Head Coach: Michael Allegretti
Last year’s record: 1-13
Recap: The boys’ water polo team struggled last season, finishing in last place in the El Camino Division with a record of 1-13.
Key Matchups: Cupertino, Lynbrook and Homestead
Star Players: Senior center Nikhil Chadha, junior right wing Nirvan Shah and sophomore flat Brian Le
Key losses to graduation: Mitchell Chen, Yanis Herne and Jarrett Singh
Division: El Camino
Prognosis:
Last season was a challenging one for the team, which struggled to find their footing with a roster dominated by underclassmen.
Over the offseason, assistant coach Utku Karhan, who had started coaching for the boys’ water polo team just last year, left his coaching position to pursue a career in the tech industry. The water polo program has a single coaching staff for both boys and girls. Head coach Mike Allegretti mainly worked with the girls’ team while Karhan primarily worked with the boys’ team. His departure was a significant blow to the program since water polo coaches are hard to find.
Even so, the team’s prospects appear to be better with the addition of senior transfer Nikhil Chadha, a former varsity star at The Harker School. Chadha has brought high hopes to the team with his extensive experience both playing and his ability to teach less experienced players advanced techniques. Chadha has been competing in water polo at club and school level since third grade.
In his previous three years at Harker, his team was league champions every year and brought the first D2 CCS title to the water polo program his freshman year. In his sophomore and junior years the team competed in the Open Division (the highest division in CCS), and played against the best teams in the state, such as Sacred Heart and Bellarmine whose lineups are full of D1 prospects.
Although transfers are not eligible to play until halfway through the season, the team has leveraged his expertise by having him fill in for Karhan, working with varsity, running drills and giving constructive feedback while Coach Allegretti focuses on JV.
This year, the team is determined to use Chadha’s valuable experience to bounce back.
“This year, we are planning on turning this around by implementing a practice system which involves more strategies such as plays rather than drills like swimming,” sophomore Brian Le said. “At old practices there was a heavy emphasis on just regular drills like swimming laps, shooting and regular passing. This was good for making players individually good but lacked the team aspect.”
This holistic approach has proven to be effective as the team can focus on building their team dynamics while focusing on integrating their skills into the game. In addition to refining their practice approach, the team is working on building a stronger team chemistry.
“We need to gain and get more team synergy and learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses to be able to win more games,” junior right wing Nirvan Shah said.
The team hopes that these changes will help them understand each other’s playing styles better and develop into a more cohesive unit.
With the start of the season just around the corner, the team is aiming to end the year with more wins than losses in league matches. This season, the roster is mostly upperclassmen and the team overall has more talent than last year.
Their first league match is on Sept. 10 against Cupertino High. The team is looking to start sophomore Le, juniors Kunal Bhatnagar, Chester Bunker and Shah and seniors Kirby Fung, Agastya Vitaldevara and Armon Vuppala. Bunker will be positioned as set, and Vuppala as goalie. With the promising addition of Chadha and the positive changes in gameplay, the team is hoping to compete for a league title.
“I think if we all show dedication and all work towards the same goal of winning, we would be a stronger team,” Chadha said. “Everyone is focusing this season during practices and striving to improve as a team. I know we will be in contention for the league title this year.”
