LEFT TO RIGHT: Morgan Hill's Sam Cretcher and Jared Clapham, defending, helped the 18-and-under Valley Splash water polo team place 18th in last week's Junior Olympics.
This was the outcome Caleb Carlson probably envisioned when he joined forces with Mack Haines for this summer's 18-and-under Junior Olympics.
With the help of Sam Cretcher and Patrick Acevedo, who played for Live Oak High School under Haines last year, Carlson's Valley Splash water polo team made a surprisingly good showing in the Junior Olympics last week, finishing 18th out of 47 teams. Aside from Morgan Hill, the Splash included marquee prep players from San Jose and Salinas.
"Mack and I have a good relationship, and we wanted to start a team that could compete at higher levels," Carlson said. "We have a lot of players from the north and wanted more played from the South Valley. It worked out pretty well."
Valley Splash entered the Irvine tournament as a No. 35 seed only to win five of its 10 games, played across four days. The Splash tied another to finish 5-4-1.
"We made some big improvements," said Carlson, whose Splash narrowly qualified for the Junior Olympics earlier in the summer. "We were missing one of our best players for the qualifier, but he was there last week and made a big difference."
Carlson was referring to Jared Clapham, a Morgan Hill native who's heading to UC Davis this fall. Like many Splash members - including Brandon Picone, also of Morgan Hill - Clapham played for Carlson at Valley Christian High School.
Although statistics weren't kept, Clapham, Picone and Valley Christian teammate Aidan Lenihan led the Splash in scoring.
"Jared is a big kid, and he scored a lot of goals for us," Carlson added.
"I've coached Brandon for four years, and this was the best he's played. If there was a team MVP honor for offense, he'd be included in the discussion. He played a big part."
Cretcher and Acevedo did the same, Carlson said. Cretcher, who's heading to UC Irvine, played a vital role in the Splash's offensive scheme, while Live Oak incoming senior Acevedo made strides despite limited action.
"Sam started for us and was a main weapon on offense," Carlson said. "Patrick improved every time out. We got as much out of them as we could."
Although the Morgan Hill Times does not have any obligation to monitor this board, the Morgan Hill Times reserves the right at all times to check this board and to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to the Morgan Hill Times in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. The Morgan Hill Times also reserves the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions. All threats to systems or site infrastructure shall be assumed genuine in nature and will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Submission of any comments will be considered permission to use online or in print.
Former Rams return for Garcia reunion
