Coaching Helps Sunny Hills Sustain Winning Tradition : Water polo: Innovative techniques make a difference for the Lancers, who will play in their 14th title game.

Over the years, it has been an oft-repeated late November scene: Sunny Hills playing for a Southern Section water polo title.

That it’s happening again, Wednesday at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza, for the first time since 1988, is a sign that one of the section’s most enduring dynasties is far from crumbling.

Top-seeded Riverside Poly has beaten the No. 2 Lancers twice this season, but Sunny Hills is hoping to buck the Bears and history. The Lancers are playing in their 14th title game, second only to Newport Harbor (18) in the section, and have won four times, in 1971, ‘73, ’76 and ’86.

It’s a remarkable record for an inland Orange County school, but it’s only one of the program’s impressive achievements.

Sunny Hills has won every Freeway League title since 1970, a streak of 24 seasons. That’s a section record for water polo, as is the Lancers’ streak of 120 consecutive league victories, which ended in 1991.

It isn’t easy sustaining excellence in high school water polo--every fall brings a new bunch of players with potential and often little else--and a coaching staff must fashion a team from whomever steps onto the pool deck.

Sunny Hills grew strong by being in the right place with the right coaches.

After Hank Vellekamp and Jim Sprague moved over from Buena Park High in 1966 and ‘67, Sunny Hills soon began challenging for league titles. After Fullerton won the title in 1969, the Lancers were barely challenged for years.

“To me it was an ideal area, other than a beach area, most kids were academics and college-bound,” said Vellekamp, who now coaches at Long Beach City College. “They were very motivated-type people in those years. And the club programs also helped tremendously.

“In the fall of ‘73, eight players came in as freshmen who had 35 years of water polo experience between them. I don’t think those kids lost more than two or three games in four years--total.”

Vellekamp and Sprague, who were doubles partners on the Compton High School tennis team in the early 1950s, were complementary forces. Vellekamp has a cross-country background; Sprague was a water polo goalkeeper in high school and college.

The pair became known for their innovations; they were among the first to put water polo players through workouts twice a day. They ran with their players--Vellekamp leading, Sprague following--on the hilly trails near campus and moved weights onto the pool deck for lifting sessions.

It made for some strong teams. The 1973 team, which beat Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, 19-10, for the section title, had 20 players who could bench press at least 200 pounds. Don Spicer, the section player of the year, could bench press 320 pounds, Sprague said.

Sprague also made early use of video and scheduled games against the best teams possible.

“We played the good teams and learned how to play,” he said. “The other schools in our league didn’t do that.”

The Lancers became a pipeline of talent for the nation’s top collegiate teams. One standout, Gary Figueroa, is now in the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame. Figueroa, who played on the 1972 and ’73 teams, starred at UC Irvine and helped the U.S. national team earn a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics.

Vellekamp, who left Sunny Hills for UC Irvine in 1974 and returned in 1987 for several years, and Sprague, who became an assistant at USC in 1989 and is now coach at Servite High, have cut their official ties to the program but their legacy of success has carried on.

Sprague, who continued to teach at Sunny Hills for several years, helped his successor, Keith Nighswonger, in the transition. At first, Nighswonger said, he and the players felt intense pressure to maintain the winning streak, which then was more than 100.

They continued the streak in 1989 and ‘90, but Buena Park finally stopped it with a 7-6 victory in 1991, bringing many Lancers to tears. But Sunny Hills won its last three games of the league season and shared the title with La Habra.

Nighswonger believes it is inevitable the championship streak will eventually end. And with 11 seniors, including six starters graduating, the Lancers will be vulnerable next season, he says, but noted that Sunny Hills water polo wouldn’t be diminished.

“If we lose one league game that doesn’t discredit this program,” Nighswonger said. “If we don’t win the league championship some year down the road it’s still the same program. So I think I’ve learned to put things in pretty good perspective.

“It can’t possibly be an infinite thing.”

Hard to Beat

Some of the Southern Section’s longest league championship streaks:

27--Santa Barbara boys’ tennis (Channel League) 1967-93 (active)

24--Sunny Hills water polo (Freeway) 1970-93 (active)

16--Banning boys’ basketball (Sunkist/DeAnza) 1977-92

13--Simi Valley Royal water polo (Marmonte) 1981-93 (active)

12--Cerritos Valley Christian girls’ basketball (Olympic) 1971-82

11--Brea-Olinda girls’ basketball (Orange) 1983-93 (active)

11--Inglewood Morningside girls’ basketball (Ocean) 1983-93 (active)

11--Long Beach Poly water polo (So. Cal.) 1912-1922

Sources: Southern Section, high schools