PREP NOTES : Streak Proves to Be Sunny Hills’ Toughest Water Polo Opponent

The last time Sunny Hills lost a Freeway League water polo game, Richard Nixon thought Watergate was merely a building on the Potomac. Since a loss to Fullerton in the 1969 league opener, Sunny Hills has won 120 consecutive league games.

But the Lancers nearly didn’t make it to 120. Last Thursday in the 1991 league opener, Sonora led Sunny Hills, 8-5, with four minutes remaining in the game.

“It seemed like it was time for it to end right there, but we were able to claw our way back into it,” Sunny Hills Coach Keith Nighswonger said.

Sunny Hills still trailed, 9-8, with about 24 seconds remaining, but Jason Gaw stole the ball from the Sonora goalkeeper, and after passing off, got the ball back and scored the tying goal with 13 seconds remaining.

Mitch Darracq scored the only goal of overtime to give the Lancers a 10-9 victory.

Such near misses have been rare for Sunny Hills’ Freeway League opponents. Under coaches Jim Sprague and Hank Vellekamp, the Lancers had one of the most dominant water polo programs in the Southern Section.

From 1970-1988, Sunny Hills reached the Southern Section championship game 13 times and won four titles. During the 1970s, it reached the finals all but two seasons.

Sprague, who retired after the 1988 season and now is an assistant at USC, said for many years the other Freeway League schools wanted to push Sunny Hills out of the league so the rest of the teams could play in a lower Southern Section division.

The movement never got off the ground and the streak rolled on.

“The people who really carry it are the kids,” Sprague said. “I had one player tell me that the pressure they put on themselves in any league game is almost unbearable.”

Nighswonger, in his third season at Sunny Hills, tries to downplay the pressure of the streak to his players.

“This streak is not real life,” he said. “You can’t get to caught up in it. I don’t approach it as a ‘make-it-or-break-it’ situation. I look at it as a challenge and I present it as something special, but if it ends it’s not going to end anyone’s life.”

Still, Nighswonger says, if the streak survives this season, it should continue for “quite awhile, because we’ve got some good young kids.”

Next up: Sunny Hills plays host to Buena Park, at 4 p.m. today at Independence Park in Fullerton.