From Sept. 13 to 14, Delta College hosted its annual William Anttila Tournament. Among the competing mens’ water polo teams were those of Diablo Valley College, Las Positas College, Modesto Junior College, Santa Rosa College, Cabrillo College, Merced College and Ohlone College.
On Sept. 13, Delta’s mens’ water polo team played against Las Positas and Cabrillo. On Sept. 14, Delta played against Santa Rosa and Modesto Junior. An additional game between Delta and Delta alumni took place after the last game of the tournament.
Against Las Positas, Delta’s team had a significant advantage over the Las Positas team during the first few three quarters of the game, with a point lead upwards of five at the end of each period. A Las Positas player had even been removed from the game for making an illegal entry during the third quarter. However, Delta only managed to score one point during the final quarter while Las Positas took many, nearly catching up by the end. Players on Delta’s team noted that they had gone easy by the fourth quarter, leading to the team’s near defeat. Delta won the game with a score of 20-19.
“During that last quarter … we were very lazy, we thought we had this game in the bag, like we’re gonna win this game by a lot. And then the moment we started getting lazy, they started creeping up and it just ended up with us getting really, really nervous, and we just let that happen,” said Jakee Chacon, attacker for the Delta men’s water polo team.
Against Cabrillo, Delta held the lead throughout the game, scoring upwards of five points throughout each quarter. The teams requested to switch sides on the court each period, due to the setting sun hindering the players’ vision. Delta won the game with a score of 20-9.
Against Santa Rosa, Delta was behind the opposing team by two points in the first quarter, and tied for four points in the second quarter. Delta took back the lead by the third and fourth quarter, ending the game with double that of Santa Rosa’s score. During the third quarter, Santa Rosa even tried to illegally substitute their goalie for a field player that had been removed. Delta won the game with a score of 16-8.
Against Modesto Junior College, Delta had a single-point advantage over the opposing team at the end of the first quarter, but lost the lead to Modesto Junior for every period afterwards. During the third quarter, Delta player Thomas Itturan was injured by the ball and was left unable to see in his left eye, needing to withdraw from the game. Head coach of Delta’s mens’ water polo team, Michael Maroney, predicted that Itturan will recover by the next Friday. Delta lost the game with a score of 12-14.
“It was a heartbreaker. We played really, really well, and we also played poorly at times … We got into foul trouble, we lost one of our starters midway through the third period on his third major … And then we had an eye injury at the end of the third period, so we had two starters who didn’t play the fourth quarter. We were down, but we’re down by one,” said Maroney. “And that’s the story of the game, and probably the story of the whole weekend. We either scored very easily on our counterattacks, or we made a mistake that caused it to go back the other way. And so, what’s encouraging is we’re getting better in those situations … We’ll be learning from our mistakes, and that’s something that we can fix. And once we fix that, I don’t think there’s a team that’s within five goals of us at this tournament.”
Delta’s record for the tournament was 3-1. In total, Delta had scored 68 points throughout the tournament, while 50 points had been scored against Delta.
After the end of the tournament, Delta alumni that had been soaked from practice in the water were made to sign waivers absolving Delta of responsibility just prior to their game against Delta’s mens’ water polo team. The alumni game was taken much less seriously than the tournament games, with music and SpongeBob sound effects played on the speakers throughout the match. One of the Delta players’ little sister was in charge of the scoreboard, and raised and lowered the teams’ scores on the board at whim. Delta lost the game with a true score of 11-20.
Delta’s mens’ water polo team includes 23 players, with around 10 of them being freshmen. This marks the first year the mens’ water polo team counted more than 18 since the COVID-19 lockdown, coinciding with a 20 percent increase in enrollments for the 2024 Fall Semester. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the mens’ water polo team generally had around 18 to 24 members in its roster, which dwindled after lockdown.
Despite higher numbers of recruitment for the mens’ water polo team, the effective number of available players is lower. For the two weeks leading to the tournament, nine athletes were not suited up to play. Two players had season-ending injuries, three players had infectious mononucleosis and one player had strep throat. At times, only six to eight players attended practices out of the roster of 23. Maroney attributed the shortage of players to some of the team’s shortcomings throughout the tournament.
