Daily Pilot Boys’ Water Polo Dream Team: Jackson Harlan helped Corona del Mar exceed expectations
High school sports has become more and more specialized in recent years.
Corona del Mar High senior Jackson Harlan doesn’t care. He plays both water polo and basketball at a high level.
“It’s great trying to set an example to these younger kids,” he said. “You can do multiple things; you don’t have to put all of your eggs in one basket.”
He’s a key player for the CdM boys’ basketball team, which advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoff semifinals last year and is 12-2 this season entering Friday’s action.
Harlan has now advanced to the CIF semifinals three times. With only one returning starter in Harlan, this year’s boys’ water polo team wasn’t supposed to make it back to the Open Division final four, but he didn’t care about that, either.
He set the CdM single-season record with 139 goals and helped the Sea Kings (25-7) advance there again before losing 14-6 to Back Bay rival Newport Harbor, the eventual CIF champions.
For his leadership, Harlan is the 2024-25 Daily Pilot Boys’ Water Polo Dream Team Player of the Year.
“He’s just a mismatch nightmare,” first-year CdM head coach Lucas Reynolds said of Harlan, a first-team All-Sunset League and All-CIF selection. “If you don’t have the right person guarding him in center, it’s just an automatic goal. He will finish on the inside. And even if you do put your best defender on him, if the ball comes in, he has a really high opportunity to score or draw an exclusion or penalty.”
Harlan, a 6-foot-5 UC Santa Barbara commit for water polo, moved to Balboa Island with his family from Whittier just before his freshman year. He said he would see Reynolds, a former CdM standout himself and assistant coach at the time, around town. Reynolds encouraged him to come out for water polo.
Harlan originally came in as a center, but the Sea Kings already had a standout there in Camren Simoncelli, who graduated last year and is also now at UCSB. Plus, Harlan’s skill set was diverse enough to make a difference on the perimeter.
He said last year he was more of a pure scorer, and this year he needed to do it all as a captain. Harlan still set CdM’s single-season scoring record, surpassing Tanner Pulice’s mark by a single goal.
“I remember being a freshman, and everyone would talk about Tanner Pulice just being the greatest player of all time,” Harlan said. “Now, to beat his records, it’s a huge accomplishment to me. It means a lot and it just shows that hard work can take you anywhere.”
With other emerging players like Micah Grantham and Grant Christian, plus key transfers like Bryan Shapirshteyn and goalkeeper Vi Leus, Corona del Mar was competitive all season. Harlan’s junior brother Cooper also grew into a bigger role and was third on the team in scoring.
The Sea Kings upset Studio City Harvard-Westlake on the road 14-13 in the Open Division quarterfinals. After Leus made a key save late, the ball ended up in the hands of Harlan in the final seconds, which seemed appropriate.
“If someone told me we would be playing Newport in the semifinals of [the] Open [Division], I’d be like, ‘Nah, no way,’” Harlan said. “I didn’t think we’d make it as far as we did, but Lucas came in as a first-year head coach and really got us all on the same page. We don’t have as much talent, but we’re going to work as hard as we can. I think that’s how we got to go as far as we did, just working hard and sticking to our plan.”
Here’s a look at the Dream Team Coach of the Year, first-team and second-team selections:
COACH OF THE YEAR
Ross Sinclair
Newport Harbor
The Sailors held the top spot in the CIF Southern Section boys’ water polo landscape throughout the season. Sinclair, the Open Division Coach of the Year, guided his alma mater to big tournament wins at the South Coast Tournament, Elite Eight and North vs. South Challenge. Yet, the biggest game of the season was when his team showed the most mettle, rallying for an 11-10 win over JSerra in the CIF Southern Section Open Division title match at Mt. San Antonio College. The Sailors now have a record 15 CIF titles and have made six straight CIF finals under Sinclair’s guidance.
FIRST TEAM
Lucca Van Der Woude
UTIL | Newport Harbor | Sr.
A transfer from Studio City Harvard-Westlake, Van Der Woude played an important role as a center defender for his new team. That being said, his season might be most well remembered for scoring the final three goals for Newport Harbor in the Sailors’ 11-10 Open Division title match win over JSerra, including the game-winner with 54 seconds left. Van Der Woude, a UCLA commit, was a second-team All-Sunset League selection and shared the Open Division Player of the Year award with teammate Kai Kaneko.
Charlie Jones
DEF| Huntington Beach | Sr.
The UC Irvine commit and co-captain also played center early in the season for the Oilers. A first-team All-Sunset League selection, Jones helped defending Division 1 champion Huntington Beach (15-14) again make an impact in CIF, rallying to beat Long Beach Wilson in the Division 1 quarterfinals before falling at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the semifinals. He was second on Huntington Beach in scoring.
Dylan Williams
ATT | Laguna Beach| Jr.
Williams was a prolific scorer for the Breakers, reaching the century mark with a team-best 100 goals. Coach Camron Hauer said he did it all for Laguna Beach (17-15), helping the Breakers reach the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs before losing to eventual finalist Manhattan Beach Mira Costa. A first-team All-Pacific Coast League and All-CIF selection, Williams scored six goals as Laguna, the third-place team from the Pacific Coast League, edged Los Alamitos 13-11 in a Division 1 opener.
Kai Kaneko
ATT | Newport Harbor | Jr.
Sinclair called Kaneko the Sailors’ Swiss Army knife, meaning he could do a little bit of everything. Coming off a breakthrough performance for the U.S. Cadet national team in Malta, he was certainly a trusted shooter for Newport Harbor, taking the team’s penalty shots and scoring plenty of natural goals as well. Kaneko shared the Sunset League MVP and Open Division Player of the Year honors, with teammates Luke Harris and Lucca Van Der Woude, respectively.
Luke De La Jara
2M | Costa Mesa | Sr.
De La Jara has helped Costa Mesa boys’ swimming win two CIF championships, but he continued to make his mark in water polo as well as a senior. Like Harlan, De La Jara netted a program single-season record goal total, with an area-best 171 goals for Costa Mesa (6-15). He was the Mustangs’ lone All-Empire League first-team selection.
Dylan Rosmann
ATT | Sage Hill| Sr.
Rosmann was the biggest Division I college commit in program history and is headed to UC Irvine. Lightning coach Pavle Filipovic said Rosmann, a first-team All-Pacific Coast League selection, was savvy and aggressive on offense for Sage Hill (20-8), while matching up well defensively as well. The four-year varsity player scored a team-high 95 goals, helping Sage Hill advance to the Division 1 playoffs for the first time in program history.
Micah Grantham
ATT | Corona del Mar | Sr.
CdM coach Lucas Reynolds said that Grantham came out of nowhere, with zero varsity experience, but proved very valuable in scoring the second-most goals for the Sea Kings. He could take over the game when Harlan was out and became a massive threat. Grantham was a second-team All-Sunset League and first-team All-CIF selection.
Luke Harris
GK | Newport Harbor | Sr.
Harris, a two-year varsity starter, gained a well-earned reputation as one of the top high school goalkeepers in the country. Bound for USC, he helped hold rival JSerra to two goals in the second half of the Open Division final as the Sailors rallied for the title. He shared the Sunset League MVP award with teammate Kai Kaneko and was a first-team All-CIF selection.
SECOND TEAM
Position, Name, School, Year
ATT Connor Ohl, Newport Harbor, Jr.
ATT Dusan Djordevic, Huntington Beach, Sr.
ATT Grant Christian, Corona del Mar, Jr.
ATT Mason Netzer, Newport Harbor, Jr.
DEF Jack McClung, Edison, Sr.
ATT Ryan Zarzana, Fountain Valley, Sr.
ATT Gavin Goode, Laguna Beach, Jr.
GK Santiago Valle, Ocean View, Sr.
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