With Title in Hand, Laster Sets Sights on the International Scene : Water polo: Two days after helping San Clemente win Division 4-A title, he was back in the pool training to compete for U.S. junior national team.

Jeremy Laster didn’t waste any time resting on the laurels of San Clemente’s first Southern Section water polo championship.

Two days after he helped the Tritons win the Division 4-A title--and the day after Thanksgiving--Laster was back in the pool, training for his return to international water polo.

This month, Laster will compete for the U.S. junior national team in Calgary, Canada. As in all international competition, the pool will be 30 meters long rather than the standard high school length of 25 yards.

That’s about 23 feet longer and four or five extra strokes each time down the pool, which explains Laster’s two-hour daily training sessions with his uncle, Don Laster. Don Laster coaches water polo and swimming at Dana Hills High School.

“I can keep up right now,” Jeremy Laster said. “But water polo is not as fun when you are laboring to get up and down the pool. I figure I’ll pay my dues now and then have a good time when I’m up in Canada.”

For some time this season, it was questionable whether Laster, The Times’ county player of the year, would be having much fun playing on the high school level.

Although San Clemente opened the season by defeating Corona del Mar, which was the county’s preseason No. 1 team, and routed defending 4-A champion El Toro to win the Villa Park tournament, the Tritons were struggling internally.

Corona del Mar beat them twice--for the titles of the South Coast and North Orange County tournaments--and Laster said teammates often argued with each other during matches.

Furthermore, despite the team pledge to attend every practice, Laster said some players weren’t showing up.

“It wasn’t a priority for a while for a lot of people,” he said.

As might be expected given the state of the team, San Clemente, which for most of the season was ranked second in the county behind Corona del Mar, faltered in South Coast League play. The Tritons lost to Capistrano Valley and Dana Hills and wound up as the league’s third representative to the playoffs.

Time for some crisis intervention.

Before the playoffs, San Clemente held a team meeting--without coaches--to discuss its problems.

“We decided to make water polo our priority for two weeks,” Laster said. “We all agreed we would make every practice for two weeks, and not argue with each other for two weeks, and not go out and party for two weeks.”

The Tritons then cruised through the playoffs, outscoring their opponents, 66-31. They defeated every team they had lost to during the regular season, including South Coast League champion Capistrano Valley, 9-5, in the title match.

Laster scored five goals in a quarterfinal victory over Corona del Mar, a match that according to many was for the de facto Southern Section title. He also set the tone defensively and ran out the clock on the Tritons’ 14-13 overtime victory.

“Jeremy knew if it was going to happen, he was going to have to take charge,” San Clemente Coach Steve Yancey said. “He realized that he had to take control and dictate the tempo of each and every game.

“There was no way that he could have handled losing. That’s why I think he had such a wonderful game in the quarterfinals.”

Laster, who was the Tritons’ two-meter defender and leading scorer with 98 goals, finished his career as the school’s all-time leading scorer. His 220 goals in three seasons broke the record of Greg Morris, who was the 3-A player of the year in 1987, and edged fellow senior Sean Lane’s total of 216.

Laster is also an excellent student. He scored 1,320 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, has a 3.8 grade-point average and is a National Merit Scholar finalist. He is interested in attending UCLA, Pepperdine or Stanford.

He also was one of five finalists for the Dial Award, which is given to the nation’s top scholar-athlete. It was announced Wednesday that Jeff Buckey, a football player and track and field athlete from Bakersfield High, won the award.

But among all the honors, Laster seems most proud of the Southern Section championship. As a freshman, he was a reserve on the last San Clemente team that advanced to the title game. This time around, however, the Tritons won.

“For three years, everybody was saying how good we were going to be,” Laster said. “It’s nice to live up to those expectations.”

All-County Water Polo

FIRST TEAM

Player School Yr. Position Jeremy Laster San Clemente Sr. Driver J. Braxton-Brown Capistrano Jr. Two-meter Valley man Bret Bowen Dana Hills Sr. Driver Ted Simpkins Corona del Mar Sr. Two-meter man Scott Seminoff La Habra Sr. Driver Sean Lane San Clemente Sr. Driver Robbie Pike Corona del Mar Sr. Goalkeeper

Player Comment Jeremy Laster 4-A player of the year. J. Braxton-Brown County’s best hole man. Bret Bowen Helped the Dolphins to 4-A semifinals. Ted Simpkins Sea Kings’ leading scorer. Scott Seminoff Scored 127 goals for the Highlanders. Sean Lane Scored 20 goals in the 4-A playoffs. Robbie Pike Helped Sea Kings to 4-A quarterfinals.

SECOND TEAM

Player School Yr. Position Alan Herrmann Dana Hills Jr. Two-meter man Jason Gall El Dorado Sr. Driver Riki Krumins Newport Harbor Sr. Driver Curt Bowman Irvine Sr. Two-meter man Austin Weir Corona del Mar Sr. Two-meter defender Alex Lesser Capistrano Valley Sr. Driver Jon Stephenson Villa Park Sr. Goalkeeper

Player Comment Alan Herrmann Helped Dolphins to 4-A semifinals. Jason Gall Empire League co-MVP. Riki Krumins Led Sailors’ counter-attack. Curt Bowman 6-6, 215-pounds with good skills. Austin Weir Sea Kings’ top defender. Alex Lesser Helped Cougars to 4-A title match. Jon Stephenson Helped Spartans to 4-A quarterfinals.

Honorable mention: Omar Amr (Sunny Hills), Joe Benson (El Dorado), Chris Bourland (Valencia), Matt Braun (Marina), Tom Broyles (Mater Dei), Chad Carvin (Laguna Hills), Pat Collins (Tustin), Chris Egan (Edison), Oliver Fleener (Newport Harbor), Mike Gonzales (Tustin), Mustafa Hassan (Magnolia), Joe Haxel (Newport Harbor), Ofer Horn (Fountain Valley), David Kasa (Canyon), Jon Kenyon (Marina), Randy Larson (Villa Park), Chris Lawrence (Dana Hills), Hyo Lee (Los Amigos), Jeff Lee (Buena Park), Mark Magna (Sunny Hills), Dan Mathot (El Toro), Bryce Matthews (San Clemente), Phil Mayer (Mater Dei), Trevor Meyer (Capistrano Valley), Max Miyahara (Esperanza), Ryan Mulholland (Irvine), Jason Murray (El Toro), Bryan Noyes (Brea-Olinda), Brent O’Brien (Corona del Mar), Pat Ortiz (San Clemente), Jason Pasol (Kennedy), Lonnie Peek (Edison), Todd Pelkey (San Clemente), Julian Popov (Costa Mesa), J.R. Porter (Costa Mesa), Matt Priess (Brea-Olinda), Mikel Reta (El Dorado), Tyler Rootlieb (Laguna Beach), Steve Salata (Foothill), Charlie Shortt (Dana Hills), Logan Smith (Irvine), Jason Stanton (Edison), Brandon Stout (El Toro), Alex Tamhoush (Corona del Mar), Pierre Veillimaringe (Servite), Randy Wright (Los Alamitos), Jake Yokota (Capistrano Valley).