Charter Oak girls’ water polo advances

At the beginning of this season, many people were questioning whether this year’s girls’ water polo team would be able to replicate the success of the team last year, which made it to the second round of the playoffs. The Lady Chargers were in the midst of a coaching change, along with seeing many seniors graduate, most people thought that this year would be a rebuilding year for them.

However, CO took full advantage of people counting them out and playing in a new league en route to a dominant season. They were on a tear throughout the whole year and ended up with an impressive 11-2 record along with the Hacienda League title.

Senior Devynn Stein attributes this year’s success to the recent coaching change. “Last year, we lacked a coach who could unite us as a team and we played selfishly. This year, we have a a great coach who taught us that if we play together and support each other we will perform better than if we don’t,” Stein said of new Coach Doug Lindsey.

For the first round of the playoffs, the Chargers took on a Monrovia team that they had already seen this year and handled pretty well. “We all knew we could play well against Monrovia because we had already played them before and beaten them,” said Stein.

The Chargers proved on Feb. 18 that history does repeat itself. They came storming out of the gate and just dominated the Wildcats all over again. Charter Oak would end up beating Monrovia by a score of 13-2 and would advance to the quarterfinals.

The Lady Chargers will host the Yucaipa Thunderbirds in the quarterfinals on Feb. 21, it will the the first CIF playoff game to be played at Charter Oak High in the history of the school. Yucaipa has a league record of 10-2 and an overall record of 24-5. Charter Oak has their work cut out for them, but they’re determined to make school history.

—Andres Soto