The Hood River Valley boys water polo team huddles together after a win earlier this season. Head Coach Garrett Hall, right, and the Eagles fell to the Summit Storm in the state championship game.
The Hood River Valley boys water polo team huddles together after a win earlier this season. Head Coach Garrett Hall, right, and the Eagles fell to the Summit Storm in the state championship game.
By most standards, back-to-back second-place finishes in the state playoffs are reason to celebrate. But when the bar is raised, as is the case with the Hood River Valley boys water polo program, a bitter taste sometimes lingers with being “runner-up”.
Garrett Hall, HRV’s coach, acknowledges that fact, but he also knows the anatomy of a season is often a complex thing.
“It is always a bit disappointing and anticlimactic to end the season in second place,” Hall said. “Especially after finishing second last year and knowing how much stronger of a team we were this season.
“And with seven seniors on the roster this year, we all felt a little extra pressure to send them out on a win. But we all need to remember that no single game, even the championship, can really determine the overall success of a season.”
Hall said winning the championship at the Nov. 11-12 state tourney would have been a nice cherry on top, but “we sure had the rest of the Sunday.”
Led by a solid core of seven seniors — Charlie Wilson, Kai Hawkins, Lucas Elliott, Ben Marsden, Gavin Hackett, Angus Kellems, and Zayd Ziada — Hood River had numerous highlights this past season. The Eagles went undefeated at the Grant Open tournament in October. They had the best showing of any Class 5A team against always strong Sam Barlow High. They finished with a 16-6 record and had one of the lowest goals allowed average of any team in the state.
HRV finished second behind eventual state champion Summit of Bend in the Central Conference. The finish earned the Eagles a spot in the state quarterfinals, where they easily dispatched Bend’s Mountain View. That win advanced HRV to the semifinals where they earned a one-point victory over West Albany — the team which beat the Eagles for the 2021 state title.
Awaiting HRV in the final was Summit, which played the past four season in Class 6A but dropped down to 5A this fall — along with the other Bend high schools. The Storm proved themselves worthy of their top ranking by defeating HRV, 10-5, in the Nov. 12 championship in Corvallis. It was Summit’s first state title since 2014.
“In the final we kept our composure and kept fighting all the way till the end against a very tough and physical Summit team,” Hall said. “Which is, in itself, an accomplishment and an indicator of the mental toughness and drive that these young men have exhibited all season. And that, I think, is the takeaway, the example that this year’s seniors and leaders have set for their peers. No single game or even season, is as important as the long-term strength and success of Eagles water polo. Even though we didn’t come away with the championship this year, the impact of these young men, will be felt for generations of Eagles to come.”
Hood River was well represented on the all-league and all-state tourney teams. Elliott capped his high school career with first-team selections on both squads. Marsden was first-team all-state, while junior Elijah Adams was first-team all-league and second-team all-state. Making second-team all-state and second-team all-league (by a vote of coaches) was junior Owen Sheppard. Hackett was second-team all-league. Honorable mention all-league selections went to Kellems and Ziada. Honorable mention all-state were Caiden Titus, Hackett and Kellems.
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