Boys’ water polo starts the season with momentum
This school year, the Samo boys’ water polo team is entering a new season with new players, new talents and new goals. The team has high hopes, with upperclassmen returning with sharpened skills and fresh talents from underclassmen joining the team.
Emmanuel Lopez / The Samohi
Westin Dahlin (’28) walks the ball into the goal, looking to shoot and score against Cleveland High School.
The Samo boys’ water polo team ended their 2024-25 season with an overall record of 19-16. The team finished 4th in the Bay League with a 2-5 league record. They ended the regular season on Oct. 23, 2024 with a 23-10 win against Malibu High School. In the CIF playoffs, Samo made it to the semi-finals where they lost 6-7 against Los Osos High School. Overall, the Vikings had a successful season with several players making the All-Bay League and All CIF teams.
This season, the team is dependent on strengthening the talents of returning upperclassmen and new underclassmen after losing 9 seniors last season. It is now head coach Matthew Flanders’ 29th season coaching boys’ water polo at Samo and he is hoping to rebuild the team this year.
“Game by game, we have to improve, and it’s like a crescendo towards CIF championships,” Flanders said. “You want to get better everyday. We lost a good amount of seniors, and we need to fill those holes quickly. I would be on the lookout for Luc Garland-Di Stefano (’26) and Zephyr Fehmers (’26).”
In their first home game of the season, Samo won with a score of 13-6 against Notre Dame High School. Since then, the team has won seven more games and lost three, bringing their overall record to 8-3. On Sept. 2, 2025, in their highest-scoring game so far this season, Samo had a 24-5 win against Granada Hills Charter High School. Samo was consistently scoring every possession and each defender was staying on their player.
Having won, members of the Samo team were feeling very accomplished. Team captain Garland-Di Stefano believed that the team excelled at having awareness throughout the game.
“There was a lot of good [awareness], not so much in the first quarter but as the game progressed, there were a lot of good steals and a lot of good blocks. It was just all around good awareness,” Garland-Di Stefano said.
On Oct. 7, 2025 the boys’ water polo team will be playing their next home game against Redondo Union High School.