Merced Union High School District

El Capitan High senior Grace Phillips played a variety of sports growing up like t-ball, volleyball and soccer. She was also involved in dance. It wasn’t until high school that Phillips gave water polo a shot. Phillips has been a natural since strapping on the cap and her water polo career will continue into college after the Gauchos goalie verbally committed to accepting a scholarship to play at San Diego State.

El Capitan coach Karin Umemura says it’s not often you see athletes pick up a sport in high school and earn Division I scholarships. These days when everyone is starting their kids in sports so early I think it is very rare.  “Kids are playing year-round travel sports as 10-and-unders and have years of experience and countless hours put in, so to start a sport as a freshman – as a JV player – and leave with a Division 1 scholarship is almost unheard of,” Umemura said. “I was talking to her future coach at San Diego State, about the fact she’s only been playing since her freshman year. Grace hadn’t told her that on her recruiting trip, so she was even more excited to have her come play for them.”

Phillips will lead the Gauchos (20-7) into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs, which kickoff on Tuesday, Nov. 4. El Capitan earned the No. 4 seed and will host No. 13 Kimball at 5:30 p.m. Buhach Colony is the No. 15 seed and will travel to No. 2 St. Mary’s. Merced earned the No. 1 seed and received a first-round bye as the Bears aim to win back-to-back section championships.

On the boys side, five MUHSD teams advanced to the playoffs. Merced (26-2) is the No. 1 seed in Division II and will host No. 16 Pacheco on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. El Capitan (18-9) is the No. 5 seed and will host No. 12 Pitman. Buhach Colony (12-12) earned a home game as the No. 8 seed and will host No. 9 Del Oro. Atwater (13-15) is the No. 10 seed and will travel to No. 7 Whitney. Western Athletic Conference champions Livingston (17-3) are the No. 10 seed in Division III and will open with a first-round matchup against No. 7 Sonora.

While the brackets set up nicely for both Merced teams to make deep runs in the playoffs, the El Capitan girls have a solid shot with potentially two home playoff games before another showdown with the Bears in the semifinals. A big reason why is Phillips has been an anchor for the Gauchos defense at goalie.

Phillips has recorded 187 saves this season, which ranks seventh in the Sac-Joaquin Section, according to MaxPreps. “Grace is a great goalie because she is calm under pressure,” Umemura said. “She is a great team player and even when we make mistakes defensively and leave her with two-on-one or one-on-no-one situations she is never upset with the girls, she’s always ready to make the save and move on to the next play.  Grace used to be a dancer and I think it has helped her with her movements and body control.  It helps too that she’s tall and has strong legs and a long wingspan that help her cover a lot of the goal.”

Phllips said her friend and current teammate Brooklyn Ramsey convinced her to give water polo a try when they were freshmen. “I really did love it right away,” Phllips said. “And I also loved all the girls when I first joined. It was fun meeting new people along the way.”

Phillips never swam competitively until joining the swim team her freshmen year. As she continued to improve at water polo she thought that could be her future. She started reaching out to coaches and sending out video highlights. That’s how San Diego State came into the picture as Aztec coaches watched her play at club tournaments. Other schools like UC San Diego, Fresno, State and Long Beach State also showed interest.

“I never thought I would play a sport in college so it’s really exciting and I’m really proud of myself,” Phillips said. Her coach is excited for her not only because Phillips is a great athlete, but a great kid. “She’s ready to play at the next level,” Umemura said. “I am super excited to follow her career and see her keep improving over her college career.”  

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.