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The best prep teams in Florida hardly break stride between the end of winter high school swim season and the beginning of varsity water polo. With no meaningful restriction on club participation during the high school season many teams are in full gear already when the FHSAA water polo season officially begins, which it did the week of February 16.
Four-time defending state girls’ champions Ransom Everglades are queued up for a fifth, and already completed one undefeated tournament last weekend at the Wildcat Invitational in Orlando. They undoubtedly have title ambitions, but as Raiders coach Eric Lefebvre was quoted recently in the Miami Herald, “Our bull’s-eye is even bigger.”
St. Andrew’s girls’ head coach Adam Gaffey, who spoke with TWp by phone, agrees.
“Ransom has been dominant,” the 2009 Florida Coach of the Year said. “They get challenged but still win.”
But, “this may be the most wide open year yet” among the girls, he adds, with Gulliver Prep, Ransom, and Orlando-area’s Lake Nona and Winter Park all legitimate threats to win the title. So concurs the Miami Herald in their season preview:
A number of teams across Florida have legitimate shots at knocking off the defending champions. One of Ransom’s biggest obstacles will come from inside Miami-Dade County. Gulliver Prep, Ransom’s biggest rival, has retooled with a talented squad. Gulliver gave Ransom a tough match in last season’s state quarterfinal, losing 8-7.
At the club level, Gulliver is “almost unbeatable,” according to Gaffey. “I can’t remember the last time they lost to a Florida team.”
As for the two Central Florida squads, “this is a big year for Lake Nona,” says Gaffey. “Their whole lineup is seniors. They’ve been playing together for the past four years and training against top level competition in California.”
And as the Orlando Sentinel put it in the title of their season preview, “Don’t overlook Winter Park despite key losses.”
The Wildcats’ girls team lost two starters, including 2012 All-Central Florida Player of the Year Kelly Martin, after falling 8-5 to Miami Ransom Everglades in the state final. Winter Park, though, returns leading scorer Ashley Tobin and Jillian Dukes.
Gaffey puts it simply: “They all have a shot.”
On the boys’ side, favored teams change more rapidly year to year. It should be no different in 2013.
Last year Gulliver turned away Ft. Lauderdale’s upstart St. Thomas Aquinas in the state championship by two goals to win their first title since 2007. But a repeat will be challenging as the Herald suggests:
After losing three key senior[s], defending state champions Gulliver Prep will have to adapt with a younger team. The Raiders retained a core of experienced starters and also have added a number of freshmen.
That analysis foreshadowed this tweet from the athletic department of Dr. Phillips High School of Orlando during last weekend’s Wildcat Invitational Tournament:
Men’s Polo crushes defending State Champion Miami Gulliver 13-7. Reed Davis 7 goals, Ian Supra 5
— DP Athletics (@PantherZone) March 1, 2013
The Panthers, mentioned as a state contendor by Gaffey, were rightly pleased by the early-season win over the state champs. But the celebration was short-lived as St. Thomas proceeded to mow down Dr. Phillips 16-8, and beat Miami-area rivals Belen Jesuit, and Boca Raton’s St. Andrew’s by a goal each to exit the tournament undefeated.
Coach Gaffey called St. Thomas “probably the favorites” before the season began. With just two weeks of the season expired, last year’s runners up are now well positioned to win it all at the end of April.
