Making Playoffs Not Enough for Arroyo : Water Polo: Villa Park senior wants his team to advance past quarterfinals this season.

For the past six seasons, Villa Park water polo teams have waded into the Southern Section playoff waters only to lose in the quarterfinals.

This year, senior two-meter man Gavin Arroyo believes, belongs to the Spartans.

He could be right. This Villa Park senior class had the best record of any freshman-sophomore team at the school, 22-2.

And then there is Arroyo, one of Orange County’s premier high school players.

“I would like to experience winning CIF,” Arroyo, the team’s leading scorer, said. “Hopefully we will, because people underestimate the rest of our team.”

If coaches make the mistake of focusing on Arroyo, it is with good reason. In his two seasons as a starter, Villa Park (22-4, 5-0) has won back-to-back Century League championships.

Last year, Newport Harbor eliminated Villa Park, and Arroyo hasn’t forgotten.

“Last year I definitely felt we could have gotten past the quarterfinals, because the team we lost to we had beaten earlier in the season, 5-1,” Arroyo said. “But they played a really good game.”

Arroyo is the kind of athlete who is gracious in defeat, modest and team-oriented.

He dismisses the fact that he has 78 goals and 49 assists. “It doesn’t really matter. If I was the only one on the team, my goals wouldn’t make any difference,” he said.

It is that attitude, coupled with good speed, long limbs and a 6-foot-3, 170-pound frame that makes Arroyo one of water polo’s elite, Villa Park Coach Jeff Ehrlich says.

“He is really a team player,” Ehrlich said. “He certainly is much more interested in what the team does than what he does, and that is what makes him such a good player. He would just as soon other players get the credit and he is just there for the ride.

“He is very lanky. That is why he has so many steals. He gets around people, and with his long arms he can take the ball away.”

Those long arms have drawn opposing coaches’ attention on defense, where he has managed to steal the ball 78 times, another team-high, and has drawn the most ejections with 48.

Arroyo not only plays two-meter man for Villa Park, he guards the other team’s two-meter man. “Yeah, it’s strenuous,” he said, “but by this time of the season everybody should be in good shape.”

Last year, David Johnson, Villa Park’s second all-time leading scorer with 216 goals, contributed most of the scoring with 110 goals. Chad Barker was second with 83 goals and Arroyo was third with 44.

But Arroyo missed six weeks of the season with an eye injury. In a game against Foothill, his friend, Foothill two-meter man Craig Stewart, was taking a left-handed sweep shot and accidentally jabbed Arroyo in the eye with a finger.

“At the time, it just felt like I got poked in the eye,” Arroyo said. “It didn’t seem like anything big, so I went back into the game.”

But afterward, he couldn’t see. The doctor told him he needed surgery to repair a cut tear duct.

When the teams met again, this time for the league championship, Arroyo’s doctor gave him permission to play, with goggles.

“Foothill had no idea he was going to play,” Ehrlich said. “We had no idea he was going to play. So out pops Gavin and he scored four of our six goals to beat Foothill, 6-5.”

Ehrlich compares Arroyo to David Johnson. “David was a very good scorer, but he probably wasn’t as strong as Gavin in many other areas,” Ehrlich said. “They both are very good players, but there is more than just scoring goals. Last year, Johnson drew 29 ejections. Gavin has already drawn 48; Johnson had 60 steals and already Gavin has 78. Gavin is a better defensive player than David Johnson, and he is not scoring as many times because we have more balance.”

Last year’s stars have gone on to top college water polo powers, Johnson to the University of the Pacific and Barker to Harvard.

This year, teams still believe the key to beating Villa Park is stopping Arroyo. That’s fine with Arroyo, who would just as soon set up a teammate as score himself.

His teammates have taken advantage of his feeds. Gary Larson has 61 goals and five other players have more than 30.

Arroyo also is the defending 4-A champion in the 200-yard freestyle. Water polo started as a diversion to give him a break from swimming, but now both sports are equally important to him.