Water Polo Finishes Season, Rosa Retires

After placing second in league and winning a wildcard, Dana qualified for the first round of CIF against opposing wildcard team Los Alamitos on Nov. 6. Senior Charlie Gravitt, reflected that the “boys came out slow, which was a frequent issue all season.” Trailing one point behind near the end of the game, the team attempted to tie to go into overtime. Unfortunately, the close game concluded with a loss of 6-7, ending Dana’s CIF run.

Before their first CIF game, the Dolphins rounded out their league games with a 3 win streak against San Juan Hills, El Toro and Tesoro. Their final league game against San Juan Hills took place on Oct. 30, and was a solid win with a score of 17-9. Days before on Oct. 28, they played a game against El Toro and won with a score of 11-7, and on Oct. 22, our team fought Tesoro and took another win with a score of 17-9. Junior Ryan Estes noted “It was really exciting and a lot of fun to see the team get pumped up and motivated with win after win at the end of the season.”

Following the end of their season, some players shared their thoughts. Gravitt noted that even though the team did not do as well as he hoped, there were many fun times. Curren McCarthy stated that “although [the team] did not make a deep CIF run like previous years, the team still improved a lot.” He was happy that the boys were able to “put up a 3 win streak going into [their] CIF game.” He also said it was satisfying to see many of the new varsity players adapt to the higher level and improve their play.

Long-standing head coach Matt Rosa also announced this would be his final year leading the water polo team. He explained that he wanted to focus more on his family and could not continue to have the same commitment to the program. Rosa has produced many outstanding athletes during his time at Dana and lead the team to many CIF appearances.