By Marcelles Williams

Head Coach Jeff Powers is encouraged by an experienced squad featuring a strong core of senior leadership, who he hopes will use their experience to leave their final mark on Brave Aquatics.

This team presents a lot of strong talent, and who better to coach them than Coach Powers? Coach Powers first found the sport in 1994 and became a two time Olympian who played a major factor in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Team USA brought home a Silver Medal. He scored a late goal in the medal game to secure the win for his team and nation. In addition, Coach Powers was inducted into the prestigious Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2019.

He strives to bring the Olympian lifestyle and work ethic to his players in and outside of the water.

“I try to bring some of the things I learned as an Olympian in my coaching, like dedication, hard work and accountability,” Coach Powers said.

Team captain Matthew Casas headlines this group and will play a big role in this year’s team. Casas has strong plans for the future with aspirations set on collegiate water polo and even taking after his mentor and coach to become an Olympian.

“We have some experience [this season], normally we don’t have quite as many seniors,” said Coach Powers.

But don’t count out the young Braves either. Freshman phenom Nick Valente has been off to a hot start with six goals in a nail-biting 12-11 win against Pacifica High School.

“We have a good young core that if they stick with it they can be pretty good,” said Coach Powers, hinting toward many of the underclassmen’s large potential for growth.

The hard work these Braves have brought forth is about to be tested. The team has been training and preparing for the 2022-2023 season for over two months, participating in a Water Polo’s summer training camp. Many of the Varsity Team has been preparing year round, participating in swimming during the spring and extra work in the offseason, emphasizing their aspirations pushing for that goal of a CIF title.

The Braves are looking to place top three in the Trinity League or achieve over a .500 winning percentage so that they can accomplish their first goal, qualifying for CIF. This task will be very trying, however, as the Braves will be going against quality teams in the tough Trinity League week in and week out.

Coach Powers believes the team is going to get better and better as the season progresses, and they will be able to fulfill these goals at the end of their season.

“We’re working on the skills we need to hopefully get us to that next step,” Coach Powers said.

Coach Powers has been stressing fundamentals, especially clean and dry passes during practice. This improvement will make this team better in all facets of the game.

The Braves start out the year 8-6 with some good wins in a couple tournaments but expect them to improve with the Olympic level coaching of Coach Powers.

The Braves show a lot of promise this year, despite what the record shows on paper. The Braves put up a fight scoring eight goals on the number two team in the nation, the Damien Spartans.

On Tuesday, the Braves put up a hard fight against El Dorado, but fell by a score of 15-6 after holding their opponent to a score of 4-2 in the first half. The next day, they faced off against Long Beach Millikan High School, crushing them by a score of 13-6 in a much needed victory for the team.

As the team heads into the Trinity League, they need to prepare to go all out against some of the better teams they’ve yet to play this season. Fans can come out to watch their Braves next Thursday, September 29th, as they open Trinity League play on the road against Servite High School at 4:00 pm.