Daily Pilot High School Male Athlete of the Week: McCarroll mighty for Breakers at two meters

Larsen McCarroll competes in boys’ water polo at Laguna Beach High, a campus that’s little more than a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean.

The Breakers senior used to get a bit more elevated for his competitions, though.

As a young kid, McCarroll’s parents would take him up to Mammoth Mountain every weekend in the winters. Larsen was a downhill skier, and a fast one at that.

“I still hold a national record for the fastest 10-year-old,” he said.

McCarroll went from being the fastest 10-year-old to a 10-year-old who was out of commission. Things changed one day when he tore his left anterior cruciate ligament during a competition. Rehabilitation was tough.

“I couldn’t really do much on land,” he said. “I had to get my knee stronger, so I started swimming. I started on the swim team when I was probably 10 or 11, and the water polo coach asked me to come to a couple of practices. I fell in love with the sport.”

The Breakers are glad he did. With just a few games left in high school career at most, McCarroll has been a three-year starter at center. And he hopes to go out with a bang and the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title.

Laguna Beach (19-8), the Orange Coast League champion, carries a nine-game winning streak into the playoffs. The No. 4-seeded Breakers open at home in the Division 2 first round on Thursday, against a wild-card winner.

Part of the nine-game winning streak came last weekend at the Steve Pal Memorial Tournament at Beckman High. McCarroll helped Laguna win the title, scoring five goals as the Breakers beat Redlands East Valley, 9-7, in the championship match.

The win gave Laguna Beach confidence, and for good reason. If the Breakers win their first playoff match Thursday, they could see Redlands Valley again in the Division 2 quarterfinals on Saturday.

“We’ve been definitely playing better toward the end of the season,” McCarroll said. “So hopefully during CIF we’ll pull through, and maybe get the championship title again.”

Breakers coach Trevor Lyle said that McCarroll, who plays club water polo for Vanguard, also has been playing better individually. Lyle said that McCarroll is finishing better at two meters and commanding that other teams drop their defense, which opens up the Breakers’ outside attack.

“We have a bunch of good shooters on the perimeter,” Lyle said. “So if we get a team into a drop, we have two lefties [Riley Bumgardner and Will Clark] on the ‘four-five’ side and two good shooters [Sebastian Jacobs and Colton Gregory] on the ‘one-two’ side. You’ve got to pick your poison.

“[McCarroll] is doing a better job finishing at two meters. I think last year and the beginning of this year, he held position well and he was earning a good amount of exclusions. I just don’t think he was necessarily converting at a high rate at good looks on the cage. He’s definitely doing a much better job this year.”

Lyle said that Gregory, a junior, is leading the team in scoring for the second straight year, but it’s a team effort. McCarroll is finishing his high school career strong a year before his twin siblings, eighth-graders Logan and Lela, start theirs.

Larsen is hungry to win. The Breakers won the Division 3 title when he was a freshman, but lost to Capistrano Valley in the Division 3 semifinals two years ago and fell to Santa Margarita in the Division 2 title match last year.

The Breakers lost three senior starters from last year, in goalie Gordon Pike, Camden Benson and Judge Washer. But they are back as contenders in Division 2, even with the new playoff format that took the top eight teams for the Division 1 playoffs.

“Obviously we wanted to be Division 1,” McCarroll said. “Who wouldn’t want to be? But yeah, we’re excited to play any high-level team. None of the teams [in Division 2] are that much better than the other. It’s just who brings the heart, brings their game to the pool that day.”

Lately, that hasn’t been a problem for McCarroll.

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Larsen McCarroll

Born: Feb. 17, 2000

Hometown: Laguna Beach

Height: 6 feet 3

Weight: 180 pounds

Sport: Water polo

Year: Senior

Coach: Trevor Lyle

Favorite food: Pizza

Favorite movie: “Top Gun”

Favorite athletic moment: Competing against Santa Margarita in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title game as a junior.

Week in review: McCarroll had a game-high five goals, including the first three of the game, as Laguna Beach beat Redlands East Valley, 9-7, in the championship game of the Steve Pal Memorial Tournament at Beckman on Oct. 21.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo