Falitz Felt He Was In Over His Head Coaching at Burroughs

The wait for a new coach at Burroughs High is almost over. It won’t come soon enough for junior Jason Falitz.

Falitz has been running most of the Indians’ practices since the season began, mostly because Burroughs had no one qualified to coach.

Falitz ran the drills in practice while George Akopyan--an assistant under John Kunishima last year--took care of the paperwork.

That will change next week, when Ron Rivera, who played at University of Pacific and for a professional team in Spain, arrives to take over the program.

“It’s been kind of tough,” Falitz said. “The other guys aren’t used to having one of their own telling them what to do.”

Falitz, who plays on a club team with several players from Harvard-Westlake, sought out Wolverine Coach Rich Corso for advice.

“He was helpful,” Falitz said. “He gave me a booklet on how to run drills.”

The results haven’t been bad. Burroughs (3-3) beat Crescenta Valley last week and advanced to the consolation championship of the Jim Toring tournament.

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When the Nordhoff pool finally reopened late last month, no one was happier than Ranger Coach Ken Umholtz.

The pool was closed for repairs shortly after the end of last season.

Umholtz had the Rangers practice at Villanova Prep, Ventura College and even the Pacific Ocean.

“The ocean didn’t work so well,” Umholtz said. “I think [the players] were more interested in being surf bums than water polo.”

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Ventura moved ahead of Righetti and is the top-ranked team in the Southern Section Division IV poll.

The Cougars defeated Righetti in the final of the Thousand Oaks tournament two weeks ago. Glendale rose to sixth in Division III, just ahead of Burroughs and Crescenta Valley. La Canada is ranked first in Division III.

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The Top Five

Rankings of regional boys’ water polo teams

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 2 2 Ventura (Channel) 3 3 Royal (Marmonte) 4 4 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 5 NR Glendale (Pacific)

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