Veteran Newport Harbor girls swim coach Ken LaMont, who guided the Lady Tars to a pair of CIF Division I runner-up finishes earlier this decade, has announced his resignation.

LaMont said he is leaving to concentrate on his coaching duties with the Irvine Novaquatics club.

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I stopped by Los Alamitos this morning to interview quarterback Clark Evans and stumbled onto one heck of a water polo note. Legendary water polo coach Jim Sprague (formerly at Sunny Hills, most recently at Servite) has joined ranks with Los Alamitos boss Dave Carlson to form one of the greatest coaching duos in county high school water polo history.

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I had heard whispers for weeks that Foothill’s boys water polo program might be adding a foreign player, and now I have confirmation that the Knights have two.

Yes, it appears that at the very least, one of the strongest returning rosters in Orange County and Southern Section is getting deeper.

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Veteran Irvine boys swim coach Ken Dory, who guided the Vaqueros to back-to-back CIF titles in 2000 and 2001, has resigned for personal reasons.

Dory also is the aquatics director of aquatics at Concordia University in Irvine and the father of four children.

Dory’s career at Irvine also included coaching a kid named Jason Lezak. Dory had one heck of a run.

 

Here’s the first of many water polo polls that I will be offering this boys water polo season. Participate early and often. I will actually try to keep an archive of poll results this season.

I ventured to Irvine today to check out some of the girls water polo finals at the S & R Sport Junior Olympics. I was pretty surprised Orange County didn’t have a team or a player represented in the elite 18-and-under final. The county has plenty of talent but when a local team can’t make the big final when the tourney comes to town, that’s not impressive. And if winning JOs is a big deal, which I believe it is, what does a program like SET not load up one of its teams and try to win it? You’re a big-time club, so why not go for it? Maybe next year, gals.

I spent a few hours at the Junior Olympics boys water polo tournament in Irvine and the best player I saw was Servite senior to be Cruz Smithson. The center played strong two-way water polo and scored a team-high four goals in the finals against San Diego Shores.

To me, Smithson looked quite a bit improved from last fall. And I wasn’t the only one who thought so. “I think he’s grown so much as a player (this summer),” said Mason Cox, a Servite product who was one of Smithson’s teammates on SOCAL on Tuesday.

Earlier in the summer, Smithson was MVP of the 18-and-under club championships.

So after watching him play at JOs, I wasn’t surprised to see him chatting with UCLA men’s coach Adam Krikorian following the match.

Orange County has some serious talent in the senior ranks with Griffin White of El Toro, Josh Samuels of Villa Park, Trey Davis of JSerra and the Los Alamitos trio of Forrest Watkins, Michael Delaney and Austin Trinkle, but don’t forget about Smithson this fall.

One of the hottest prospects in diving is 15-year-old Kelly Markle of Laguna Niguel. Markle is competing in her first senior nationals this week in Pasadena but here’s the catch: the freshman-to-be is moving away from Orange County.

Markle, who trains with Crown Valley Divers and has attended St. Margaret’s as a pre-high schooler, is set to take off early next month for national powerhouse club The Woodlands in Texas.

Markle said if she wasn’t moving, Mission Viejo would have been her pick for high school. That’s right, the home of the two-time CIF-SS Division I champion Lady Diablos. Mission Viejo already has Crown Valley standout Haley McNamara and with Markle on board, that might have meant some serious points at CIF.

I’m sure the Division I teams chasing Mission Viejo (Edison, Fountain Valley to name two) will not shed any tears from this report.

San Clemente senior-to-be diver Kelsey Heiken has scheduled an official recruiting trip to the University of Texas in September, she said Tuesday at the Kaiser Permanente National Diving Championships.

After a tough day of working the phones on the sad story of Dylan Bradshaw, I got to have some fun watching one of my favorite pastimes Thursday night — (more…)