Sacred Heart Prep water polo gears up for more success

But this isn’t professional sports and players graduate. The Gators lost four seniors to major college programs and a fifth who will spend a year playing in Spain before enrolling at Stanford for the 2023 season.

“You look back on the (2021) season, it would definitely be called a dream team,” said longtime SHP head coach Brian Kreutzkamp. “That was, definitely, the best team we’ve ever had at SHP.

“And we lost almost all of them.”

But don’t feel sorry for the Gators. SHP has plenty in reserve last season and those players are champing at the bit to move into starring roles. Will Swart and Jake Tsotadze enter their senior years as four-year varsity players, are already verbally committed to Princeton and Harvard, respectively, and are two returning starters.

Joining them are a trio who will see increased playing after serving as role players last season: Harrison Rohlen, Luke Bachler and Hassen Hove.

“All those guys, I expect them to be DI recruits,” Kreutzkamp said. “It’s not like we’re short on talent.”

There is, however, one big question mark: who will replace Stanford-bound goalie, Griff Price? Right now, Kreutzkamp said there is a competition between last year’s backup, Orlando Hernandez Alvarado and freshman Murdoch Baker-Matsuoka, who attended middle school at Menlo School.

Coming into high school already at 6-3, Baker-Matsuoka has a chance to continue SHP’s legacy of top-level talent.

“He trained all summer with Griffin Price,” Kreutzkamp said. “There are those comparisons already (to Price), which I’m trying to stay away from.”

There is another freshman who has a chance to be elite as well — 6-3, 210-pound 2-meter man Oliver Marcin, who Kreutzkamp said already wears size 16 shoes.

“He has giant hands,” Kreutzkamp continued. “Physically, he can pretty much hang with anyone in high school. The speed of the game and reading the game is where he is trying to catch up.”

Both Baker-Matsuoka and Marcin are in the age-group national team pool.

Despite the massive potential these freshmen have and considering they could be stealing starts away from other, older players, there is no shunning of the newcomers. Instead, they are embraced by the players they could potentially replace.

“What we’ve built with the wins and the championships, it becomes bigger than the individual stuff,” Kreutzkamp said. “I think (the older guys) take pride in not just winning, but passing it (the team culture) down to the next year.”

Both Kreutzkamp and his girls’ team counterpart, Jamie Frank, said the culture surrounding their programs is what has helped sustain their success.

“We’ve built a strong culture. Year in and year out, the hope is we have success,” Frank said. “This year in no different.”

Like the boys’ team, Frank’s squad lost a number of key players to graduation. But for the Gators, it’s next lady up. Natalia Szczerba, who shined as a freshman last season and is currently in Greece playing with her age group national team, will take over the role of leading the team offensively. But Frank doesn’t want to put all the pressure on her shoulders and will use a transition-style offense to try and get as many people involved offensively.

A good transition is keyed by a strong goalie and the Gators return Paedrin Gillett, who started all of last season.

“I expert her to be a major cog in kind of what we’re doing,” Frank said.

The 2021 team fell short of defending their 2019 CCS Open Division championship, falling 8-7 to Soquel in the CCS championship game. There was no polo CCS for the 2020-21 season.

Despite that, along with a non-league matchup with the Knights this season, Frank doesn’t want to dwell on the 2021 season.

“I’m a process guy. The plan every year is to get [to the CCS championship game]. “We’re putting the pieces together to, ultimately, be the team at the top. But it’s unfair to compare teams year in and year out,” Frank said. “[Soquel] is going to be toward the top (of CCS) at the end and in my opinion, it doesn’t make sense to hide from a team. You want to see where you are.”

Kreutzkamp also believes iron sharpens iron and for the second year in a row, will lead the Gators into some of the best non-league games and tournaments you will find anywhere in the country.

“It’s amazing. When you have a few successful years, people want to play you,” Kreutzkamp said. “Especially the So Cal teams.”

Like Frank, Kreutzkamp wants to see where his team stands against the best teams in the country. And while the 2022 edition may not live up to the legend that the 2021 will become, the Gators are still looking to be among the top teams in the nation.

“Last year, we were (No.) 1 to 3 in the country. This year, we’re more in that 4 to 8 territory,” Kreutzkamp said. “Our annual goal is to among the top eight teams in the country.”

Editor's note: this story has been updated with the correct spelling of Murdoch Baker-Matsuoka's name.