A8 THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022
Sports+Outdoors
Water polo jamboree
splashes into Redmond
The ‘Woodstock’ of water polo
continues for its 18th year
BY NICK ROSENBERGER• Redmond Spokesman
Y
elling and splashing filled the
Cascade Aquatic Center in
Redmond on August 26 as high
schoolers from across the state swam,
pushed and attempted to hurl a ball
into the opposing team’s goal during
the 18th annual Redmond Water Polo
Jamboree.
The jamboree brought 11 teams from
Central Oregon, Portland, Eugene, Sa-
lem and Ashland to Redmond to com-
pete against each other in fast 8-minute
rounds.
“The clock doesn’t ever stop unless
something drastic happens,” said Denise
Maich, the head coach of Redmond High
School’s water polo team. “You get a lot
of different experience. You get to play a
lot of different teams and it’s mainly just a
big learning (experience) for all the kids.”
Maich and her team, along with many
of the other teams in attendance, pitch
tents every year at the aquatic center for
the three-day event and camp out. They
gather to eat food, play games and talk
tactics.
“It’s really good, fun team bonding for
the kids,” she said.
The jamboree, which is held during
the offseason, is also an opportunity for
new players to get some time in the pool
and learn the details of a sport that some
call “rugby with a chance of drowning.”
“The one thing with water polo is
there’s a lot to learn and there’s a lot of
moving parts,” Maich said. “There’s of-
fense, there’s defense, there’s counter-at-
tacking, there’s driving, there’s a bunch
of small different parts that, for some of
these new kids, it’s hard to learn.”
But, she emphasized that ath-
letes don’t need to be the
strongest players or
the best swim-
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Water polo players from Bend High School speak with their coach during a short break at the Redmond Water Polo Jamboree on August
26 in Redmond.
mers to be good at water polo. She men-
tioned that she’s coached kids who’ve
never swam before, but were good at
throwing the ball in the pool because
they’d played baseball.
Water polo, she said, is like swimming,
soccer and football all mixed together.
“It’s a brutal sport,” said Gretchen
Chadwick, whose daughter, Lilly, plays
for Mountain View High School in Bend.
The sport is infamous for a saying: “Ev-
erything is legal under the water, if you’re
not caught.” Fingernails and toenails have
to be inspected before games begin to
reduce the damage caused by kicking,
pushing and pulling on swimsuits and
legs.
“There’s a lot that happens under the
water,” said Julie Reber, whose son Jupi-
ter Gillam, also plays for Mountain View.
“They play so dirty.”
Lilly Chadwick had been a competi-
tive swimmer for years, but eventually got
tired of the same old. When a close family
friend convinced her and her older sister
to try water polo about seven years ago,
they never looked back.
Despite the brutality of the pool, it’s the
people and team bonding that bring so
many back.
“Across the board, the kids that play
water polo are so fun and jovial and
(there’s) a lot of camaraderie,” Gillam
said.
The event started in 2004 as a me-
morial event for Redmond swimmer
Jay Rowan. It has since earned the nick-
name the “Woodstock of water polo” by
officials, players and coaches — some
of whom have been participating in the
event since it began. For many teams, it
acts as an unofficial kickoff for the sea-
son.
Jessica Rowan, the current aquatic
director for Redmond Area Parks and
Recreation District and Jay’s older sis-
ter, has overseen it for the last 12 years
and loves that Redmond has such an
outsized impact in the world of Oregon
water polo.
“I feel like it’s his legacy,” she said. “We
like to call it the little pool that could.”
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Mountain View High School’s goalie prepares to defend a shot at the Redmond Water Polo Jamboree on August 26 in Redmond.
New coaches take on high school programs
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
CO Media Group
As a new high school sports
year is just getting started, sev-
eral local teams are adjusting to
new leadership. In Central Or-
egon, nine fall sports programs
have new head coaches.
Summit volleyball — a pe-
rennial state championship
contender — is now on its third
coach in as many years. This
fall, Emily McMahon will lead
the Storm volleyball program,
which has made five state cham-
pionship match appearances
since 2007, twice (2011 and
2015) winning state titles under
former coach Jill Waskom.
“I’m really excited to be at
Summit and to regrow the pro-
gram,” McMahon said. “I’m
trying to jump in and create a
new culture that is back in hard
work, discipline and self-reli-
ance.”
Last year, McMahon was
the JV coach in her first year
coaching at Summit, but she has
coached volleyball at numer-
ous levels in the 15 years she
has lived in Bend. Recently, she
coached the North Pacific Ju-
nior Volleyball Club (NPJ) 14U
team.
Between NPJ and coaching
JV last year, the transition has
been a fairly smooth one for
McMahon. She said it took all
but one day to learn the names
of all 37 players in the Summit
program.
“I knew it was going to be
a big undertaking,” McMa-
hon said. “I’m excited the girls
wanted to have me, honored
they wanted to have me.”
Mountain View cross-county
also has a new coach, but it is
certainly a familiar name in the
Central Oregon running scene.
Between 2012 and 2019, Mc-
Latchie coached the Storm’s
cross-country teams to eight
team state championships, in-
cluding six 5A titles and two 6A
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Summit High School’s new volleyball coach, Emily McMahon, talks with
players during a jamboree Thursday in Bend.
titles for the girls and four 5A
titles for the boys. The Summit
girls also won a national title in
2018 under McLatchie’s stew-
ardship.
McLatchie spent the past
spring coaching the distance
runners on the Mountain
View track team. Needing a
cross-country coach to replace
Andy Young, the school’s ath-
letic director Lance Haas did a
bit of arm twisting to bring her
on as the new head coach, Mc-
Latchie joked.
“I always wanted to get back
into coaching,” McLatchie said.
“COVID wasn’t fun for me ei-
ther. It is very energizing to be
around young people and ath-
letics.”
Seven more Central Oregon
high school sports programs are
under new leadership this fall:
• Henry Phelan takes over the
Bend High cross-country pro-
gram from Lisa Nye, who had
been the Lava Bears coach since
2009. Nye remains the Lava
Bears’ track and field coach.
• In the school’s second year
of existence, Caldera retained
all but one of its coaches. Mike
Mitchell now leads the football
program into its first varsity sea-
son after the departure of Neil
Fendall.
• With Randi Viggiano be-
coming Ridgeview’s new ath-
letic director, the Raven volley-
ball program — which went
to the state title game in 2018,
won the 5A championship in
2019 and had a state semifinal
appearance in 2021 — will turn
to Kurtis Bower. Like many of
the volleyball coaches in Cen-
tral Oregon, Bower coaches club
volleyball for NPJ.
• Redmond High also has a
new volleyball coach in Travis
Kandle, who after 10 years run-
ning the Juniper Volleyball Club
takes the reins of the Panther
program, which is coming off a
playoff appearance last fall un-
der Katie Karcher.
• Madras football replaces
Kurt Taylor, who had led the
White Buffaloes program since
2016, with Judd Stutzman, who
spent three seasons coaching at
George Fox University in New-
berg before spending last fall
coaching 3A Clatskanie.
• Two soccer programs will
have new coaches as well. Crook
County girls soccer will be led
by Mary Buell, who was an as-
sistant coach at McNary (of
Keizer) last fall, while Central
Christian boys soccer will be
led by Paul Edmond, replacing
Mark Hughes.
█
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com