The best time to play water polo is not during the day, but during the night when the crystalline LED lights under the water pierce the ripples; when the water steams; and when the lights on the deck are focused on the center of the crowd’s attention, the pool.

This is the moment when the Raiders are ready for victory.

The girls dominated the Lodi High School Flames in their first home game of the season on the long road to a section championship.

Senior Emily Perry said that the team’s great chemistry will “hopefully lead us to a victory at section champs.”

Last year, the girls broke a nine-year-long streak of section final victories, and the stinging defeat in the semifinals against Oakdale is fresh in the team’s mind as they spend seemingly endless hours in the pool training.

The boys had a tremendous start to the year as a team too, sweeping St. Mary’s, Campolindo, Clovis, and Bellerman Prep. to claim victory in the prestigious Schmitt Memorial Tournament.

By the end of the first quarter, the Raiders had control of the Bellerman Bells, popularly dubbed “the Jesuit of San Jose.”

Bellerman’s lightning fast counter-attack was extinguished by junior Lucas Hastie, sophomore Ian Brady, and seniors Miles Brady, Jack DuBois, and John Price.

The returning varsity players worried that the loss of many extremely skilled seniors from the section championship team from last year would weaken the team.

Nevertheless, the opposite has happened.

“Despite early concerns about losing last year’s seniors, our victory at Schmitt proves that we are a team with tremendous heart,” said varsity captain and senior Jack DuBois.

In fact, at the Roche Tournament, the Menlo-Atherton High School water polo coach, previously the coach of the world renowned water polo program at Stanford University, said that “this team is better than last’s,” after a convincing 9-4 Raider victory, much to the surprise of the Raiders’ head coach, Tyson Frenn and the rest of the team.

The Raiders’ goal this year is to defend the incredible victories last year’s seniors led in the previous season.

Tyson Frenn, both the boys and girls head coach, has his hands full, juggling tournaments, league games and practices between the scrappy group of champions.

Practices are nonstop for Frenn and he has plenty of work ahead of him.

As the season goes on, the competition only gets tougher.

The men’s team will be relying on their senior captains Jack DuBois and John Price to lead them through the games, the practices and the rough weather throughout the season.

The team remains optimistic that no one will rob them of the Section Championship.

As the season continues, the Raiders will battle their in-league rivals, the El Camino Eagles, at Rio on October 10.