High school honors: Feb. 13, 2025: North Idaho Water Polo Club wins Idaho state championships again

The North Idaho Water Polo Club (NIWP) boys and girls’ teams defended their state high school championship in Boise last weekend.  

In doing so, the Coeur d’Alene team extended its series of Idaho state championship titles. In the championship games, the NIWP boys varsity team beat Magic Valley 14-9, while the NIWP girls varsity team beat the Magic Valley girls team 19-4.  

Men’s Division

The NIWP varsity boys came out strong with a convincing win over a relatively young East Idaho squad (13-1). The scoring in the game was well distributed, with Taylor Holding, Will Park, Mason Curry and Brennan McCrea all scoring two goals each and Nolan Vogan, Joshua Dimitri, Luke Griffiths, Jet Yang and Owen Call all adding a goal each.   

The NIWP varsity team next defeated the Boise Sharks 15-9. Mason Curry led the scoring with a burst of goals in the second quarter (4) and a couple more in the 4th for a total of 6 goals. Owen Call was close behind with 5 goals putting NIWP up by a score of 11-2 at halftime. Other scorers included Will Park, Tucker Rigg, Taylor Holding and Brennan McCrea.   

In the championship game, Magic Valley came out strong and scored the first goal one minute into the game. The teams traded goals through the first quarter and NIWP led by one at the quarter and two goals at half time.  

NIWP began to pull away in the 3rd quarter, using exclusions and cross cage shots to score four goals to MV’s two. This continued in the 4th quarter, with the Narwhals scoring two more goals to MV’s one. Magic Valley scored 3 goals in the second half to CDA’s 6, for a final score of 14-9.   

A key difference in the game was the number of exclusions the NIWP were able to draw through drives and movement across the field.  Drivers would slide in front of their defender, slow down and cause the defender to draw an exclusion foul. 

This led to many 6-on-5 opportunities and left three of MV’s top scorers with 2 or 3 exclusions each, limiting their ability to defend.  NIWP did much better at not getting excluded, with only Taylor Holding getting 2 exclusions and everyone else either 1 or none.  

The coaches were impressed with the types of goals NIWP was scoring. The club has developed a much more dynamic and motion oriented offense this year compared to a hole set focus in years past. Most of their goals were from drives, man up opportunities and cross-cage passes. This type of offense is more difficult to defend against than a hole set oriented offense as it provides multiple ways of scoring. 

The NIWP JV boys team played Rigby JV on Friday and rolled 16-0. The offense was widely distributed with goals from Lincoln Holding, Owen Christiansen, Jackson Curry, Nolan Vogan, Joshua Dimitri, Jet Yang, Miles Rigg, Brock Raebel and Calvin Peterson. 

In their second game, the JV team played against the Boise Sharks JV team. The Cd'A boys came out strong and outscored Boise 7-1 in the first quarter with a number of counter-attacks.  Miles Rigg had a breakout game and led the scoring with 4 goals.  Several other players scored multiple goals, including Lincoln Holding, Owen Christiansen, Joshua Dimitri and Jet Yang.  

By winning their first two games, the JV boys earned a place in the 3rd place championship game against the Boise Varsity squad. Going into the 4th quarter, Boise led by two goals. Miles scored the 1st goal in the 4th, bringing Cd'A within a goal of Boise. They weren’t able to close the gap any further however and the final score was 14-12 for Boise.  

The coaches were very impressed with the effort and abilities of the JV team, however. Any time a JV squad can match up with a varsity team it is something to take notice of, they said. This bodes well for the future success of the Coeur d’Alene program. 

Women’s Division

The NIWP girls’ varsity team won their first game 16-4 over the Boise varsity squad. The Cd'A girls  were able to score on the majority of their possessions and were able to limit Boise to just one goal/quarter. The NIWP team was dominant and scored consistently throughout the game, with eight goals in the first quarter  

The NIWP also dominated East Idaho in their second game, almost seeming to be able to score at will, including 8 goals in the first quarter. Gianna Gonzalez led the scoring with 7 goals in the first two games.  Other scorers included Alena Gonzalez (6), Ella Mohr (4), Greta Hover (4), Addy Karoblis (4), Claire Thorpe (3), Jillian Provost (2), Gracelyn Kenney (1), Lana Kittisares (1) and Charlie Lindsay (1).   

The Narwhals played Magic Valley in the final for on Saturday. Magic Valley was unable to stop the fast-paced counter-attacks and high scoring offense of the NIWP club while only scoring a few goals themselves against Cd'A’s press defense and excellent goalie work from Callie Christiansen. 

Cd'A again scored 8 goals in the first quarter to 2 by Magic Valley. Alena Gonzalez led the offense with almost continuous drives and movement. She scored 6 goals in the game for the Narwhals, a personal high for her. Gianna Gonzalez was close behind with 5 goals. Other scoring was provided by Greta Hover (2), Claire Thorpe (2) and single goals by Charlie Lindsay, Jillian Provost, Addy Karoblis, and Keelie Halsted. Jillian Provost led the team’s defense by providing the majority of the hole set defense throughout the tournament.

The NIWP JV girls’ team had a tight first quarter in their first game on Friday against the Magic Valley varsity team, playing to a first quarter tie with Charlie Lindsay scoring the sole goal for Cd'A. NIWP started to warm up in the 2nd quarter and steadily built their lead throughout the game, winning by a final score of 12-3.  

Grace Kenney led the scoring in the game with 5 goals, with Haven Owens contributing 3 goals of her own in a breakout performance. Other scores were made by Addie Wallace, Charlie Lindsay, Autumn Cysewski, Addy Karoblis and Lana KIttisares.  

On Saturday the JV team played another varsity team, the Boise Varsity squad. Cd'A jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first quarter and then continued to steadily build their lead to a final score of 15-5.  Laura Mohr led the scoring with 5 goals, followed by 4 goals each by Charlie Lindsay and Grace Kenney. Addie Wallace, Kyra Ellsworth and Lana Kittisares also contributed a goal each.

In their 3rd game, the NIWP girls JV squad played Rigby varsity. The Narwhals rolled to a quick 6-0 lead in the first quarter with a series of quick counter-attack goals. They continued an aggressive and fast-paced attack the rest of the game and won by a final score of 17-3.  

Several girls scored 3 goals each, including Ella Mohr, Charlie Lindsay, Lana Kittisares and Laura Mohr. Other goals were made by Grace Kenney (2), Addie Wallace (2) and Daisy Whitney (1). 

Coach Mark Collingham noted that having multiple people score makes it hard for the other team to know where to focus their defense. He was also impressed by the ability of the NIWP JV girls squad to go undefeated in the tournament against the other state varsity teams.  

The NIWP club plays year-round at the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene and will be playing in a number of Northwest and National tournaments this spring and summer. In addition to the high school team, the club also has a development program for players ages 11-13 and a junior program for players ages 7-10.  

More information about local water polo can be found at northidahowaterpolo.org.