Gonzales ends two-year run with Ripon section title

Kole Gonzales allowed a few tears to drip down his cheek and later hugged his coach, Erik Zador.

It had ended, an incredible two-year run by the Ripon High School boys water polo team. The Indians’ 13-3 win over Sonora on Nov. 14 clinched a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III title for a team that struggled just to get through the season.

Gonzales, Ripon’s 6-foot-3 senior and captain, carried most of the weight. His team-leading 91 goals, six during the final, preceded a wave of emotion when he realized it was over.

“We accomplished something very important,” Gonzales said. “This season wasn’t easy.”

Gonzales, The Modesto Bee’s Boys Water Polo Player of the Year, became the glue that sealed the championship for Ripon (17-6). Few around the team thought the Indians could even approach their Cinderella run of 2014, when they went 27-4 and lost a 16-15 heartbreaker to Rio Americano in the Division II final.

Ripon got through the 2014 season with only one reserve. This season was a luxury – two reserves. The Indians were water polo’s answer to the movie “Hoosiers,” about a basketball team from a tiny Indiana school.

Somehow this fall, the Indians persevered.

“We didn’t have enough guys to scrimmage. Practices were difficult,” Gonzales said. “We asked the girls team to help. They contributed a lot of time for us.”

The 2015 Indians featured only two seniors, Gonzales and goalie Darnay Mack, who returned to water polo after a season on the football team. Ripon also caught a break when the section unveiled Division III.

Still, some team bonding was needed. Minus last year’s stars in the graduated Zach Scudder and Nathaniel Gagnon, Ripon turned to Gonzales for leadership.

“Kole was asked to focus on defense last year (he still had 99 goals),” Zador said. “This year we wanted him to fill out his game and do a little bit of everything. He came through.”

Gonzales, Ripon’s two-meter trump card, accepted more responsibility and grew into his enlarged role.

“I liked leading our team,” he said. “When everyone was down, I liked picking them up and giving them positive feedback. We had a few talks during the season. If anybody needed to get something out of their system, we’d talk it out.”

Ripon, comfortable in giant-killing mode last season, was not an underdog in 2015. The Indians’ win over Sonora in the section title game, clinched when they scored 11 unanswered goals, was their third over the Wildcats. Ripon already owned 15-7 and 12-5 victories over Sonora.

“We were jittery. A final is a totally different setting. Sonora was still a big team and tough,” Gonzales said. “That was a feeling when we won.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Gonzales ends two-year run with Ripon section title."