Sometimes the most unpopular person at a tournament is the person who put the tournament together. The South Coast Water Polo Tournament began Thursday. It has every team in the Orange County top 10 and some excellent non-county teams.
Whatever the sport, among the tournament organizers’ first duties is to create a schedule by which teams from the same league will not play each other in the early rounds if at all.
The South Coast’s pool-play structure had Trinity League teams Mater Dei and Santa Margarita potentially playing each other in the second round. That’s still an improvement over the 2013 South Coast Tournament.
“Last year was a mess,” Capistrano Valley coach Steve Yancey said. “Teams were playing other teams in their league in like the first round. You can’t have that.”
John Kulisich helped put together the tournament’s four pools that are named for the locations at which early-round games will be played. There is a Corona del Mar pool, a Foothill pool, a Newport Harbor pool and a Santa Margarita pool.
Kulisich is an Orange County water polo handyman. He is a high school and college official, helps organize tournaments, is something of a quality-control guy with Villa Park water polo and is counted upon for advice when it comes to rankings and all-star teams.
The first order of business with the South Coast Tournament, Kulisich said, was to “seed teams as accurately as possible while knowing that the host schools would have to play at their own pools. And that’s the reason why Mater Dei is in the Santa Margarita pool because Santa Margarita had to stay home yet we still had to follow the rankings.”
San Clemente coach Marc Parker said organization of pools the past couple of years has not been done as well as in previous years. He sees that the Tritons and Dana Hills, South Coast League teams, are in the Corona del Mar pool. But he empathizes with the difficult task of creating equity in the four pools.
“This tournament also has so many teams out of the area that are pretty good,” Parker said. “You could end up at the bottom of this thing and still it would not be an unsuccessful tournament for your team. You’ve got to be ready to play in all five games.”
Yancey is on the CIF-Southern Section Water Polo Advisory Committee that puts together divisional rankings and assists with playoff brackets. To that group and everyone in county water polo, the South Coast Tournament is the first big even of every water polo season.
“We always say, ‘Wait for the South Coast Tournament,’” Yancey said. “That’s when we can figure out how good everyone is.”
That happens every year, no matter how balanced or unbalanced the South Coast Tournament pools seem to be.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• The under-the-radar team in county water polo might be Tesoro. “We played them the other day,” Parker said of San Clemente’s 15-11 win over the Titans on Tuesday in a South Coast League game. “I was surprised. They’re going to be a good team as the season goes along … .”
• The best water polo teams in Southern California? “Right now, Mater Dei and Harvard-Westlake look like they’re at another level,” Parker said. “Long Beach Wilson could be a team people underestimate.”
• It’s “Lime It Up!” for the El Modena-Villa Park football game tonight. It’s part of a nationwide fundraiser for “Coach to Cure MD,” specifically Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is a terminal, muscle-deteriorating disease that attacks boys. Players will be wearing lime-green socks and green wristbands will be available to raise awareness of DMD.
• Despite what school administration told me after the game, Edison has no plans to curtail its traditional nonleague football games with Mater Dei and Servite. “We have no problems playing any Trinity League schools,” Edison athletic director Rich Boyce said. There was a verbal confrontation of Edison and Servite coaches after the teams’ game last Friday.
• Mission Viejo’s football team today plays host to Redondo Union, Diablos coach Bob Johnson’s alma mater.
• The Orange Lutheran-Vista Murrieta football gave will be televised live Friday at 7:30 p.m. by Prime Ticket.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
