Ten to One

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When the game was over last Thursday night at Valley College, Palisades High water polo coach Adam Blakis did not wait for his players to throw him into the pool, he took the plunge on his own after piloting the Dolphins to their 10th consecutive City Section championship with a convincing 16-10 finals victory over Birmingham.         

“Last year my son wasn’t happy to see me get pushed in,” Blakis said of his 4-year-old boy Anders. “So this time I dove in myself. We’ve done this enough times, but it never gets old.”

     Before the postgame awards presentation the Dolphins huddled together on the pool deck and did a count from 1 to 10 as a vocal acknowledgment of their remarkable accomplishment— a streak of 40 straight playoff victories that started in 2012.

“It’s a great experience for not only me, but my family,” said junior driver Owen Grant, who scored a game-high five goals and whose brother Avery also plays on the varsity team. “And for the Speisers too!”

Older brother and Dolphins alum Oliver Grant was in the stands to watch his siblings carry on the tradition. Sophomore utility Charlie Speiser could relate—his older brothers Sammy and Maximo also played for Palisades. None of the current players want to be responsible for the  dynasty ending.

“I have a lot of good teammates who are dedicated and they forced them to shoot from narrow angles, which made my job a lot easier,” said senior goalie John Possman, who made 17 saves—one of them on a five-meter shot. “It’s important for the upperclassmen, especially those of us who’ll be graduating. I’m glad we kept it going.”

Palisades’ 10 finals wins have all come against West Valley League schools: five versus Birmingham, two versus Granada Hills, two versus Cleveland and one versus El Camino Real. For the Dolphins, the opponent does not matter as long as the end result is a victory.

Christian Perez scored the first goal for Birmingham but Palisades responded with four of its own by the end of the first quarter—one by Grant, two by Benji Mohktar and the last by Speiser. The Dolphins added five more goals in the second quarter to build a 9-3 halftime lead. Three more goals at the start of the third quarter made it 12-3 and allowed Blakis to begin subbing out his starters.          

“We knew they only had one guy  who was a really good scorer so we just had to make sure he didn’t get the ball,” Owen Grant said. “That and keeping the pressure on them and making sure to be back on defense.”

Owen and Avery were happy their older brother could be there to see them continue the legacy he helped build. “I’ve been playing this sport awhile and Oliver’s really cool about it. He’s watched me play and he’ll correct me if he sees me do something wrong.”

Having kept their City dynasty alive, the Dolphins’ next goal is to defend their Southern California Regional Division III championship and they were seeded No. 1 in this week’s tournament. which began Tuesday and ends Saturday.       

“That’s our next goal,” Blakis said. “We’ve won regionals twice but not back-to-back, so now we want to start a streak for that as well. Hopefully we’ll get a good draw.”

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