MC men’s water polo hoping to ride experience back to NorCals

Sometimes the toughest part of being a junior college coach is just getting student-athletes to their sophomore season.

Without the constant monitoring of parents, a lot of things can happen between one season and the next, often leaving those coaches to start from scratch the next season.

So when a coach brings back a big sophomore class, particularly one that found success as freshmen, the potential is there for a special season. Scott McCall certainly hopes that’s the case with the Merced College men’s water polo team. The Blue Devils turned in an 18-14 season a year ago, qualifying for the NorCal Tournament. With nine returnees, including All-Americans Caleb Rogers and Nick Ogden, and a deep freshman class, MC will look to be even better.

“It’s always nice when you have an experienced group of guys coming back,” McCall said. “Especially guys that can score. I think the guys coming back accounted for 90 percent of our offense. I think it’s just going to come down to if guys are willing to buy in and play the kind of team defense we’re asking of them. If they do that, we’ll be able to get out on the break, and offense becomes easy.

“We open the season at home (Sept. 10) against two really good teams. American River was in the NorCal Tournament last year and Riverside is always one of the best teams in the state. We should find out really quickly where we are.”

With guys like Taylor Heckathorn, Isaac Santana, Erik Koenig, Koki Saito and Jordan Salcido to complement his All-Americans, the Blue Devils should be formidable just with their starters. McCall likes his depth, however, and plans to make wholesale substitutions.

“We’ve added some good freshmen that should help us out,” McCall said. “James Petree was a nice get for us in goal. He’s 6-foot-4 and has just a nice long frame. We got some local guys that are going to help us out. George Ybarra is from Merced and Nathan Monier from Atwater.

“Then we have a guy coming back in Wyatt Brigham, who played with us two years ago, so I imagine we’re going to be able to sub six guys at a time and really try to wear teams down.”

Volleyball

Jessica Casey has a decidedly different experience with the MC volleyball team, returning only two players (Peyton West and Allie Clarot).

Casey will be breaking in nine freshmen and said there are times when they will occupy all six spots on the floor.

“It’s a good group,” Casey said. “I like what they have, but they’re just young. It’s going to take a little while for them to adjust to the pace and intensity of the game. Peyton and Allie are doing their best to set the example and show everybody how it needs to be done at this level, but until you experience it, you just don’t know.”

The Blue Devils don’t have an abundance of size, but they still have some big hitters in Rachel Kaler (Stone Ridge Christian) and Emelee Croninger (Dos Palos). Emily Baker (Golden Valley) and Gizzel Gonzales (Buhach Colony) will control the middle, and Audrey Corella and Mirissa McIntyre (Chowchilla) are battling it out for the team’s No. 1 setter.

“We’re definitely small, but we have some good athletes like Rachel and Emelee that are smart volleyball players,” Casey said. “My middles are doing a great job blocking right now, we just need to keep working on getting them incorporated into the offense, and my sisters (Jenny and Nalee Thao) are digging pretty much everything that comes their way.

“We’re going to have to play good defense and be scrappy. We’ll see how quickly all those freshmen grow on the court.”

Women’s water polo

Karin Umemura is still searching for her first winning campaign as the MC head coach, but the Blue Devils seemed to make progress last season.

MC was hanging right around .500 before dropping their final seven games to finish 7-16.

The Devils return four players, led by do-it-all athlete Brontae Gomes. The sophomore set the example over the summer, leading the way at every two-a-day Merced had. She’ll be complemented by one of Umemura’s best recruiting classes to date. Former Sun-Star Girls Water Polo Player of the Year Nicole Goodnight (Atwater) leads the class along with Kim Canisso (Pitman) and Modesto Junior College transfer Rebekah Groteguth.

Depth will again be an issue with a thin roster, but Umemura likes her starting unit.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "MC men’s water polo hoping to ride experience back to NorCals."