Head Coach: Michael Allegretti
Last year’s record: 4-13
Recap: The team remains in the lower league after placing 7th last season.
Key Matchups: Westmont, Fremont, Milpitas and Prospect
Star Players: Senior centers Nirvan Shah and Chester Bunker, flat Kunal Bhatnagar, and junior flat Brian Le
Key losses to graduation: Nikhil Chadha, Armon Vuppala, Kirby Fung and Agastya Vitaldevara
League: El Camino
Prognosis:
Despite last year’s 4-13 record, the Falcons had several bright spots, including defeating third-place Santa Clara by five goals.
Heading into the new year, the team returns eight seniors and has hopes of finishing near the top of the El Camino. Although center Nikhil Chadha graduated, the strong senior starting lineup establishes a commanding presence in the pool.
However, much of the burden continues to lie on head coach Michael Allegretti’s shoulders. Allegretti, who coaches the girls’ and boys’ water polo teams, constantly moves around during combined practices of JV and varsity. But with the majority of varsity players being upperclassmen, the team is also able to run effective drills through student leadership.
After a landslide win of 20-6 at home on Sept. 5 against Irvington, senior captain Nirvan Shah expressed an eager outlook for the season.
“A lot of our players now are stepping up and coming out of their shells,” Shah said. “Not only has their playing improved, but also their ability to take on leadership roles and support each other.”
Last season, the team struggled on defense. As a result, this is now one of the team’s main priorities to tackle before the weekly matches start to roll in.
In addition to this flaw, senior flat Kunal Bhatnagar recognizes the importance of team chemistry.
“While the team is filled with individually strong players, our chemistry is relatively weak in the beginning of the season,” Bhatnagar said. “A step forward we can take is to focus on passing quality as well as being able to read each other’s movements.”
With many solid players on the bench, the team is able to substitute through their roster, keeping the intensity of effort high throughout the entire match; last year, one of the team’s weaknesses came with having exhausted players play against fresh swimmers on opposing teams. The team also hopes to address this further through conditioning in swim sets.
Senior Samvrith Bandi plays as the goalie for the team this year, bringing three years of experience to the team. With his vision down the pool, Bandi’s passes start the offensive turnovers that allow top scorers such as Shah, Bhatnagar and Le to take control of the game.
In the end, the players are looking for a fun season, while still keeping the goal of having a winning season.
“This is the last chance all of us seniors will be able to play together,” Shah said. “I hope all eight of us can push each other to grow, as well as set up the team for the future.”
