All-Area water polo: Merced’s Elgin, Fluetsch lead the way

Kathryn Elgin came into this high school water polo season with a list of goals, including scoring close to 100 goals and winning another Central California Conference championship.

On top of that list was becoming more of a team leader.

“That’s something I lacked last year,” the Merced junior said. “I wanted to help out the younger girls. My freshman year, I looked up to Alison Miller and Denise Gilpatrick. I want to be a role model for this area. I want to help other girls out.”

Josh Fluetsch also felt he needed to step into a leadership role for the Merced boys.

“It was kind of a progression for me,” Fluetsch said. “My sophomore year, Brett Fogelberg was the leader. Last year, Isaac Santana and Matt Cagle filled that role. This year, it was my turn to do that.”

Elgin and Fluetsch led their teams to CCC championships and were named conference MVPs. Now they can add Sun-Star Water Polo Player of the Year to their résumés. Both players were the backbone of their team.

Merced girls coach Seth Gentry said he’s never had a player work harder in the offseason.

“Really, she’s seeing a lot of these awards because of the work she put in during the offseason,” Gentry said of Elgin. “All the work showed in her performance this year, and it earned her a lot of respect from the team.”

Fluetsch’s success is somewhat surprising since he’s always been a swimmer who plays water polo. For most of the top water polo players, it’s the other way around.

“It’s a little surprising because he hasn’t done the Olympic Development or the summer polo,” Merced boys coach Kit Grattan said. “He’s always done the winter polo. He’s such a good athlete and a hard worker.

“His swimming ability really showed in the second round of league. In the Pitman game, he just outswam their guys. When it was time for him to play his role as a scorer or on a counterattack, he was able to just swim behind their guys.”

Grattan always felt he could count on Fluetsch and never had to worry about subbing him out.

“It goes back to all my time with the Merced Skimmers (youth swimming club),” Fluetsch said. “I’m used to swimming an hour and a half straight. I take pride in staying out there. I definitely feel tired during games, but I know I can push myself to keep going. I want to get that last shot or last steal.”

The Merced boys (20-8 overall, 8-2 CCC) and girls (23-7, 9-1) teams had mirror seasons with each having to rebound from early losses to win conference championships.

The boys lost to Atwater and Turlock in the first round, and the girls sustained a loss to Pitman that snapped a 38-game conference winning streak.

“After we lost to Pitman, that next day in practice we were still in shock,” Elgin said. “Four of us were on the team as freshmen when the streak began. ... We didn’t think we would get beat. After that, we definitely played every game like we had to win. We knew we had to win if we were going to win league.

“That loss probably made us a better team.”

The early disappointments made the success that much sweeter.

Fluetsch called Merced’s win over Turlock in the second round his happiest water polo moment, as the Bears pulled into a tie with Atwater atop the conference with one game to go. The Bears then won the title with a win over Golden Valley combined with Buhach Colony’s upset over the Falcons.

“Those losses were a wake-up call,” Fluetsch said. “We had to take things more seriously. In the second round, we were ready to go.”

Not only did Elgin’s season include a CCC championship and an MVP award, she was also named to the All-Sac-Joaquin Section team.

Considerable work went into Elgin becoming one of the top players in the section, dating to her freshman year practicing against Miller every day.

“I learned my turn from Alison doing it to me every day in practice,” Elgin said. “I remember my coach Kristie (Dunham) tell me I would get ejected if I played it that way. I had to learn how to defend it. I know going up against Alison helped make me the player I am.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 7:30 PM with the headline "All-Area water polo: Merced’s Elgin, Fluetsch lead the way."