The water polo contest has been held nearly every Saturday after Thanksgiving since 1998
Past Malibu High Sharks boys water polo players showed they still had skills during the Malibu alumni game on Nov. 30 at the high school pool.
Earlier in the contest, which annually pits Malibu’s current team against alumni players, an alumnus corralled the ball in the corner on one side of the pool and heaved an outlet pass beyond the center of the pool to a waiting teammate, who then passed the ball across the pool to another alum. That graduate unfurled a shot that zipped beyond the reach of the current Malibu High team’s goalkeeper but bounced off the frame of the goal for a miss.
One alumni goalkeeper directed the team on defense like he did during his high school years. At one point the duringthe match, some postgraduates in the pool chanted “’96,’96” celebrating a play made by an alum who was on Malibu’s1996 graduation squad.
The alumni showed they were serious.
However, the back-and-forth contest ended with the high school team, which included some younger alumni, claiming a 19-18 victory in front of a crowd of Sharks’ family, friends, and supporters.
Ky Schultz, a 2016 Malibu graduate, enjoyed playing in the contest as a high schooler because it was “endless action.”
“Now, because it is endless action, I forgot how exhausting it is to play water polo when you aren’t consistently practicing each day,” said Schultz after playing in the match for the first time as a Malibu graduate. “It’s just has much fun as it used to be.”
Sharks high school player Ryder Lippman said the match was fun.
“We were ready to win,” he said.
Lippman’s teammate Julian Calvo jumped in the pool expecting a tough match against the elder Sharks.
“It was fun seeing the past players,” he said. “Our coaches talk about the past teams that won a lot. It gives us inspiration to win ourselves and play our best.”
This was the second straight year the high school team beat the alumni. The youngsters beat the past Sharks 13-12 in 2023.
The alumni match has been held nearly every Saturday after Thanksgiving since 1998. Each time, the game brings together a litany of former players from teams in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and now 2020s to don black or white Malibu water polo caps and compete in the pool in celebration of Malibu water polo.
Longtime Sharks water polo head coach Mike Mulligan, who started the yearly Thanksgiving weekend tradition, was glad to see over 30 Sharks graduates attend this year’s game.
“It does my heart good,” said Mulligan, now the Sharks boys and girls teams’ assistant coach and annual alumni match referee. “This is probably the most packed the stands have been for this game.”
The contest was competitive. There were friendly elbows thrown and bits of verbal ribbing throughout that match — one current Shark yelled “The glory days are over!” — after his team scored a goal to take an 8-7 lead. One former student tallied a score by throwing a ball that skipped off the water and into the back of the goal. A high school player rang up a goal with a behind-the-back shot.
Hayden Goldberg, Malibu’s head coach and also a Sharks alum, said the match teaches high school players the tradition of Malibu water polo.
“Its great,” he said. “As a coach, I want to get the guys to beat the alumni guys. This is caliber water polo. We came in with a little bit of a scheme and came out successful.”
Mulligan held the first alumni game 26 years ago at the request of members of the team’s 1996 graduation class. Two members of that group played in the contest this year. The coach expects the alumni game to continue.
“Malibu is a tightknit community that is really supportive of each other,” Mulligan said.
Schultz echoed his high school coach.
“Malibu water polo means family,” he said. “It is a community. Your friends’ families are just as much of a family as your own family.”