Arroyo Grande girls water polo wins 22nd consecutive league title. How do they do it?
The Arroyo Grande High girls water polo program knows a little something about winning.
The Eagles been doing it flawlessly in league play for more than two decades.
With an 11-5 victory over Righetti High on Wednesday night, the Eagles won the Mountain League, which marked their 214th straight league win, spanning more than 20 years, said Eagles Coach Steven Allen.
Arroyo Grande hasn’t lost a league game since the George W. Bush administration, to San Luis Obispo in the 2002-03 school year.
Allen has led the program over the duration of its streak.
“I definitely have been very lucky to have had some pretty talented athletes, and our culture we’ve had for the last 20-plus years has just kept on going,” Allen said.
During that stretch, they’ve won 22 consecutive league titles. The last time the Eagles lost in league play was to San Luis Obispo in the 2022-2023 season.
“Since then we’ve had some really close games against local teams, and eventually we’re going to lose (a league matchup),” Allen said. “We really have to prepare ourselves to have a chance to win. Even teams that probably should have beaten us, we were able to manufacture wins somehow.”
On Wednesday, Arroyo Grande (25-5, 8-0 Mountain) was led by two of its stars, Berkley Sinner and Natalie Whitfield.
Whitfield led the Eagles with five goals, and Sinner recorded three goals and two assists, to top Righetti (13-8, 6-2 Mountain).
“We are pretty confident, and we’ve been training a lot,” said Whitfield, a junior. “We pretty much all played youth league, and we know what to expect and to continue the tradition.”
Streak spans two California regions
For much of the run, Arroyo Grande was playing in the CIF Southern Section.
Allen said that the league streak was a Southern Section record for girls water polo.
Then in 2018, Central Coast schools in San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County moved into the CIF Central Section, which includes schools in the San Joaquin Valley — with most coming from Fresno, Bakersfield and Clovis — and the Eastern Sierra region.
The Southern Section now includes most public and private high schools in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, and central and southern Santa Barbara counties.
Despite the change, the Eagles kept winning.
CIF only keeps track of state title records, said Rebecca Brutlag, the organization’s director of media, and couldn’t confirm whether the league streak was a record in California.
Over the course of the long streak, Allen recalls some close contests that could have snapped the run — as Righetti once took the Eagles to an overtime game, Paso Robles came within one goal and San Luis Obispo also has challenged Arroyo Grande to close contests.
“We’ve had a few blowout years, but there have been some years where we’ve had some really close league opponents,” Allen said.
California typically produces many of the top water polo teams in the country, Allen said. Currently, the Eagles rank fifth in the U.S. and third in California, according to MaxPreps.com.
Arroyo Grande’s only losses this season coming to highly ranked non-league teams such as the No. 1 team in the nation, Sacred Heart Prep (22-2) of Atherton, a team that has beaten the Eagles three times.
Campolindo (18-5) of Moraga and Carondolet of Concord (19-5) accounted for the other two non-league losses.
Whitfield, who represented the U.S. Women’s Cadet National Water Polo team over the summer in Greece for ages 16 and under, has tallied 82 goals for the Eagles this season and posted 52 steals. Sinner has racked up 47 goals and 28 steals.
Three of the Eagles players are heading off to play water polo in college next year — Sinner to UC San Diego, Ane Smith (40 goals, 29 assists and 30 steals) to San Diego State, and Tessa Pettit (38 goals, 21 assists and 29 steals) to Villanova.
“We all work hard and we work hard for each other because we know we all have amazing goals,” Whitfield said. “We just so excited for our future, and I’m excited for everyone’s future.”
Reasons for success
Allen said that he has benefited from supportive Arroyo Grande High athletic directors who have mentored him. Allen also stresses the importance of the Central Coast Youth League for helping to develop athletes.
Allen also coaches local youth, including the 12-and-under team that his young daughter currently is a part of.
“We put a lot of time into our youth program here locally and making sure when the kids get into high school, they’re ready to rock and roll,” Allen said. “That’s kind of been our our driving success. About almost eight or nine years ago, we stopped doing youth water polo coed, and really committed to having girls play against other girls.”
Allen said the more recent setup has helped some of the less experienced girls better develop their skills.
During its successful two-decade stretch, Arroyo Grande has won five CIF titles, four when the team was in the Southern Section and one in the Central Section.
“I coached the boys for a long time, too, and while the girls side here has been very successful, the boys have won some titles too,” Allen said.
Over the years, some of his players have gone on to play on elite college squads and overseas professionally, including in Australia.
“We haven’t had any Olympians yet,” Allen said.
Whitfield added that she hopes to “keep up the tradition.”
“I’m just so excited for our future and this program’s future,” Whitfield said.
Arroyo Grande hosts its first CIF Central Section division game on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Eagles’ opponent has not yet been determined.
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 10:47 AM.
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