South Florida Water Polo Club 18u Team, Places 2nd In Junior Olympics Gold Division

Following our 18u team’s triumphant success at the KAP7 Antiwave Summer Championships, our boys would gear up for the annual Junior Olympics, the competition regarded as the pinnacle of American age group water polo as the national championship, thanks to our connection to LA Premier Water Polo Club in Los Angeles, our boys had three grueling days of training against one of the country’s top programs that would finish their own Junior Olympics run in 8th place, the training would help to further push our boys into the physical play that California powerhouses play with that our boys would have to acclimate to.

Our 18u gold division, silver medalists. (Team, from left to right): Xavier Caceres II (Class of 2027), Juan Lopez (Class of 2026), Lyle Weitz (Class of 2025, UC Davis), Lev Konnikov (Class of 2026), Daron Alexanians (Class of 2027), Marcell Varhalmi (Class of 2027), Lucas Levy (Class of 2027), David Ranaudo (Class of 2025, MIT), Max Possin (Class of 2026), Amos Neeman (Class of 2026), Matthew Orsini (Class of 2026), Elijah Linman (Class of 2025, Mercyhurst University), Sam Eastaugh (Class of 2026). (Not in Picture: Derian High), Head Coach: Gal Ben Kiki

Starting the national tournament with an early 7 am game, our team arrived at Fullerton Union High School to play against national powerhouse and local club. Mission Water Polo Club, a club that recently brought up players such as Ryder Dodd, Bode Brinkema and William Schneider, all teammates of our Max Zelikov of Stanford on the United States’ U20 contingent that won silver at the Junior World Championships earlier this summer. The proceedings would prove difficult for us, as the locals quickly pulled ahead and maintained a hold on the game that saw Mission victorious by a score of 17-7, even a stunning penalty save from our star goalkeeper Marcell Varhalmi proved to not be enough, our goals came thanks to Xavi Caceres II who would convert a lefty backhand from center in the first quarter, Amos Neeman would provide two more goals from the right side of the pool, Lucas Levy would ring the bell with a beautiful backhand on the counter to surprise the goalkeeper, Lev Konnikov found the back of the net with a powerful skip shot from way out, Sam Eastaugh would convert a penalty shot and Daron Alexanians would convert a strong dunk over the goalie’s head. With a loss to start the tournament, our 18u boys would have to win the next two games to remain in contention to compete in the platinum division, their next game would be a noon game against Texas powerhouse, Pegasus.

The game against Pegasus would start slow for our South Florida contingent, going down in the first quarter by two goals, our only goal coming from a penalty conversion by Lyle Weitz, however, in the second quarter, our boys would come roaring back to take the game over. A second quarter hat-trick for Amos Neeman all on beautiful perimeter shots, would take the lead from Pegasus and two more goals on the counter from Sam Eastaugh and another from Lyle Weitz would lead our South Florida squad to take the second quarter by a score of 5-0 and a 6-3 lead into halftime that our boys wouldn’t relinquish. A lefty backhand from Xavi Caceres II in center would take the lead to four goals and just when Pegasus thought they could mount a comeback, Amos Neeman slammed in a powerful skip from the right-wing seconds after Pegasus scored their fourth of the game. Amos’s goal would lead to another huge run from the South Florida boys, a post dunk from Lev Konnikov that was perfectly set up by Sam Eastaugh would then lead to Amos Neeman firing home his fifth goal of the game, then Lyle Weitz would ring the bell again blasting home an absolute howitzer of a shot from 10 meters out past the arms of the outstretched Pegasus goalkeeper. The last South Florida goal would come courtesy of Lev Konnikov who placed a lovely hesitation skip shot on a man-up to take the lead to 12-4 in favor of our Floridian boys. Three goals from Pegasus would prove meaningless as our South Florida squad took a 12-7 victory and set up a cross-over match against local powerhouse, Vanguard, to try and remain in contentions to play in the platinum bracket.

The crossover game would prove to be too much for our boys, falling to the eventual 12th place finishers by a score of 14-4, a strong pressure defensively from Vanguard along with strong goalkeeper play from their side proved to be their calling card as they would slowly build a lead that they would not relinquish. Even goals from Lucas Levy, who ripped home a stunning direct shot from six meters as well as a beautiful reverse turn and finish with the goalkeeper rushing out from Xavi Caceres II would prove not to be enough. Our other goal scorers would be Max Possin and Lyle Weitz who would find the back of the net from the top of our 6-on-5, but even their goals would prove to not be enough, our 18u boys would now be playing in the gold division.

Day two of competition would prove to be the one to test the boys wildly, two games against Lake Oswego Water Polo Club from Oregon and Kingsburg from California would both be one goal stunners. First the noon game against Lake Oswego, the Oregon club came out firing scoring four goals to start the first quarter, however, goals from Amos Neeman who converted a quick 6-on-5, then a stunning surprise nearside skip shot from Lucas Levy put two on the board for the South Florida squad and Lev Konnikov would pull a slick move when the referee wasn’t looking to kick the ball out of the opposing player’s hand during their free throw and quickly fire the ball into the goal before the referee had noticed to score our third goal of the quarter. Down by one goal, our first goal of the second quarter would come through Lucas Levy, who would shoot directly off a foul, a strong hand from the Lake Oswego goalkeeper would not be enough as the ball would drift into the back of the net to tie the game at four a piece. Lucas’ goal would be followed up by Lyle Weitz, receiving a cross pass from Lucas he would attack the defender who was sluffing from him and fire a low skip shot crosscage to hand our east coast squad a one-goal lead and several minutes late Lyle Weitz would ring the bell again, firing home a shot after receiving a pass on his weakside from Lev Konnikov spinning himself into position and ripping the ball home to give South Florida the 6-4 lead in the second quarter. In the dying seconds of the second quarter, it would be Lev Konnikov who would fire home another goal for us, catching a cross pass from a hustling Juan Lopez, Lev would check his surroundings before firing the ball on a lovely skip back across the face of goal where the goalkeeper was jumping across, the first half would end on that huge 4-0 run across the second quarter from our boys. The third would start with Lake Oswego converting a penalty shot, however, Lucas Levy completing his hat-trick on a lovely crosscage skip past the goalkeeper would quickly re-establish the three-goal lead, another Lake Oswego goal would be quickly answered by Sam Eastaugh who would blast home a crosscage skip shot just under the arm of the goalkeeper, with two goals from both teams, it would take us into the final stanza with a score of 9-6 to South Florida. The fourth quarter would prove to nearly be disastrous for our team, the three-goal lead would evaporate as the Oregon club was able to claw back the score to 9-9. Only saved by stellar goalkeeping from Marcell Varhalmi who had stunned Lake Oswego with a huge penalty stop in the third quarter would prove to be so crucial as he came up when it mattered most to close the game for us, goals from Amos Neeman who would blast home a direct shot from the foul and followed up by a hustle goal from Lev Konnikov who would retrieve the rebound from Amos’ shot would outlast the goalkeeper and fire the ball home just over his head to give us the last goal off the game and the eventual game winner. The heart pounding victory would only be a proceeding to the second game of the day against Kingsburg.

Goalkeeper Marcell Varhalmi in actions against Lake Oswego. (Photo Credit: USA Water Polo)

The afternoon game against Kingsburg would prove to be a physical affair. It would be Kingsburg who would strike first, however, in their attempt to get another they would draw a penalty shot, however, for a third game of the four already played, Marcell Varhalmi proved to be superhuman in the goal, forcing the Kingsburg left hander to smash the ball off the crossbar and out of the pool keeping the California club with only one goal to lead. Our first goal would come from Sam Eastaugh who was attacking the zone defense with Amos Neeman with Lev Konnikov holding deep position on the post, a nifty lob across goal from Sam would bring the score back to a tie. Though Kingsburg would find the back of the net from a strong center play, Sam Eastaugh would tie the score again with second left in the first quarter as he would once again lob the ball over the outstretched Kingsburg goalkeeper. With the second quarter tied 2-2, Lyle Weitz would involve himself on the scoring card as he would fire home a quick catch and shoot on the 6-on-5 placing a lovely skip past the goalkeeper to give South Florida the lead, following suit, it would be Amos Neeman to add another to the tally, quick perimeter passing from Daron Alexanians to Sam Eastaugh to Amos would find him in favorable position to shoot from on the wing as the goalkeeper was playing out of position attempting to help his center defender as David Ranaudo had managed to gain very deep position on the post. Max Possin would show great awareness at center as a shot from Lev Konnikov would be pushed by the goalkeeper into his path, Max would make enough of a turn for the referee to award a penalty shot, that Lucas Levy would put away very nicely to give South Florida a 5-2 lead, proving once again that our second quarters are the unit’s strongest quarters. Kingsburg would retaliate quickly with two goals of their own, however, a good hustle play by Lucas Levy, would find him open on the wing and with his peripheral vision he noticed the Kingsburg goalkeeper lacking focus for just a second, giving him enough time to blast home another goal, however, another goal from Kingsburg would ensure that they would remain within striking distance of our squad that would take a 6-5 lead into halftime. The third quarter would start off quickly, with a patient attack our 18u boys managed to collapse the Kingsburg zone deep into their central area and it would be Amos Neeman who would dial up a lovely nearside skip to double the lead for South Florida. Two quickfire goals from Kingsburg would tie the game at 7-7, however, an exclusion drawn on the entry pass from Lucas Levy to Xavi Caceres II would lead to the same pair following up with a quick 6-on-5 goal as Lucas would draw the defense to him and leave Xavi with an easy conversion to once again let South Florida reclaim the lead, then stunning everyone it would be once again Xavi Caceres II, albeit out of position as he found himself hovering around the six meter line on the counter, Xavi would lace a beautiful nearside shot past the goalkeeper to once again rebuild the two-goal lead for the South Floridians at 9-7. Then Lyle Weitz would make his second entry on the scoresheet turning a 6-on-5 that had broken down due to bad passing into another skip shot hammer on the nearside that would build a three-goal lead. A third goal from Kingsburg would ensure that the game would go into the final quarter with a score of 10-8 to South Florida, it would be Kingsburg who would win the fourth quarter, but not by enough, they would convert two goals to tie the game at 10-10, however, an exclusion drawn by Lev Konnikov would be followed by a timeout to help calm down the South Florida squad, a patient attack would see the ball flung all around the perimeter of the man-up and after a great job by Lucas Levy of attacking and forcing the defender to come to him, it would be Sam Eastaugh who would step in close on goal and fire a gorgeous ball right over the goalkeeper’s head in off the bar to complete his hat-trick and seal the win with 11-10 scoreline. Finishing first in the bracket would mean that our 18u boys would play in the semi-final automatic qualifier on Day 3, a win would mean they are automatically in the semi-final on the final day of competition.

The third day would find out South Florida boys crossing over against Illinois powerhouse, Elmhurst Aquatics, a victory in the game would ensure no other games need to be played on the day and give the team ample rest going into the semi-final the following day. A sloppy first quarter saw neither team score with our boys repeatedly rushing possessions and coming up empty for it. In the second quarter, Elmhurst would have hoped to strike first as they drew a penalty, however, once again the mighty right hand of Marcell Varhalmi would punch the ball away from the South Florida net to keep the score tied at 0-0, that would quickly be followed up with a combination play between Lucas Levy and Xavi Caceres II that would see Xavi draw an exclusion and then Lucas quickly returning the ball to him and Xavi would convert the finish with a lovely use of his left hand. Quickly following up the next possession would be Matthew Orsini to ring the bell, craftily working into the inside water behind his defender he would receive the entry pass from Lucas Levy and from there he would manage to work across the face of goal and convert his first goal of the tournament to give us the 2-0 lead in the second quarter. Elmhurst would retaliate quickly to cut their deficit by half, but Daron Alexanians would bury a beautiful shot from the top of the 6-on-5 after great patience shown by the group to re-establish their two-goal lead. Though Elmhurst would convert another goal, this time it would be Lev Konnikov to strike, finding some open water on the counter he would receive the ball from Max Possin on the hand and in traffic he would fire a beautiful, quick skip shot right past the Elmhurst goalkeeper to ensure we would go into halftime with a score of 4-2. The third quarter would finally be where our South Florida boys showed their calm and poise, first it would be Lucas Levy who would drill a crosscage skip shot into the Elmhurst goal and just when Elmhurst thought they would bring another goal back on another penalty, Marcell Varhalmi showed them exactly why he is one of the nation’s top goalkeepers, pushing the shooter’s powerful shot against the post with his left hand, blocking his second penalty of the game. With the momentum fully behind them behind Marcell’s stunning work in cage, it would be Lucas Levy who would blast home a quirky sweep shot from a very far post up that ended up skipping over the goalkeeper’s shoulder, this would bring the score to be 6-2 in favor of South Florida. With the nerves truly calmed, the South Florida attack would take full hold, the next goal came from Max Possin, with opposing players talking trash in his face, he would convert a big crosscage shot after him and Amos Neeman would attack the Elmhurst zone defense that had collapsed heavily with David Ranaudo and Juan Lopez, both establishing themselves on the posts. Next to step into the shooting lanes would be Lev Konnikov, he would work the ball back and forth with Sam Eastaugh and then step into a clear shooting lane to drill home his second of the game and bring the score to 8-2. Elmhurst would find the goal twice, but it would be Amos Neeman to add his name to the scoresheet in the last seconds of the third quarter making sure that South Florida would have a big lead going into the final stanza at 9-4. The fourth would be a quick affair, started off with Xavi Caceres II converting another one of his signature lefty backhand shots, he would also get our second goal of the quarter as he would rebound a shot from Matthew Orsini that landed right in his bread basket, a quick sweep and just like that he brought the lead to be 11-4, a consolation goal from Elmhurst would bring the score to be 11-5 but it would be our squad to win, earning themselves the automatic semi-final qualifier where they would cross over against Texas Thunder in the morning game the next day.

The gold division semi-final would start out difficult for our South Florida squad, quickly finding ourselves in a three-goal deficit early in the first quarter, however, a shot from Sam Eastaugh would ricochet off the back of one defender to finally get our boys on the board and then a shot from Lucas Levy from the top of the attack would skip past the Thunder goalkeeper into the net in the final seconds of the first quarter ensuring that our South Florida boys would only go into the second quarter down 2-3. The second quarter proved to be rougher then the first only one goal from our east coast squad from Sam Eastaugh, blasting home a beautiful shot from the top of the 6-on-5 on a catch and shoot, he would help to stop another three-goal run from Texas Thunder that would see the Texas powerhouse take a 3-6 lead into the half. However, in the third quarter it would be South Florida that would come roaring to life, though Texas Thunder would get the first goal of the quarter, a 6-on-5 post dunk from Lev Konnikov served up by a lovely loft pass from Lyle Weitz would be the first goal for South Florida in the second half, then it would be Amos Neeman who would stun the Texas Thunder goalkeeper with a shot from about seven meters out on the right side of the pool, the ball would slam off the post, against the goalkeeper’s head and find itself drifting into the goal to cut Texas Thunder’s lead to two goals. Lucas Levy would get his second of the game, after swing pass from Max Possin on the bottom line of a man-up, he would hold the ball and loll the defense to sleep before firing the ball over the sleeping defender and goalkeeper to bring the score to 6-7 in favor of Texas Thunder. David Ranaudo would then bring the score back to a tie after Juan Lopez would provide an entry pass into center, David would stop the ball with his left hand before firing a beautiful nearside backhand with his right hand that would crash into the net off the crossbar. Texas Thunder would have the last word of the third quarter as they would re-establish their lead at 7-8 going into the fourth quarter. The fourth would start with Texas Thunder doubling their lead with a goal to go up 7-9, however, a patient attack even while down would have our boys find Lev Konnikov who would step into about six meters and rise up blasting home a lovely skip shot past the goalkeeper to cut the deficit again. A stunning save from Marcell Varhalmi against the Texas Thunder fastbreak would ensure that the Texas team could not rebuild their two-goal lead, Marcell’s stop would immediately be followed by a timeout call for South Florida, where on a set up play, it would be Amos Neeman, patrolling the six-meter line with the ball while our boys would clear the space for Lyle Weitz to post up on the left side, a good entry pass would have Lyle step out strong and tie the game at 9-9 with a powerful shot that crashed down off the crossbar. With a lively finish to the game after missed shots, blocked shots, several more exclusions, the scoreline would remain 9-9, meaning the semi-final would be decided on a penalty shootout. All five of the South Florida shooters would bury their penalties, starting with Sam Eastaugh who would complete his hat-trick with a powerful skip to the right side of the goal, Daron Alexanians would follow Sam with a shot almost identical to the previous, Lyle Weitz would step up third in the shootout and would fire the ball just as Sam and Daron had done with a powerful skip shot to the right side past the goalkeeper’s outstretched left hand, our fourth shooter would be Lucas Levy who would replicate the same shot as the previous three South Florida shooters just in a quicker fashion, the fifth shooter for South Florida would be Amos Neeman, though the Texas Thunder goalkeeper would get a hand on the ball, Amos would finally be the one shooter to go opposite of the other four, shooting the goalkeeper’s right side as the goalkeeper had jumped to his left. With all five of South Florida’s penalties converted, it would be none other than Marcell Varhalmi who would win the game for us, already boasting an incredible penalty stoppage rate, Marcell would shut down the final Texas Thunder shooter, the shooter had tried to go quickly with the ball starting off the water in the hand, however, Marcell was quick off his line and the quick skip shot would once again meet Marcell’s right arm that would deliver South Florida a fourth consecutive finals appearance at a Junior Olympics event.

In the final South Florida would come up against another local club Long Beach Shore, the final would once again be another physical affair that would unfortunately go in the favor of the locals. LB Shore would find the back of the net twice early in the first quarter; however, a patient offense would find Sam Eastaugh who would maneuver the California club’s defense and fire a beautiful shot into the upper nearside corner to cut Shore’s lead in half. Two more goals from LB Shore would see them take a strong three-goal lead into the second period, that lead would only grow as they would draw and convert a penalty, to bring the score up to 1-5 in favor of the local powerhouse, however, a patiently worked 6-on-5 would see Lyle Weitz, draw out a defender out of position and leave Sam Eastaugh in an open pocket to fire home a strong skip shot for his second of the game. The following possession would see Amos Neeman join the fray, swimming up with the ball on the right side of the pool, he would unleash a beautiful crosscage skip past the goalkeeper that would see the LB Shore lead diminish to 3-5. Then came a goal-mouth scramble in front of the South Florida net, that would see our star goalkeeper, Marcell Varhalmi, turn away several shots that likely would have seen the back of the net had any other goalkeeper been in cage, that would lead to a fastbreak in favor of our east coast squad, the speedy attack would see Lyle Weitz, create an opening with a strong reverse turn that would cause the LB Shore defense to collapse, he would find Xavier Caceres II wide open in front of goal who would convert a beautiful left-handed tip in to bring the score to 4-5. LB Shore would fire back immediately to bring the score to 4-6, however, just when they thought they had taken control back, the following possession would see Lucas Levy, navigate through the heavy Shore defense and then find Juan Lopez who had cut behind his defender for a lovely catch and shoot opportunity to once again claw the game back to within one-goal. A third goal in the quarter for LB Shore would ensure that the Californians would take a two-goal lead into halftime with a score of 5-7 in their favor. The first goal of the second half would come to us thanks to David Ranaudo, an entry pass into center from Lyle Weitz, would find David in a perfect position to step out and fire a beautiful right-handed backhand into the upper corner and again bring the game to a one-goal difference. LB Shore would rattle off two more goals before Lucas Levy would receive an entry pass on a post up from David Ranaudo, drawing a quick exclusion he would then feed the ball to Juan Lopez, who would do a great job of staying on his legs and converting another goal to ensure the Long Beach squad doesn’t pull too far away with a score of 7-9. Though just when South Florida looked to be coming back into the game, LB Shore would retaliate with three goals of their own, taking a 7-12 lead into the fourth quarter. However, even with the odds looking bleak, our young warriors never gave up, the first possession of the fourth would start with an entry pass from Lyle Weitz to Sam Eastaugh who was posting up, however, he had turned and managed to elevate quick enough to read the help coming his way from the LB Shore center defender, a quick flick pass to David Ranaudo would see David blast home a point blank skip shot to cut the lead to 8-12. With the first goal in the quarter in South Florida kept pushing hard, a fastbreak would see our center defender, Lev Konnikov, swimming down the pool hard, receiving a cross pass from Lyle Weitz, he would find himself in a difficult body position, however, he would still find the strength to skip the ball into the LB Shore net. A great job by Marcell Varhalmi in the fourth quarter would see him take some more risks, however, after he would draw and exclusion on a heavy foul from an LB Shore player, a timeout call would give our South Florida boys a full 6-on-5 to work with. Quick thinking and execution would bring the score closer to 10-12, Lucas Levy on the left wing would bring the ball inside the two-meter area and would quickly find Xavier Caceres II for a left-handed tip dunk at the near post. With the comeback at full charge, it would be Lucas Levy who would ring the bell to continue the massive run from South Florida, receiving a cross pass from Sam Eastaugh, Lucas would blast a stunning nearside skip shot to bring the score all the way back to 11-12. Though the comeback was stunning and full of charge, it would be LB Shore who would get the last word, putting away one more goal to bring the score to 11-13, our boys continued to press hard trying to steal the ball, however, with the clock against us, we would end up losing the gold division first place game by a score of 11-13.

South Florida Water Polo Club would end the tournament with 4-3 record, finishing second place in the gold division and 26th overall in the nation, the 26th place finish in the 18u championship division would also be the third highest finish for any non-California team, ensuring South Florida Water Polo Club’s status as one of the non-California powerhouses on the national stage.

The club’s return at the 18u level to the National Junior Olympics in California would be the first time the club had competed in the 18u division at the competition in over a decade, the previous 2013 squad had managed to place in the top 10 of the country on the back of former South Florida Water Polo Club legends, Eric Goldenberg, Chase Koplow, Harry Tafur, RJ Moore, Bruce Espinoza, Cole Grady, Michael Walk, Brandon Bogumill, Max Lettau, Charles Mahalec as well as several others.

Our team and families at dinner together.

For this group of boys it’s a huge moment of reflection, a journey that began for a small group of 13u boys in Pompano Beach would become the standard that Florida water polo would elevate to, starting with a dominant showing at the 2022 South Florida International Water Polo Tournament where they would dominate the 13u division and bring home a big gold medal and months later 2022 Dallas Junior Olympics in the 14u division, where our young players would prove their talent and hard work ethics to be too strong and bring home a gold medal, then following up in 2023 at the Dallas Junior Olympics in the 16u Division where a younger group with athletes newer to the club would prove that they are a force to reckon with on the east coast as they once again brought home a gold medal. 2024 would be another unbelievable year, finally going to compete in California at the Session 1 Junior Olympics, our boys found in another final where they would bring home another gold medal in the 16u division gold bracket. Then came this year’s success, this group of young men who have grown together over the past four to five years together and some for even longer, have proven that when a hard work ethic meets passion, success is possible anywhere.

We want to thank Miami Whitecaps, ORWP from California, Topaz Water Polo Club from Arizona for letting a few of their boys play with our team and we want to thank Team Vegas for their help in setting up our team for another great run at the USAWP Junior Olympics.

What comes next? Back to working hard and improving!