Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: SHP’s Ellison Brush

Brush has been named Daily Journal Athlete of the Week for nearly pitching a shutout. She actually allowed just one goal, while making eight saves, over three quarters of play. SHP’s starting keeper for the last two years, like she so often does, made it look easy.

“It was a day in the life,” Brush said, not of her individual performance, but of the team’s. “Everybody played incredible.”

Brush wasn’t the only one not focused on her own performance. SHP head coach Jamie Frank named Brush the Gators’ starting goalie toward the beginning of the 2023 season. She had some big shoes to fill, taking over for 2023 graduate Paedrin Gillett, who now plays at UC San Diego.

Brush didn’t miss a beat.

“Sometimes I take it for granted how good she is,” Frank said.

“She plays at an extremely high level all the time,” he said. “Whenever you’re able to play that way in a championship game, that’s more impressive in my book. But she’s always setting the tone for our defense ... and helping us achieve the goals we need to be achieving as a team.”

While it would seem Brush was born to be a world-class water polo goalie, this wasn’t always the case. Her first love was soccer, a sport she played around the calendar year through her early childhood.

“If I ever had to choose between soccer and water polo, I would never choose water polo,” Brush said. “And now here I am.”

This was no accident. Water polo is in Brush’s blood as a second-generation goalkeeper. Her uncle Jeff Brush anchored Cal during its run of NCAA dominance through the 1980s and early 90s, leading the Golden Bears to one of their seven national championships over a 10-year span, and capturing NCAA Player of the Year honors in 1987.

“It was definitely a little bit of pressure because I come from a family of athletes,” Brush said.

Brush’s father also played Division I water polo at UC Santa Barbara. So, when she and her twin brother, Miles, both pursued soccer from an early age, something had to give. Miles stayed with soccer, and has done it well, playing for the SHP varsity boys’ team for the past two years, including All-West Bay Athletic League first-team honors last year as a sophomore.

“I was like: ‘Welp, I can’t be the one to disappoint dad,’” Brush said.

So, in the fifth grade, Brush enlisted with the Stanford Water Polo Club. Not only has she played there ever since, it was the early formation of the current crop of SHP girls’ water polo standouts. Saturday’s entire starting lineup for the Gators currently plays for Stanford Water Polo Club.

Many of those year-round water polo players have gained international experience with USA Water Polo. Brush and senior Vivian Golub — or as Brush calls them, “me and my dynamic duo” — have been globetrotting in recent years, winning the Futures tournament with the USA Water Polo “Cadet” team in Budapest last summer. The duo also recently traveled to Greece to play for the USA Water Polo “Youth” team.

Last year, she brought her championship pedigree to SHP’s starting lineup.

Brush made waves just before the start of the postseason, as the Gators cut their teeth in hosting the Nor Cal Invitational Tournament. SHP hadn’t won the tournament since 2008, the year after Brush was born. But they swept four games against a crop of Northern California powers — Stevenson, Carondelet, Campolindo and Acalanes — to win the championship in the 16-team tourney.

“We were on fire,” Brush said. “That tournament, we were all fired up. We were coming off of a Senior Day earlier that week and we played incredible there. And all of us, we all really wanted to win.”

This season, SHP repeated as Nor Cal Invitational champs, this time dueling with Arroyo Grande for an 8-7 victory.

“The best thing with her in any big game we’ve played this year and all our games against top CCS and NCS opponents, she’s not allowing any more than five to seven goals against any of those teams she’s playing,” Frank said.

Through the CCS playoffs, the Gators allowed just 12 goals — with a 16-3 win over No. 8 St. Francis in the Saturday, Nov. 9 opener; and a 14-7 win over No. 4 Leland last Tuesday.

Against Soquel, the Gators got off to a slow start on the attacking side of the pool. SHP scored just once in the first quarter on a penalty shot, but Brush’s complement of Golub and junior Casey Coleman settled in on defense.

“Because of our strong goalie play and strong defense, we really didn’t have to change too much,” Frank said. “We just kept pounding and then eventually broke through.”

Then the offense came to life. Senior attacker Natalia Szczerba, a Stanford commit, scored twice in the second quarter. Szczerba assisted on another goal by sophomore Kiernan Hogan. It was all the offense the Gators would need.

Brush is bound for the collegiate ranks as well. The junior verbally committed to USC in October. She’s got some unfinished business at SHP, however, as the Gators open play in the CIF Norther California Division I regionals Tuesday. SHP drew the No. 1 seed and will host No. 8 Granite Bay at 5 p.m.