Coach: Jerome Chung

Last year’s record: 4-8 

Recap: The team ended the season without making CCS, moving down to the El Camino league.

Key additions: sophomores Byron Jin and Kendal Jarvis, junior Dylan Overby

Key matchups: Lynbrook (9/17), Santa Clara (9/10), Harker (9/26)

Star players: sophomore Marcus Kuo, junior Dylan Overby, senior Grant Chen

Key losses to graduation: Ryan Bessi, Andrew Gao, Daniel Bessonov

League: El Camino League

Prognosis: 

After the loss of several key players to graduation, the varsity team is adjusting to its relatively new makeup with the addition of sophomores and juniors that were on the JV team last season. By incorporating returning JV players into varsity practices, the team has been able to transition smoothly.

Since the team moved down to the lower El Camino league this year, the additions to the team will be facing easier competition, and will have time to adjust to varsity water polo.

Nonetheless, remembering his own transition to varsity water polo last season, sophomore Marcus Kuo expects that it will take time for the team’s new players to adjust to varsity water polo.

“As we play more games throughout the season, the newer players will gain more experience and keep up with the pacing of varsity water polo,” Kuo said.

Coach Jerome Chung believes that the team is off to a strong start, having defeated Half Moon Bay in their first nonleague match on Aug. 28.

“I didn’t see a lot of problems from the Half Moon Bay game, but I did see good progress from where the team started to how it performed,” Chung said.

However, Chung is worried about key future matchups with Santa Clara and Harker near the end of the season. Teams that come down from the De Anza Division such as Lynbrook this year often prove to have high-caliber players. 

“This is my first year coaching for the boys in three years,” said Chung. “The harder matchups seem daunting, but overall, I feel like the boys have shown lots of effort over practices, and can adapt to these harder teams.”