years of use, and the sticking issues in reopening over the past weekend were a ramp, “which has never been there,” Atwell said, and a latch on the front gate. Meanwhile, La Jolla practices and plays at Bishop’s, their long-time rival. Regular season games end Thurs., Oct. 26. The CIF playoffs are scheduled at Coggan.
