Watching 6-foot-6, 220-pound Connor Ohl of Newport Harbor Excessive play water polo is much like a Nice White Shark sighting. You’re surprised and in awe.
He’s water polo’s model of a rushing dolphin within the pool, in a position to speed up so quick together with his lengthy arms and highly effective legs that few can stick with him. He gained the Southern Part Division 1 50-yard freestyle title final spring and broke 20 seconds in a league meet (19.79), so beware to those that assume he’s not as quick as marketed.
Then comes his dimension and energy. He may very well be a soccer participant as a result of physicality comes naturally. Being the youngest of three water polo taking part in brothers, it was sink or swim within the Ohl family rising up in Greenwich, Conn. One brother performs for Stanford, the place Connor will quickly be part of him. One other performs at Princeton.
Connor moved to Orange County final 12 months for his junior season so he may very well be a part of what he calls “the water polo hub of America.”
This previous summer season, he was the youngest participant on the USA junior nationwide group that earned a silver medal on the under-20 world championships in Croatia.
“It was such a loopy expertise,” he stated.
First there was taking part in the host group in entrance of screaming followers in an indoor pool. “Oh my God, It was so loud,” he stated. “They’d drummers. You couldn’t hear your self assume.”
Then there was taking part in Serbia, recognized for its physicality. He was a boy going towards males. “It’s insane,” he stated. “Some are constructed like fridges.”
What Ohl discovered from his worldwide expertise will assist him immensely throughout a highschool season through which Newport Harbor is the defending Southern Part champion and closely favored to win once more. The Sailors are off to a 6-0 begin.
Ben Liechty, Peter Castillo, Connor Ohl and Gavin Appeldorn, from left, represented Newport Harbor on the Below-20 World Championships in Croatia.
(Courtesy of Newport Harbor water polo)
“Going from highschool water polo to the junior degree is like night time and day,” he stated. “These juniors have been taking part in mainly their complete life — Spain, Hungary, Croatia. They worship water polo. It’s made me much more bodily. Coming again to highschool, it’s made me extra assured to defend and management individuals with my energy and dimension.”
With the arrival of the Anderson brothers, Tyler and Sean, from JSerra, Newport Harbor begins out as maybe the very best group within the nation.
“We may very well be a soccer group with as massive as we’re in water polo,” Ohl stated.
Corona del Mar, JSerra, Oaks Christian and Harvard-Westlake hope to supply resistance.
Ohl is the most recent Southern California product who can’t wait to characterize the USA within the Olympic Video games, which occur to be coming to Los Angeles in 2028. The Dodd brothers, Ryder and Chase, from JSerra and Huntington Seashore, performed within the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Will probably be one of many hardest groups to make due to the expertise and depth with so many gamers again from 2024.
“My likelihood is nearly as good as anybody else,” Ohl stated. “That’s my dream. I simply wish to characterize my nation on the Olympics.”
In the meantime, if you wish to see somebody who can swim as quick as a fish, take a look at a Newport Harbor water polo match. That’s Connor Ohl, the rushing bullet.
