1995 PREP PREVIEW: WATER POLO : With Stoll in Goal, This El Toro Team Could Be Great

El Toro goalkeeper Greg Stoll says he sprains fingers almost every day in water polo practice, so at first he didn’t worry about his swollen right thumb last month.

But when the swelling hadn’t gone down the next day, Stoll went to a doctor. The news was not good. A bone was chipped and surgery might be necessary. That would mean sitting out six to eight weeks of his senior water polo season.

“That is not what you want to hear,” said Don Stoll, Greg’s coach and father, “two days into the season.”

The Stolls saw a specialist, whose opinion might have salvaged El Toro’s season. He said the bone chip was incidental and that he would treat the injury as a sprain. A splint has been customized to enable Stoll to knock away, grip and throw balls.

Yet pain is still only a glancing blow away. “I was telling my dad that as long as I block a ball, there is no pain,” Greg Stoll said.

“It seems like the ones that go in hurt the most.”

Stoll’s presence in goal is a comforting sight for El Toro. After all, this will be his third year as the starter. As a sophomore, he helped the Chargers to their second consecutive Division I title. Last season, in a rebuilding year, he helped them advance to the quarterfinals, where they came within three goals of eventual champion Long Beach Wilson.

El Toro forced overtime before losing steam and falling, 10-7. Stoll had 18 saves. “The only reason we were in that game,” Don Stoll said, “is because he was there.”

This season, there is more support. The Chargers are ranked second in the preseason Division I poll. But with Stoll in goal, a good team could become great. “We have a very good defense,” Don Stoll said. “and when they screw up, Greg is there.”

Greg has been there in goal for about 10 of his 17 years. It was natural, of course, for him to grow up in the pool, given his father is a water polo coach.

Water polo consumes the Stoll home. Even at the dinner table, discussions often center on how the team is playing or the tendencies of a certain opponent.

“You can kind of never get away from it,” Greg said. Not that he’d want to. It’s the sport that he’s counting on to help him pay for a college education and it’s never far from his thoughts.

At school, his best friends are on the team. He drives a metallic green 1972 Camero with “hand-me-down” vanity license plates that read, “ET POLO.”

Water polo is “my identity, pretty much,” he says.

But he’s hardly a one-dimensional person. He was elected senior class president, has a 4.27 grade-point average and scored better than 1,300 on his college boards.

And water polo has never been his only athletic pastime. He was a catcher in youth baseball and a prolific scorer in soccer.

“I was really sorry,” he said, “I had to give up baseball and soccer once I started high school.”

He didn’t give up basketball--he will play forward on the varsity this year--or volleyball--he played on the back row for the varsity last season.

It’s in the pool, however, where his athletic talent is most fully realized.

At 15, he was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. national youth team, which is made up of the country’s best players 17 and younger. Now, he is considered the best goalie in the Southern Section, where the nation’s best high school water polo is played.

At 6 feet 1 and 170 pounds, Stoll is smaller than many standout goalies. For instance, San Clemente’s Gabe Gardner, the section’s most dominating keeper until graduating last year, is 6 feet 9.

“A small guy like me has to be explosively quick,” Stoll said. “A guy like Gabe just gets out of the water and sticks his arms out.”

Stoll also makes use of his brain. Don Stoll says his son has taught him things about how a goalkeeper should position himself.

He also is a valuable offensive weapon. His pinpoint long passes spark the Chargers’ counterattack. Midway through last season, he was leading the team in assists, rare for a goalkeeper. He finished second in that category.

Greg Stoll hopes this team has what it takes to get back to a Southern Section final. In his first two years at the school, the Chargers didn’t lose a playoff game, winning their fourth and fifth section titles since 1988. El Toro’s reign was interrupted last season, but Stoll says this team has the potential to put the program back on top.

“No one on this team has been part of the dynasty except me and one junior,” he said. “We are trying to make a new name for ourselves. I don’t know what that name is going to be.”

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Water Polo at a Glance

Other top players: Dan Allen, Esperanza, goalkeeper, Sr.; Lance Banuk, Marina, Sr.; Trey Batten, Mission Viejo, Sr.; Kendall Benson, El Dorado, Jr.; Michael Bise, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Cody Bitterlich, Sunny Hills, goalkeeper, Sr.; Dave Bogle, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Chad Bollenbach, Estancia, Sr.; Rashad Captan, La Habra, Sr.; Michael Carley, Dana Hills, Sr.; Tim Causee, Fountain Valley, Sr.; David Edmundson, Pacifica, Sr.; Nathan Fay, El Dorado, goalkeeper, Sr.; Brett Fenoglio, Pacifica, Sr.; Steve Ferguson, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Dave Foley, Tustin, Jr.; Jake French, Capistrano Valley, Sr.; Jayson Gatzke, Trabuco Hills, Jr.; Ryan Hammersmith, El Dorado, Sr.; Dan Hayes, University, Sr.; Matt Jewett, La Habra, Sr.; John Jo, El Dorado, Jr.; Mike Lopez, Servite, Sr.; Taylor Lowe, Brea Olinda, Sr.; Jeff Marchiorlatti, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Laura Marsh, Magnolia, Sr.; Mark McGill, University, Sr.; Brian Mericle, Esperanza, Jr.; Stever O’Rourke, Marina, Sr.; Aaron Poole, Esperanza, Sr.; Cliff Popper, Savanna, Sr.; Jesse Rothman, Magnolia, Sr.; Johnny Roy, Saddleback, Sr.; Erik Sandvig, Cypress, Jr.; Dave Shaddy, Katella, Sr.; Darin Smith, Marina, goalkeeper, Sr.; Jerry Smith, Servite, Sr.; Tyler Sundberg, Tustin, goalkeeper, Sr.; Todd Valentine, Trabuco Hills, Jr.; Tyler Wawrzynski, Los Alamitos, So.; Phil Wirthgen, Katella, Jr.

League favorites: Century: Foothill; Empire: El Dorado; Freeway: La Habra; Garden Grove: Pacifica; Golden West: Servite; Orange: Magnolia; Pacific Coast: Costa Mesa; Sea View: Newport Harbor; South Coast: San Clemente; Sunset: Marina.

1994 final poll: 1. Corona del Mar, 2. San Clemente, 3. Foothill, 4. Esperanza, 5. Servite, 6. Villa Park, 7. Costa Mesa, 8. Newport Harbor, 9. El Toro, 10. Brea Olinda.

1995 preseason poll: 1. Foothill, 2. Costa Mesa, 3. Newport Harbor, 4T. Villa Park, 4T. El Toro, 6. San Clemente, 7. Servite, 8. Marina, 9. Esperanza, 10. Los Alamitos.

Key dates: South Coast tournament, Sept. 21-23; Villa Park tournament, Sept. 28-30; North Orange County tournament, Oct. 9, 13-14; Southern California tournament, Oct. 13-14; Southern Section playoffs begin, Nov. 9; Southern Section finals, Nov. 22.

Notes: For the first time in years, Corona del Mar is not ranked in the county coaches’ poll. The Sea Kings, who have reached the Division I final eight times in the past 12 seasons, lost most of their top players to graduation. But few rivals are counting Corona del Mar out. “You should never underestimate Corona, because John Vargas is a very good coach,” Newport Harbor Coach Bill Barnett said. Quotebook: “Everybody is pointing at Foothill,” San Clemente Coach Steve Yancey said, “but you’ve got six or seven teams that if you say they don’t have a chance at being Southern Section champion, you are a fool.”