Tam's Tight Water Polo Squad Looks Ahead

Tam High's boys water polo team sits atop the leaderboard at the midpoint of the league season, but for a team with high expectations, the real tests are yet to come .

"This is probably the strongest team in my nine years here," head coach Bob Kustel said.

Kustel credits a talented blend of youth and experience in a squad of seven seniors and seven juniors hungry for late-season showdowns with perennial powerhouses Drake and Marin Catholic.

"They have a good knowledge of the game, athletic ability and work ethic," Kustel said. "And it's a good character team that's a lot of fun to be around. Which is good. It's what you want."

The Red-tailed Hawks (12-2, 4-0 in league play) took home third place honors among the 32-team field at last weekend's Sierra Invitational tournament in Rocklin behind a 36-goal onslaught from senior Max Sieck, a first team all-league player last year who is on his way to another stellar season. Sieck racked up eight more goals Thursday in an 18-5 win over a strong Berkeley High squad. 

In a 13-6 victory over San Marin last week, Brennan Latimer and Sieck scored four goals apiece. Sieck's tally gave him 172 career goals at the time, making him Tam's all-time leading scorer, according to Kustel. He's tallied 82 goals so far this season.

Beyond Latimer, a junior, who is second on the team in goals with 44, Kustel said team leaders also include senior Robert Scott and defender Devon Miller-Gowan, a 6-foot-4-inch speciman with a tremendous wingspan whose duty as hole guard is to take on the other team's best player.

"They're the guys that really make us go," he said.

How far the team goes will be measured by next month's crucial matchups, first with Marin Catholic on Oct. 14 and Drake on Oct. 21.

"In my nine years here, Drake has won (league honors) eight out of those nine," said Kustel, who has yet to earn a victory against the rival school. "They're the powerhouse. The rest of this doesn't matter. We have our most important mathces ahead of us."

Max Sieck's father, Greg, who has followed his childrens' involvement in Tam aquatics for six years, said the great thing about this year's team was the fact many of the players have been swimming and playing water polo together since a very early age.

"These guys have great chemistry and play really well together," he said. "They're working harder than they've ever worked because they realize they've got a good group of people."

Sieck said next month's slate of matches pitting the league's top dogs against one another will be tough, but Tam "has played some tough games already."

After seeing his team go through a first-round exit in last year's MCAL playoffs, Kustel feels this year's squad is ready to compete at the top level.

The longtime coach said extra psychological lifts have come from return visits in the pool by about a dozen ex-players offering assistance and finally having a home pool again in their newly renovated facility.

Kustel said an ultimate goal for his squad is a good seed, hopefully in the top ten, for the North Coast Section tournament. 

A couple league matters, however, loom large on the horizon.

Up Next: The Red-tailed Hawks host Redwood in an MCAL battle Tuesday at 4pm.