Culver City girls water polo goalie Shanti Nikhanj gets ready to stop a shot on goal during a match at the Vets pool on Overland in Culver City. The lady Centaurs are having a winning season thanks to the play of all the players and especially the Rodriguez sisters, Emily and Natalie.
It's a well-documented fact that the Culver City High School boy's and girl's aquatics programs produce successful swimming and water polo teams without a pool on campus. They use the Vets Park public pool located off campus on Overland Ave.
Despite not having their own pool it has not stopped the father and son coaching combination of the Dordoni family. Nestor Jr. has been the head coach for the last five years and his father Nestor Sr. is his assistant coach. Nestor Jr. has been coaching water polo a combined 15 years. Ten of those years he was the assistant coach under his father who was the head coach for 35 years. It's been a family affair for the last 35 years.
The 2023 boys water polo team is 11-5 after beating Warren 10-4 last Tuesday. After all these years Nestor Jr. is still having fun coaching. "We have a good mix of older kids in terms of their leadership and their great work ethic, and we have some younger kids that enjoy water polo and they are hard workers," said Nestor Jr. last Tuesday. "The kids are a pleasure to coach. They work hard and listen. There is no drama on this team. They except their roles whether they play one minute or 20 minutes. I really enjoy this group. They get it. It's not because of me and my dad it's because they some of them played water polo over the summer on club teams."
Some of the top players on the team this year are seniors Justin Urrutia, Landon Ito and goalie Natan Dei. Others players that have performed at a high level are Dyder Dzurec, Samson Reid, Felix Hummel and Gerry Santiago.
This week the team has a match at Brentwood at 4 p.m. on Thursday and the JV team plays at 5 p.m. On Friday they play two games at the Torrance Aquatic Center at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. On Saturday they continue their tournament play in Torrance at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Their next home matches at Vets Pool will be Tuesday October 10, against Peninsula and Thursday, October 12 is Senior Day against Mira Costa. Both of those matches will start at 3:30 p.m.
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