Water Polo - CIF Sac-Joaquin

Bear River High School put together one of its best days of the season Thursday, with both the girls and boys water polo teams taking on the Pioneer Patriots (Woodland) at home in Lake of the Pines, Grass Valley. The girls won 14-4, improving to 4-4 on the season, and the boys followed with a 27-7 rout to improve to 7-1.

With a newly christened fall evening backdrop that turned gold as the sun dropped during the second game, it all added up to a quality environment for both squads. Head coach Jay Adamson says Bear River is one of the smallest high schools in California with a water polo program, but that doesn’t limit the quality of the program being built at the Gold Country school with playoff ambitions.

Second-year girls program makes leaps

Bear River's girls team is in its second year — back after a six-year hiatus — and Thursday's win was already its fourth of the season, one more than the team won in all of last year combined.

"We only won three games last year in the full season, and we're just getting started," Adamson said. "Our girls are finally figuring out water polo position and movement, and better defense. Our girls' team is growing."

The growth and quality of the program exude from the presentation out on the pool deck, clean pool, modern equipment, and a wall fit with tall color banners of senior players.

On the scoreboard, Bear River opened with a 4-0 first quarter behind strong goalkeeping, including a stop on a backhand attempt from Pioneer's No. 7 in the second. Pioneer answered to make it 4-2 at the half, but Bear River scored three straight to start the third quarter, building a 7-2 lead that grew to 9-2 by the period's end, before closing it out 14-4.

The girls showcased a wide range of offensive talent, with 8 members getting on the scoreboard, lead by sophomore Ava Becker (10), who scored 5 goals, alongside junior Haley Huenergardt (7) and senior Marineke Helms (16), each adding a pair.

Adamson singled out goalkeeper junior Adalaide Mason (1), who anchored a defense that shut down Pioneer through most of the game. "She's amazing," he said. "She's got great fundamentals getting up on the ball, and she's got great movement vertically and side-to-side. She’s one of our few players who plays club.”

Bear River also runs a JV girls program, something Adamson pointed to as a sign of where the team is headed. "Most teams don't have that right now," he said. "I think our future's looking good with all these female athletes. They're amazing people."

Boys Built on Depth and Conditioning

Adamson counts this as his second year of really coaching the program, even though he's technically in year three. He took over the job after the season had already started in his first year, with no preseason to build from.

"We had a good offseason program with these boys," he said. "I've got a couple kids that dedicated their summer to play club water polo."

One of them is Tyler Adamson (8), who the coach described as the engine of the offense. "He moves the ball around. He controls it, kind of like the quarterback, and he scores and plays defense."

Bear River opened with a 5-1 first quarter, with junior Carsten Duffey (3) and senior Lincoln Hayes (24) generating good looks early. Senior Wesley Acosta (25), a lefty with a heavy shot, scored from deep with 1:30 left to make it 5-1. Pioneer cut it to 5-3 early in the second, but Bear River's depth took over, and it was 12-4 at the half.

The game's signature moment came in that stretch, when goalkeeper Nolan Berberena (1) — a junior — fired a full-length 2-meter to 2-meter pass to Duffey, who caught it on a spin move in front of the Pioneer goalkeeper and skipped a highlight-reel shot into the top corner. Chef’s kiss.

"It was pretty amazing," Adamson said of Berberena’s pass to Duffey for the finish. “That was the play of the night.”

Bear River led 21-4 after three quarters and closed it out 27-7. The team had 11 goal scorers. Duffey and Adamson led the Bruins with 5 goals, followed by Hayes with 3. In goal, Berberena had 12 saves and added in 5 assists.

Team captain Ashton Bryant said that a 20-goal win doesn't change the approach.

"All we're trying to do is play as much as we can," he said. "If we can't run the score up, we just have to play our game, because we're a counter team. We have to continue to counter as much as we can, try to play 6-on-5 as much as we can, and at the end of the day, keep winning as much as we can."

Asked to explain the sport to someone who's never seen it, Bryant hesitated, thinking of how to explain the complexities. "You see a lot over the water, but you don't see a lot underwater, all the legs, all the grabbing that's happening down there.”

And the sport’s strategy?

"It’s kind of like soccer and basketball mixed together with a little bit of wrestling,” Bryant added. “Everybody sees the goals — but you've got to get handsy, or you're not going to be a good player."

A program on the way up

Water polo is notoriously one of the most physically demanding sports. When teams have a deep bench with many members able to pass well, move the ball smartly, and finish their chances, it usually comes down to conditioning.

And Coach Adamson says conditioning drives everything Bear River does. The team holds Monday morning double-day practices at 8 a.m., taking advantage of the school's late-start schedule, followed by a team breakfast.

"They probably swim a mile and a half to two miles every practice, about two hours of nonstop swimming," he said. "Then on top of that it's passing, controlled defense, and just figuring out how you're going to get rid of the ball when some 200-pound guy is trying to mug you and pull your suit down."

Bear River plays in the Foothill Valley League as a Division 4/5 school competing in Division 3 water polo, and currently sits as one of the top seeds early in the season. Bryant added that the lack of resources compared to bigger programs in Roseville and Sacramento does not slow their ambitions. There is also not a dedicated club team in the local area, where many players make the trek down to the Sactown burbs to play.

"But it's not really different,” Bryant says. “We kind of just play for what we have," he said. "It's working out so far."

Both coach and captain are pointing at the same target.

"Our goal is to win our section," Adamson said. "I'd like to make it at least two or three games in the playoffs, get to that championship game and have a shot at it all."

Captain Bryant put it more bluntly: "I really want to get a banner up on the wall. We have a great team this year, a great group of seniors, a great group of underclassmen, and I think we can really go far with this squad."

The girls' program has its sights on the postseason too. Again, just two years removed from a six-year hiatus and still carrying only three seniors, Adamson believes this year's group has a real shot at qualifying for the playoffs, a notable marker for a young team looking to build on success.

“This group of girls is playoff material. We are young and growing, but we can make an impact this year,” Adamson said.

Up next

The boys are right back in the water this weekend, playing a weekend tournament in Merced, beginning against Woodcreek (Roseville). The girls' next game is Tuesday, Sept. 22, at home against Del Campo, with both teams opening Foothill Valley League play against Mira Loma on Sept. 24.

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Bear River Water Polo sweeps Pioneer as Adamson's program keeps building