Keaton Yost, Sports Editor
On Sept. 5 and 6, El Camino’s boys water polo team played in the 19th annual Sierra Shootout, a multi-bracket tournament that hosts teams from all over Northern California.
Cory Stowell, coach for the water polo team, recalled there being 58 teams among the four divisions of the tournament this year: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
“We won [the bronze] division last year, so they moved us up to the second from the top, which was the gold,” Stowell said.
On the first day of the tournament, the Eagles won their first game against West Park 11-5 and lost their second game against Inderkum 11-10. The second day brought them a 15-9 victory against Oak Ridge and a loss to Bella Vista after going into overtime. Going 2-2 in the tournament landed the Eagles in the 5th place spot of the gold division.
Both Coach Stowell and varsity player Remy Manigart (‘26) mentioned that winning the tournament was definitely in range for the team.
“After hearing that we were getting moved up to the gold division, I figured we were just, you know, gonna get blown out— But we really held our own and I think we really improved,” Manigart said.
He cited their games against Inderkum as evidence for the team’s improvement; while the boys team lost by 4 points when they played Inderkum earlier in the season, they only lost by 1 during the Sierra Shootout.
Concurring with Manigart, varsity player Joao Elias de Oliveira (‘26) said that the team had played much better than they expected.
“I scored 10 goals in [our last] game, and that was pretty cool,” de Oliveira said.
He mentioned that even though the team was in a more competitive bracket this year, they stepped up from their earlier games this season and made major improvement for and during the tournament.
Leland Chidester (‘26), goalie for the water polo team, added that even in the games that they lost in, the team played well.
“I did super well in the [Bella Vista] game. I got a lot of saves, and my coach was really impressed,” Chidester said.
Chidester claimed that the team’s positive performance in the Sierra Shootout will likely be reflected throughout the water polo season as a whole.
The team’s next game will be 5pm next Tuesday at home against Nevada Union, followed by a 6pm home game against Casa Robles on Wednesday.
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