{"id":84285,"date":"2025-12-06T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84285\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T22:30:08","slug":"la-jolla-boys-water-polo-celebrate-first-open-division-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84285\/","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla boys water polo celebrate first Open Division title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"From<\/a>From left, Cameron Ravanbach, assistant Cole Martinez (back to camera) and head coach Tom Atwell celebrate in the pool after La Jolla\u2019s first Open Division boys water polo title on Nov. 15 with a 13-12 win over Cathedral Catholic. (Photo by Ed Piper\/Special to La Jolla Village News) <\/p>\n

LA JOLLA \u2013 Both Dexter Black and Tor Martin, core starters on La Jolla High School\u2019s CIF Open Division champion boys water polo team, have older brothers who starred in the program and failed to win the golden ring \u2014 the open title.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older brother Soren\u2019s group thought they had the best team, and they didn\u2019t win the section title,\u201d recalls Tor. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Good luck,\u2019 but he didn\u2019t think we would win this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center, who plays from the post right in front of the goal on both offense and defense, said \u201cit was good to show him\u201d that the 2025 group from coach Tom Atwell could scale the mountain. <\/p>\n

The present edition of the Vikings downed Cathedral Catholic, the top-seeded team coming into the playoffs, 13-12, in an exhilarating Nov. 15 upset that led to students joining the players in the pool after the buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was coming,\u201d says Dexter, 6 feet 6 inches tall, scorer extraordinaire and fellow All-CIF First Teamer with Tor. \u201cAfter I made the penalty shot (with 29 seconds left), I saw guys taking off their shirts and handing their cellphones to other people. I knew they were ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Atwell\u2019s \u2013 the coach has taught AP European History at the coastal school for 25 years \u2013 and La Jolla\u2019s first Open Division championship. La Jolla won a Division 1 title back in 2015, but that pales compared to the open title over giants and rivals the Dons, and before that, crosstown Bishop\u2019s. The Vikings would always fall in the playoffs among the elite three, but not this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence and development,\u201d Dexter, La Jolla\u2019s leading scorer, a lefty, boils down the difference between last year\u2019s team and this squad. Tor \u2014 named for the god of thunder, Thor \u2014 agrees.<\/p>\n

The team had many of the same players, but a year older, a year more mature and stronger. But also, the mindset was different. \u201cWe had some flaws we had to fix in 2024,\u201d Dexter continued. Stepping into roles with more responsibility, defender Nate Thomson, a senior, and Henry Glenister, another southpaw scorer alongside Dexter, developed before fans\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNate, in our house, we call him the dog,\u201d says Dexter, four years younger than his brother Kiefer, who now plays at the Naval Academy. \u201cHe does all the dirty work, and gets none of the credit\u201d \u2014 winning the sprint, defending, being a top passer.<\/p>\n

Glenister has bloomed on the 4-5 side \u2014 the imaginary rectangular \u201cbox\u201d in water polo has the 1-2 side to the far left, the 4-5 side to the far right and 3-6 in the middle \u2014 delivering as the Vikings\u2019 second prolific scorer to Dexter.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper George Gayner, also senior, has been no slouch. He had numerous key saves in the quarterfinals against Poway and the semifinals against Bishop\u2019s, and again was an impregnable bulwark against Cathedral in the finals.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left, Cameron Ravanbach, assistant Cole Martinez (back to camera) and head coach Tom Atwell celebrate in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[47608,47585,6569,930,47609,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-84285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-cif-san-diego","tag-exclude-homepag","tag-exclude-homepage","tag-la-jolla","tag-la-jolla-boys-water-polo","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}