New eras off to successful starts

Menlo, meanwhile, once a CCS power, had fallen into the Peninsula Athletic League’s Ocean Division a few years ago. The Knights, too, were breaking in a new coach for the 2018 campaign in Claire Howie.

Now, with the Central Coast Section playoffs looming this weekend, SHP is back in a familiar spot, while Menlo appears back to being a CCS contender.

“There was a pretty good foundation going in,” said Frank, a 2005 Aragon graduate who played four years of polo at University of California-Irvine. “It was an easy thing to keep things going.”

Frank was already well acquainted not only with the girls on the team, but the program’s culture, in general. A physical education teacher at SHP Middle School, Frank had served as the girls’ junior varsity coach before serving as the boys’ varsity assistant coach under head man Brian Kreutzkamp the last five seasons.

“We’ve been really lucky to get great student-athletes,” Frank said. “But the culture that was built was here before I got here. People want to be in a program where they can maintain success.”

With 14 returning varsity players, it is very clear that the Gators are looking to re-establish their dominance in CCS. Eleanor Facey, Annabel Facey and Bella Bachler leads the offense, while goaltender Nellie McAdams anchors the defense. What has the Gators set up for even more success is the youth of this year’s squad. There are only five seniors on a 17-player roster and a number of the returners this season saw significant action last season.

“The girls are comfortable in their roles. We try to be pretty well rounded offensively. We have strong players in the middle and defense, and we have a really strong goalie,” Frank said. “This team … really wanted to form their own identity, which I think they have. When I came in, I met with the (current) seniors and leaders on the team and they made it clear their focus was — we try to stay away from the ultimate goal of winning CCS or Nor Cal — playing at a high level.”

The Gators (20-6) captured both the West Catholic Athletic League regular-season and tournament titles, earning a No. 3 seed in the CCS Open Division bracket. Leland, which ended SHP’s CCS championship streak last year, was seeded No. 1 this season. Soquel, another CCS powerhouse, earned the No. 2 seed.

SHP opens CCS play with a 2:30 p.m. Saturday meeting with sixth-seeded Los Gatos (23-2) at Los Altos High School.

“I think we’re appropriately seeded,” Frank said. “Leland is a great team, who beat us this season. We split with Soquel, but they beat us the last time we played. [The No. 3 seed] really makes our girls focus in and know there are a lot of things we want to accomplish before the season is out.”

SHP’s rise over the last decade coincided with Menlo School’s decline. The Knights opened the CCS Era of girls’ water polo as the queens of the pool. From the first CCS tournament in 1996, Menlo appeared in seven finals, winning titles in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Knights then went through four years of not advancing out of quarterfinals before they spent several years on the outside looking in. From 2011 to 2015, Menlo did not even make the playoffs. They returned to CCS in 2016, making it to the second round and last year, as the No. 3 seed, advanced to the Division II championship game, falling 7-3 to Valley Christian.

This season, with Howie running the program, Menlo (17-9) had one of its better seasons in recent memory. The Knights finished second to CCS power Castilleja in both the PAL regular season and the PAL tournament, but Menlo did enough to earn the top seed in the Division II bracket. The Knights open CCS play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Gunn High School against No. 8 Gilroy (20-3).