CCS’s best finally meet for title: Creation of Open polo division enables SHP, Bells to play for crown

That’s because the Gators play in the same section as Bellarmine, which set the standard for dominance. Since the inception of CCS water polo in 1974, the Bells have won 27 titles in 30 championship game appearances in the 44-year history of the event.

“When I arrived here, we had been to the championship game once,” said SHP head coach Brian Kreutzkamp, who took over the Gators’ program in 2005. “It was all Bellarmine, all the time. They ran the area. They were definitely the benchmark.

“That’s what we (SHP) set out to be — and beat Bellarmine.’

The two teams have played each other plenty of times as the two have become fierce rivals in the West Catholic Athletic League and regulars on the elite-level tournament circuit. But Bellarmine and SHP have never met in the CCS playoffs as the teams have been split between Division I and Division II. But with the advent of the Open Division for the 2017 season, it was only a matter of time before two of the premiere teams in the nation battled for a section crown.

Bellarmine fell in the semifinals as the Gators captured the inaugural Open Division title in 2017. This year, both teams held up their ends of the bargain and will meet at 5 p.m. tonight in Atherton. The Bells advanced with a 13-8 win over Menlo School, while SHP buried Valley Christian, 14-2.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Bellarmine head coach Colin Mello, who is finishing up his seventh season with the Bells and was Kreutzkamp’s former assistant at SHP. “I haven’t been around forever, but since I’ve been here, we’ve been the top two teams.”

This is the fourth meeting between the two teams this season, with the Gators having won the three previous meetings, including their WCAL regular-season meeting (15-7) and in the WCAL tournament championship match (12-8). SHP has won 10 of the last 11 matches, with Bellarmine last posting a victory in 2015, a 12-7 decision.

Bellarmine is led by UCLA-bound, 2-meter man Gabe Discipulo, who has scored 78 goals this season with a .513 shooting percentage, which essentially means he scores on every other shot he takes. Dominick Kirk is a sharpshooter from the perimeter, having netted 69 goals, while wing Nicky Fontes enters the CCS finals with 55 tallies.

“We know them backwards and forwards. We play them in the summertime,” Kreutzkamp said. “[Discipulo] is a strong kid. Everything they run will run through him. We have to neutralize him.”

Kreutzkamp will rely on arguably the best 2-meter man in Northern California in senior Andrew Churukian to help slow down Discipulo. Walker Seymour can also expect to spend a lot of defending the set as well.

SHP will counter offensively with Larsen Weigele, who leads the Gators with 94 goals this season. Churukian and Seymour are near the 60-goal mark, while Will Riley is in the 50-goal range.

“It’s really great to know you don’t have to rely on just one guy’s performance,” Kreutzkamp said. “It’s pretty nice as a coach when you know you have four or five guys who can score.”

The one drawback to the buildup has been the delay in playing the CCS Open Division championship game. The match was originally scheduled for “Championship Saturday” at Independence High School in San Jose this past Saturday. But the poor air quality from the Camp Fire in Northern California forced a delay. The boys’ Division I and Division II championship matches, along with all three girls’ title matches (Open, Division I and Division II) were all contested Monday at Independence.

The SHP-Bellarmine game, however, was scheduled to be played Monday evening in Atherton and then was postponed again until Wednesday because of the air quality.

“Since Bellarmine and ourselves had school on Monday, we were slotted to go at 10 o’clock (in the morning Monday). So we just decided to have it here (in Atherton). Now, we’re on the cancellation game,” Kreutzkamp said. “I put (the odds of playing Wednesday) at a 50-50 chance. It’s pretty ugly. We haven’t been in the water since last Thursday. Same thing goes for Bellarmine.”

Kreutzkamp is concerned that the lack of pool time, plus the delays will have taken some steam out of a match that has been years in the making.

Mello, on the other hand, believes the juices will be flowing once the teams get on the pool deck.

“The practice thing, the last handful of days, has been tough. (But) I think both teams will be ready,” Mello said. “I think as soon as they see the pool and see one another, they’ll be ready to go.”

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