Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: SHP’s Casey Coleman

One-point victories aren’t all too frequent in water polo. The last time the Gators had back-to-back one-point scores was in 2021 with a 13-12 win over Clovis West, followed by an 8-7 loss to Davis Senior. The last time they had three one-pointers in a row was a three-game winning streak in 2018.

“We definitely try and approach each game the same ... but I definitely think that having those one-goal games, there’s a lot of emotions and a lot of stress and anxiety, but also excitement to be able to play in these high-pressure situations,” SHP senior Casey Coleman said. “And I think our team did a good job of showing up for that.”

Coleman has been named Daily Journal Athlete of the Week for being the bedrock of a Gators team with big ambitions. SHP is looking not only to three-peat in the Central Coast Section Open Division, the program is the reigning CIF Northern California Division I champ as well, a title it brought home with an 11-4 win over Carondelet in the 2024 postseason finale.

This year’s SHP-Carondelet rivalry is much more evenly matched. Prior to Saturday’s 8-7 Gators victory, Carondelet won the first matchup between the two 6-4 during the season’s opening weekend.

“I think it’s always really fun to play so many high caliber teams, and being able to compete is something we don’t always get from week to week,” Coleman said. “So this tournament, there’s a lot of energy a lot of excitement, but we also see how we can perform in high pressure situations.”

The Gators have reinvented themselves in a hurry. The team graduated four senior starters in the spring, and first-year head coach Adrianna Reed took over the program with the current season already underway.

SHP has relied on three freshman starters in center defender Naia O’Hanlon and attackers Maddie Wright and Maddie Colabianchi. But the combination of Coleman in a versatile utility role and senior Ellison Brush at goalkeeper has been the foundation the Gators have built on — and for good reason. The two seniors have played together well before arriving at SHP, first teaming with the Stanford Water Polo Club when they were starting middle school.

“[Coleman’s] defense honestly was the thing that led us through,” Reed said of the NorCal tourney title. “Her defense was just absolutely essential to us being able to finish everything out.”

Reed is the perfect mentor for Coleman, as the two are cut from the same cloth. Reed, too, made her way through the water polo world as a utility standout. The first-year head coach is SHP royalty, whose father Phil Vogt founded the water polo program at the Atherton private school in 1995. Reed went on to earn All-American honors as a utility player as a teammate of future Olympian KK Clark at SHP, then, after graduating in 2007, garnered two All-American nods in a utility role at San Jose State.

Coleman is committed to play collegiate water polo was well, and is set to announce the school Dec. 15.

“Her work ethic is just unmatched and she’s definitely just one of the top leaders on our team,” Reed said.

“It’s one of those things you can’t teach, and she just carries it so well,” she said. “And we got to see that this weekend. ... She was really just keeping the girls positive, especially in one-goal games.”

Coleman’s defense was clutch throughout the weekend, but where she really made a splash was on offense, scoring a hat trick in Saturday’s championship finals. Her clutch third goal came in the fourth quarter to give SHP a two-goal advantage, as she took aim up top from six meters out, fired a shot off the defenders hand, but put enough pepper on it to see the fastball drive through the deflection and in for the score.

“She doesn’t shoot from the outside very often but ... she came up with two or three clutch goals against Carondelet that came up big,” Reed said. “It was good to see her shine on the offense too.”

For the younger Gators, the tourney title was the first taste of SHP’s championship tradition. It was a moment not lost on Coleman and the veteran contingent as well.

“It means a lot to them,” Reed said. “Emotions were definitely high after that game. ... You start crying because you don’t know if you’re tired or if you’re just so happy.”