Ever since California High School opened its doors and the water polo program was created, there had always been one team that the water polo girls of Cal-High could not defeat: La Serena. This battle has been ongoing, and the two teams have remained rivals for years as La Serena has dominated not only water polo but in other sports as well. This rivalry and the water polo girls’ long history of defeat would end on January 31, 2022. La Serena’s reign would be no longer. 

After a close game of four seven-minute quarters, the Cal-High water polo girls had finally defeated La Serena. The game was stressful, but due to the water polo coach, the team was able to handle the pressure and focus on their one goal: winning. 

Myah Ibarra is a Junior at Cal High and has been a part of the water polo team since she was a freshman. She has played water polo for seven years and was ten years old when she first started playing.  When asked about how she felt before the game Myah described feeling confident. “It was half and half…I knew some of them were seniors from last year so when  we played against them it wasn’t going to be as hard as years before.” Myah, along with most of the team, we’re confident in their abilities to work as a team in order to beat La Serena.“We communicated a lot more, we came in strong.” Myah has been on Varsity since she was a freshman and has worked hard during practice to become the player she is today.

Aaron Valdovinos or better known as “Aaron,” has been coaching for around six years, and has been the water polo coach for both girls and boys at Cal for three years. Aaron described his coaching style as one that focuses on the fundamentals of water polo and swimming. He worked with the team and in his words, “I focused on building their communication, execution, and letting everyone be a threat on defense and offense.” Aaron worked with the girls three days a week for three hours as they had games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Aaron always had confidence in the team’s ability to win. “The heart the team has is big, we might have small numbers and size but we have a lot of heart.” Despite the team being in the offseason, Aaron continues to train with the girls by having water polo practice after the swim team practice ends. He continues to push the girl’s water polo team and his current goal is to “build a program at Cal and make the community around water polo better.”

Jimena Vargas is a senior at Cal High and has been on the Varsity team since she was a freshman. Jimena was also confident that she and her teammates were going to beat La Serena as they trained hard. “I trained three days of the week for nearly three hours with my teammates, focusing on game plans to put into play during our games.” Jimena described feeling a change in confidence since her freshman year and believes that helped her beat La Serena as a senior. “I definitely built up my confidence and was no longer afraid of making mistakes.” Jimena has been playing water polo since she was around nine years old and is unsure if she wishes to continue playing in college. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I want to go to college or university and maybe eventually become a coach for either water polo or swimming.”

As the water polo program at Cal-High continues to flourish with the help of Coach Aaron and players such as Myah and Jimena, the team has a bright future ahead. Despite the girl’s water polo team not winning CIF this year, they have won in the past. As they continue to move up in divisions and challenge themselves by facing difficult teams, they are not done growing. They won the Del Rio League championship this year, and you will definitely see them making a comeback at CIF next year. After all, they defeated La Serena, and they’ve already set eyes on their next challenge.