Santana, Stokes are Water Polo Players of Year

Hope Stokes had a tough time just walking after El Capitan edged Oakmont 10-9 in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

Both of Stokes legs cramped up early in the game, but she never came out of the pool.

“She’s not a player that is going to come out of the pool,” said El Capitan coach Kristie Dunham. “She’s going to stick it out and play through it, no matter what.”

Duhnam likes to tell a story about Stokes, who rides her bike to every practice, whether it’s at 6 a.m. or after school.

Stokes arrived to practice one morning last year and told Dunham she had been hit by a car while riding her bike. Stokes had been knocked off her bike.

“I asked her if she was OK and she said yes,” Dunham said. “I asked are you still going to practice or do you need to sit out and she said, ‘Of course, I’m going to practice.’ ”

Stokes played another game despite being stung by a bee beforehand and watching her hand swell up.

Stokes was the Gauchos’ do-everything type of player, leading the team in scoring and assists to earn the Western Athletic Conference MVP after helping lead El Capitan to a perfect run to a WAC title.

Abraham Santana played the same kind of role for Merced. He led the Bears with 98 goals and 99 assists to earn Central California Conference MVP honors after leading Merced to a conference championship.

“He was a leader by example,” Merced coach Kit Grattan said. “He’s super unselfish. He had almost 100 assists with 100 goals. He was almost a part of every play.”

Stokes and Santana are our Sun-Star Water Polo Players of the Year. Both are juniors and will be seniors to watch next season.

Both had seasons to remember after winning league titles, earning MVPs and making deep runs in the playoffs.

Stokes and the Gauchos finished as the runner-up in Division III, losing 10-8 to Kimball in the section championship game.

“It was a very enjoyable experience to go through,” Stokes said. “We achieved one of our biggest goals we set for ourselves.”

Stokes was big in the playoffs, coming up with key goals late in the Gauchos’ 12-11 upset of top-seed El Camino in overtime.

After missing a key penalty shot at the end of the third period, Stokes scored two goals and an assist in the fourth quarter to help send the game to overtime and then scored a pair of goals in the first overtime period to propel the Gauchos to the win.

“A lot of times it’s about who can be mentally tough,” Dunham said. “You look at our playoff game at Johansen and she was pretty frustrated, but she still pushed through and scored some important goals in overtime. That’s impressive for a 16-year old to bounce back after missing a big shot like that.”

With the supporting cast around Stokes improved, the Gauchos’ star wasn’t asked to score seven or eight goals for El Capitan to win. The Gauchos had a more balanced attack, which allowed Stokes to have more of an impact on the defensive end.

Stokes still scored 75 goals and finished with 33 assists.

“Our team improved a lot, and I feel the game slowed down for me,” Stokes said. “I played more team defense because I didn’t have to worry about being the one to score. I knew my teammates could step up. We have a trust that has been built over time because we’ve played so long together.”

Like Stokes, Santana attracted much of the focus of opposing defenses. To his credit, Santana didn’t force shots. Instead he set up his teammates for scoring opportunities.

“Basically, I trusted our other players,” Santana said. “I wasn’t going to try to do everything. If teams crashed on me, I kicked it out and let other players shoot.”

Santana has spent most of his water polo career as one of the younger kids on the team. He grew up playing with older players, including high school, when he began playing varsity as a freshman.

“He’s been doing it since he was 8,” Grattan said. “He was playing against 12-year-olds when he was 8 years old. He’s always challenged himself. No matter how big or how much older the other players are, he’s always ready to step in and he’s like, ‘give me the ball. I’m 12 and you’re 16, still give me the ball.’ ”

Now, as a veteran player in the Bears’ program, Santana is emerging as a leader on the team.

“I was comfortable in the role,” Santana said. “As a freshman, I watched my brother, Isaac Santana, and Matt Cagle. When I was a sophomore there was Josh Fluetsch. I just went off what they did.”

Santana has some flash in the pool when he plays. He’s not afraid to throw a no-look pass or come up with some spinning shot where he springs out of the water.

“I watch YouTube and watch players from Serbia and Croatia and try to do what they do,” Santana said.

Grattan doesn’t mind the flash as long as Santana gets the job done.

“I haven’t had to rein Abraham in because he’s been successful,” Grattan said. “There are times when he tries to be creative, but he still gets the ball to the right guy for the shot. There are some flashy guys who you have to rein in when it becomes more flash than productivity. That’s not the case with Abraham.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Santana, Stokes are Water Polo Players of Year."