Fattal: Harvard-Westlake’s forge of water polo championships, Olympians is underappreciated
In the United States, football, basketball and baseball rule. After the juggernaut sports, soccer, track and field, volleyball, maybe even lacrosse might come to mind before a teenager decides to throw on a Speedo and jump into the water to play water polo.
“The sport’s popularity is hard to gauge,” Harvard-Westlake coach Brian Flacks said. “Here in the valley, basketball and football are more popular. But in other parts of the country, even Orange County, water polo is huge. For some schools it’s a right of passage.”
Year after year the latest five-star recruit for football and basketball graces the field and gyms in Northern Los Angeles. That also might be the reason why the high school boys water polo program at Harvard-Westlake is so underappreciated, despite its remarkable accomplishments that span almost a decade, including numerous CIF titles, and the constant production of high-level NCAA Division I players – even Olympians.
As a high school senior in 2016, Ben Hallock competed in the Rio Olympics on the U.S. men’s senior national team. Think about that … Hallock was fresh off of winning his second CIF-SS Division I Player of the Year award and probably debating on what he wanted to wear to his senior prom that spring before training and competing in the olympics that summer.
If a local prep basketball player was selected to compete for the U.S. men’s senior basketball team it would lead SportsCenter. Mind boggling and extremely impressive. Yet, it seems, nobody knew.
Hallock, who competes at Stanford, is currently joined by 2015 Harvard-Westlake graduate Johnny Hooper (Cal) on the U.S. men’s team, who is expected to make the final roster for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Hallock and Hooper were both finalists in 2018 for the Peter Cutino Award, which is the equivalent to college football’s Heisman Trophy for college water polo. It’s the first time two players from the same high school were nominated for the award – Hallock won it.
“Ben Hallock is the superstar of our sport, just like LeBron James for basketball,” Flacks said. “Ben will be a two-time Olympian by 22 years old.”
It’s unrealistic to assume that water polo can garner the same attention as major sports like football or basketball, but it doesn’t take away from the eye-popping pedigree that Harvard-Westlake produces in water polo.
The Wolverines had five athletes on UCLA’s men’s water polo NCAA national championship team in 2017 and currently has 11 former players competing at the Division I level, including five at Princeton University.
There’s been one athlete from Harvard-Westlake on every NCAA men’s water polo championship team since 2014. A mind-blowing informative nugget that would be known if a local basketball program had a player in each of the last four national championships.
In fact, Taft High’s former point guard Kihei Clark was part of Virginia’s last men’s basketball national championship as a freshman and he became a household name, regarded as a ‘diaper dandy’ as the great Dick Vitale would say.
Sam Krutonog was a freshman on USC’s 2018 men’s water polo national championship team. Evan Rosenfeld aided UCLA as a freshman in 2017 to its national crown. Hooper was a sophomore when Cal won it in 2016. All are former Wolverines.
“The wins are great, the trophies, too. But when I see these guys after they leave the program and we meet up for lunch or something, I’m just so proud of the young men they’ve become,” said Flacks. “Those are the proud moments when I feel good for being part of their growth.”
This year’s team has three current USA National Youth Team Members (18U): Nolan Krutonog, Nico Tierney, George Avakian. Ethan Shipman is committed to UCLA; Christopher Kim is going to Nacy; Tierney is signed to Pepperdine and Avakian is headed to Cal.
Harvard-Westlake has seven consecutive appearances in CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals or finals. The next best streak is two appearances by Newport Harbor High. The Wolverines have won three CIF titles in that seven-year span, and had a 50-game winning streak from 2013 to 2014 that sits second all-time in Southern Section history.
Harvard-Westlake is the current CIF Division 1 defending champion at 22-1 and is ranked No. 1 in the division, according to the section’s latest poll.