Daily Journal Boys’ Water Polo Player of the Year: Sequoia’s AJ McDonald

The Sequoia boys’ water polo team had big goals for the 2024 season. The Ravens, led by sophomore shooter AJ McDonald and a talented group of seniors anchored by Derek Hymer and Drew Ostrander, were looking to make history.

“A lot of the people on team are really good players. Throughout the season we were getting closer and closer,” McDonald said. “One thing that really helped us was our defense, which was really beneficial.”

And those dreams came true. The Ravens captured their first-ever Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship with a record of 10-2 and with it a Central Coast Section invitation for the first time in program history.

And the icing on the cake was the program’s first-ever CCS win, a 12-7 decision over Menlo-Atherton.

And it was fronted by McDonald, the San Mateo Daily Journal Boys’ Polo Player of the Year.

“Winning the PAL Bay title meant so much. Sequoia hadn’t done it before,” McDonald said.

McDonald gave Sequoia, which finished the season 18-8 overall, the outside shooter to go along with Ostrander’s point guard role and Hymer’s 2-meter play in the hole set. And all three flourished this season.

“I think (McDonald) became the focal point because of the other people we had on offense,” Sequoia head coach Eric Bittner said. “[Hymer] demanded so much attention, it unlocked AJ’s ability to get loose.”

Hymer was second on the team in goals with 86, but McDonald shined. His 109 goals were third-most in CCS according to the statistics loaded to MaxPreps.com. He also had 42 assists, second on the team to Ostrander’s 57, to give him 151 points on the season, fourth-most in CCS, according to MaxPreps.com.

“He’s the guy you put the ball in his hands and he makes something happen,” Bittner said. “But I want him to see to the field. There might be five options. I want to see the ball swing, get the ball in to AJ and let him make the right decision.”

Sometimes that decision was not to take the shot and McDonald was perfectly fine with that.

“It’s important to get everyone involved,” McDonald said. “It makes it harder for the defense. We always try to get people involved in our game.”

Bittner said as good as McDonald’s offense is, his defense might be better. He plays McDonald at the point defensively to hound and harass the opposing team’s ball handler, which can lead to turnovers and instant offense that lets McDonald take advantage of his speed.

“His defense is probably the best part of his game. It’s tenacious. It’s like a little pest who will never give up,” Bittner said. “We play a high-press style because I knew with him playing up top, he may not come up with a steal, but he will force a turnover.

“How many of his goals are fast breaks? He’s extremely fast and a great shooter.”

And while his decision-making has gotten better, it was a work in progress to start the year. In an early-season matchup with Hillsdale, McDonald misfired on four first-half fast breaks — including an attempted backhand. Bittner responded by benching McDonald for most of the second half of a 12-10 Sequoia win and then sat him out a tournament game the next day.

“I was mad. … AJ was trying to show off and I decided the right thing to do was to bench him,” Bittner said. “He came back and apologized. That game was kind of a wake-up call for him. He still had to work. He was fired up and he wanted to prove that he deserved to play and to be in the starting lineup.”

McDonald channeled that frustration into a dominant season for both he and the Ravens. He scored five or more goals 13 times this season, including three games of eight goals. He had double-digit points, goals plus assists, four times including a season high 12 (eight goals, four assists) in a 22-8 win over Leigh.

“I definitely did get too overconfident, there was no real reason to do it,” McDonald said of the Hillsdale game. “It was a good lesson for the rest of the year.”

One that could have come apart in PAL play as the Ravens lost both first-round matchups to Menlo-Atherton (13-9) and Woodside (7-5) — the presumptive favorites for the Bay Division crown.

But McDonald said the Ravens did not experience a crisis of confidence.

“We were confident we could beat those teams,” McDonald said. “Our first two losses just gave us motivation. We just had to work harder. Both times, if we did a couple of things differently or adjusted in a better manner, the fact we didn’t proved we could still beat them.”

Sequoia beat M-A 14-11 and Woodside 11-8 in the second round as the three finished as Bay Division tri-champs. On a tiebreaker, Sequoia, along with Woodside, earned the Bay Division’s two automatic CCS berths, with M-A also advancing after winning the PAL CCS play-in game.

McDonald said he was not aware the Ravens had never earned a bid to the CCS playoffs.

“I did not,” McDonald said. “Before we went into CCS, [Bittner] mentioned that no Sequoia team had ever been to CCS.”

And just to prove the regular season wasn’t a fluke, the Ravens beat M-A again in the first round of the CCS Division I bracket. The clock struck midnight in the CCS semifinals, however, as top-seeded Los Altos connected on its first seven shots of the game to end the Ravens’ season, 15-7.

“In the moment and afterward, it was sad to lose (in the CCS semis),” McDonald said. “But looking back on it, I’m even more proud of the team’s accomplishment and how much we’ve improved from last year.

“Next year, we want to win league again — but not have a three-way tie.”