Daily Journal Boys’ Water Polo Player of the Year: Aragon’s Xavier McKenzie

Aragon boys’ water polo coach Carly DeMarchena does not keep stats for her team. But a lack of statistics was no hindrance when it came for Peninsula Athletic League coaches to all come to the same conclusion about the Bay Division player of the year: Aragon senior Xavier McKenzie.

“He is the most athletic kid I’ve ever met,” DeMarchena said. “He just came to [water polo] naturally.”

In just four years, coupled with two seasons of club polo, McKenzie transformed from a water polo neophyte, who first took up the sport as a freshman at Aragon, and wound up with Daily Journal’s Boys’ Water Polo Player of the Year honors following his senior season.

While McKenzie was caught by surprise for the PAL and Daily Journal honors, he said comments from opposing coaches and strategies used against him made him realize he was a threat in the pool.

“When I was shaking hands with coaches, I would get compliments,” McKenzie said. “I could tell when they knew they had to lock me down.”

And while McKenzie’s offense certainly deserves a lot of attention, it’s his all-around game that opposing coaches noticed.

“I think his defense is what makes it obvious he would be the (league) MVP, based on the steals. He could defend any player. He was a threat on both sides. … He was just a playmaker, whether he was shooting or not,” DeMarchena said. “I think we had a strong team across the board (this season). We have an amazing goalie and we have some key players.

“But when something has to happen, if I need a play to be made, I’m going to design it around him in specific moments.”

While still relatively new to polo, McKenzie has been active all his life. Born in the United States when his Australian parents were in the country for work, McKenzie moved back to Australia as a baby. Growing up, he was always in the water, surfing and swimming, while also playing land-based sports like cricket and Australian Rules Football.

The family moved to the Peninsula as McKenzie was entering fifth grade and he continued his athletic pursuits, picking up baseball, basketball, flag football and soccer.

“My parents tell me I was walking at eight months. … Ever since I was a little kid, I was running around. I feel like I’ve always been this active kid,” McKenzie said. “When I moved to America, all these other sports started to open up.”

He has since added polo, wrestling and lacrosse to his athletic repertoire and he believes all of his experiences helps him to play polo at a high level.

But it took a season for DeMarchena to truly know what she had in McKenzie. As a freshman with no experience, DeMarchena stuck the 6-4 McKenzie in goal and trained him to be a goalkeeper. It wasn’t until she saw him swimming in the spring that she realized she needed to make a change.

“It was like, ‘Oh my god. He is so fast,’” DeMarchena said.

McKenzie transitioned to the field for his sophomore year and began his meteoric rise. He helped lead the Dons to the Central Coast Section tournament in both his junior and senior seasons with wins in the PAL CCS play-in game and culminated with his MVP season.

It didn’t take long for McKenzie to see the similarities between polo and other sports. While polo is most often compared to basketball, McKenzie uses techniques from all different sports to help him in the pool.

“I’m also a wrestler, so I know how to move people around. There are so many times to use all these different skill sets,” McKenzie said. “Since Day 1, I took polo seriously and it all kind of clicked. I was definitely using my hand-eye coordination.”

McKenzie, who has played the last two summers with the Mid-Pen Water Polo Club and qualified for the Junior Olympics each time, isn’t sure what this summer holds for him. He still has the wrestling season to get through and then either swimming or lacrosse in the spring. He has been recruited to play polo collegiately at Chapman University, but isn’t sure he will play at the NCAA level.

“I know water polo doesn’t have much of a future beyond college, so academics need to come first and if water polo is there, then it’s an opportunity to play,” McKenzie said.