By Virginia Hogge, Managing Editor
El Camino’s varsity boys water polo team had their first game of the season Aug. 26 against Christian Brothers, keeping it a tight game but won 11-10 in the final.
The 2025-2026 boys water polo team last year went 8-0 in league getting 1st in the Golden Empire League and 18-9 overall. The team lost five seniors, one being Joao Elias de Oliveira (‘26). At the end of the season, de Oliveira had a total of 119 goals and 53 assists. Although the team has lost valuable players, head coach Cory Stowell is confident in his players this year.
“As a coach I have to find the next person up, and yes, I’m going to worry about that every year, and that’s why we do these scrimmages in the beginning of the year to kind of see what I have,” Stowell explained.
Stowell is counting on Jett Doell (‘27) and Oliver De La Cruz (‘27) to step up and fill that senior role for this season. Doell transferred from Mira Loma in his junior year, so he was not able to play for half the season. He plays center and center defense. Doell is also a team captain and is most excited to help new players.
“I’m excited to help people because I’ve been playing for seven years now, where some guys have been playing for two to three years so I’m excited to be a leader,” explained Doell
Varsity team captain Issac Rex (‘28) has been on the EC water polo team for three years and this is his first year as team captain. The coaches chose him along with Doell. Rex talks about what it means to be a team captain.
“We go up to the referees when the game starts, two captains from each team, and we talk about how the games are going to go because each pool has different rules,” explained Rex.
Rex also talked about how excited he is for this season and believes the team will have a good season, mentioning that Roseville is their biggest competition, but he’s feeling confident going against them.
“Our biggest competitor I feel is Roseville, but they lost 11 seniors [last year] and Christian Brothers would be the next biggest competitor, but we just beat them 11-10,” stated Rex.
The boys have talked about the bond they have with each other and they are excited to play challenging teams and are confident in making playoffs. De La Cruz is a senior on varsity and talks about how he isn’t worried about any teams but more excited to play those challenging games.
“I wouldn’t say I’m worried about playing teams. I’m excited to play them just to see if we could challenge ourselves with the amount of people we have,” explained De La Cruz
The team has to have seven players in the pool and this year is low on players. Any students who are interested in the team can talk to coach Stowell in his office in the vice principal hallway or on the pool deck after school.
