The Los Gatos High School boys water polo team is in the midst of the greatest run in program history. Two years ago, the Wildcats won their first-ever Central Coast Section Open Division playoff match. A year ago, they captured the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division regular-season title and earned another Open Division berth.
Buoyed by four returning starters and an influx of another talented freshmen class, Los Gatos is poised to match or surpass its success from the past two seasons.
“I believe this team can do some amazing things,” Wildcats coach Davor Koret said. “We have the quality and confidence that I think we can take down any team this season. Of course, we still have much to improve on, but so far everybody has been doing their job.”
Los Gatos entered this week’s play at 3-1, its only loss coming 12-11 to Menlo School, the top-ranked team in the CCS according to Max Preps. The Wildcats are loaded with experience and talent, starting with seniors Mathijs Dirven, Ryan Madsen and Henry Bakota, who have been on the varsity squad since their freshmen year.
The trio’s production and consistency should lead to multiple individual league and CCS honors this season. Junior Richard Runge is another tour de force, possessing one of the hardest shots in the CCS.
“Mathijs, Richard and Ryan are the players our opponents will focus on this season, but we’re going to need everybody to contribute if we want to reach our goals,” Koret said. “The great part about Mathijs, Richard and Ryan is they’re very good teammates, and that is why the rest of the players have the confidence to execute and do their job.”
Two days before the Menlo School showdown, Los Gatos impressed with a thorough 15-8 dismantling of league rival Harker. Eight different players scored against Harker, which beat the Wildcats in the SCVAL De Anza Division playoff tournament championship match last year.
“Having eight different scorers against Harker is amazing,” Koret said. “We played a great game and I’m very happy with how our guys have played after a slow start.”
Seniors Ben Borenstein and Nicholas Huang are also impact players and provide the team with quality play and depth. Senior Nico Bianchi has been tremendous so far and is one of three goalies on the roster. Sophomore Dominic Hwang, a Bellarmine-transfer, will be eligible to play at the end of September.
‘When Dominic comes in, it will be a great competition,” Koret said. “Every position needs to have competition for the players to improve, and we’ve been very happy with the level of competition for every position so far.”
Los Gatos also has three goalies on the junior varsity team, meaning the program has six goalies total. It’s a testament to the rich talent in the area and goalie coach Bruno Boltz, a 2018 LGHS graduate.
“Bruno has been working with our goalies and it’s been such a great time for everyone,” Koret said. “The other day, our backup goalie came in and blocked a five meter (penalty) shot. Things are going really well.”
Especially with an outstanding freshmen class that includes TR Engelman, Pasha Heidari, Gabriel Oliveira and Timothy Yang. Engelman scored four goals in the team’s second game of the season, a 9-8 win over Los Altos on Sept. 9.
Koret likened this year’s freshmen class to potentially having the same impact as Dirven, Madsen and Bakota when they arrived on the scene three years ago. Engelman recently returned from Brazil where he helped lead the USA National Cadet team to a silver medal in the U15 Pan Am Championships.
In a 15-9 pool play win over Canada, Engelman earned match MVP honors after he scored two goals, had three assists and drew three exclusions.
“TR did really really well and had a huge role on that Cadet team,” Koret said. “I have high expectations for TR based on what he’s shown in practice and in the games so far. I don’t remember having a freshman score four goals, especially in their first varsity game against a team like Los Altos. We’ve had some great lefties in the past and I feel like TR is continuing that tradition. I’m very excited to have him along with the rest of the freshmen class.”
Out of the 17 players on the roster, four are freshmen and five are sophomores. Koret has reason to be excited because it shows the club programs he runs—the Los Gatos club team and San Jose Express—are serving to be rich pipelines to the high school program.
“It’s super exciting because it shows we’re doing a good job,” Koret said.
The Wildcats have proven to be one of the premier programs in the CCS in the last few years, making them a viable option for rising water polo players alongside the vaunted West Catholic Athletic League schools.
“We’ve had success where kids graduating from middle schools in the area are choosing to go to Los Gatos,” Koret said. “In the past, we would have problems with kids going to private schools instead, like Bellarmine, Mitty, even Harker. But now they find Los Gatos athletics competitive. And based on our recent results, they get to continue to play high level water polo.”
Whether it’s with the Los Gatos club team or San Jose Express, Koret said he stresses the fundamentals at an early age.
“Those fundamental skills are so important in order to implement any tactics in these players at the high school level,” he said. “Our bread and butter is teaching the younger players how to play water polo and build those foundational techniques that will serve them well.”
Dirven, Madsen and Runge all started with the Express before switching to the Stanford water polo club when they were 16 years old.
“They all developed at San Jose Express which is great to see,” Koret said. “The majority of the players are from our club and started with us. With Richard, Mathijs and Ryan, they made the change to Stanford at 16 and it was great to see how we helped them develop to get to that point.”
