Coach Ryan Katsuyama Photo credit: Michele Shafia By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor It was probably around December 5 when Poly coach Ryan Katsuyama knew this might be a special season. The Jackrabbits earned a 9-8 victory over Prep League power Westridge on that day. A year prior, the Tigers had blown out the Panthers by […]
Coach Ryan Katsuyama Photo credit: Michele Shafia
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
It was probably around December 5 when Poly coach Ryan Katsuyama knew this might be a special season.
The Jackrabbits earned a 9-8 victory over Prep League power Westridge on that day.
A year prior, the Tigers had blown out the Panthers by 15 goals.
Poly went on to win 13 of their next 14 games, before going into a mini slump, losing 3 of 4 in the Bonita Tournament.
But as a good coach can do, Katsuyama got his injured and sick players back and made a championship run.
Poly (24-5) not only earned a share of the Prep League championship, going 11-1, the Panthers earned a CIF-Southern Section Division 5 championship on Feb. 25.
The Panthers fell behind in the title game, 3-1 early, but Katsuyama was able to get his players to regroup and finished the game on a 9-2 run.
Poly defeated Xavier Prep, 10-5, and claimed their second CIF championship.
For his ability to get the best out of his players in and out of the swimming pool, Katsuyama has been named the Pasadena Sports Now Girls Water Polo Coach of the Year.
The Panthers were led all season by freshman Talie Wilmans and senior Colleen Woo.
The dynamic duo combined to score 199 goals and 127 assists.
More impressively, Poly earned the title of CIF Academic Team Champions for girls water polo, something Katsuyama and the school is very proud of.
“We had trouble scoring goals last season, Katsuyama said. “The addition of freshmen Talie Wilmans and Megan Kelleher solved that problem from day one and combined with a strong core of returning players, I knew that we would be pretty good this season.
Part of our development as a team was to figure out how the pieces of the puzzle would fit together to give us the best lineup possible. Case in point was using Talie as our starting center, but when teams figured out they needed to double team her when she went into set, we inserted Megan into that position to allow Talie to use her great shot out on the perimeter. Megan gave us a capable scorer inside and Talie is a weapon on the outside,”
Katsuyama said his team grew over a stretch when their freshman sensation, Talie Wilmans was ill and not able to play.
“At that time, she was our leading goal scorer, but illness kept her out of the pool for a 6 game stretch. This was a great learning experience for our team as we were forced to use different lineups and give other players some quality minutes in high leverage situations. The experience from the Bonita Tournament paid off in the quarterfinal game when Talie fouled out in the second quarter. Instead of folding, the girls knew how to play without Talie and we advanced on to the semis.”
Their 3-1 deficit in the title game wasn’t the only drama Poly would face.
Three days prior, it took Poly two overtime periods to finish off Santa Ana Valley on the road, 6-4.
In his time at the school, Katsuyama has won six Prep League titles, two CIF championships (2014-15, 2016-17) and the Panthers were the runner up in 2012-13.
His next win the pool will be career victory No. 250 at Poly.
Aside from Wilmans and Woo, the Panthers got great contributions from a number of players.
Katie McInerny had 174 saves in goal, and Megan Kelleher and Natalie Clark combined for 74 goals and 82 assists.
Statistics can’t always tell the entire story, but in this case, they show just how dominant the Panthers were this season.
While both Westridge and Poly finished with one loss apiece in league play and shared a co-championship, McInerny and the Panthers defense allowed 51 less goals in Prep League play alone, not to mention 121 less goals against for the season.
Defense was Katsuyama’s primary message and that message earned his school a championship.
While players should and do get most of the credit for a team’s success, Poly freshman star and leading scorer Talie Wilmans had nothing but praise for her coach.
“Coach K was always there to remind us to keep playing hard no matter what was going on in the game,” Wilmans said. “I remember during the CIF final game, we were down 3-1 in the first quarter and he reminded us that we had been in this situation before and we got out of it, so stay calm and play the game. Ryan also went the extra mile to prepare us for our games and develop strategies in order to respond well against an opponent. This prevented our team from being flustered when another team played differently from what we were used to.”
CIF-SS Division 5 Playoff Results:
First Round: Poly 13, Cypress 4
Quarterfinal: Poly 11, Fullerton 7
Semifinal: Poly 6, Santa Ana Valley 4 (Overtime)
Championship: Poly 10, Xavier Prep 5
Prep League Final Standings:
Poly (24-5 overall, 11-1 in league)
Westridge (20-8, 11-1)
Mayfield (15-10, 8-5)
Chadwick (6-7, 5-6)
Flintridge Prep (2-8, 2-7)
La Salle (3-19, 2-11)
Milken (1-12, 0-10)
