BOYS' WATER POLO: MOORPARK PROGRAM JUMPS RIGHT IN.

Byline: Heather Gripp Staff Writer

MOORPARK - When a parent mentioned that her son couldn't decide whether to play volleyball or join the swim team in the spring, a member of Moorpark High's boys' water polo team couldn't resist offering his input.

``Tell him to swim,'' said the player, who went on to add that the move could benefit the water polo program, which is in need of experienced swimmers.

With the Musketeers, no opportunity for improvement is overlooked. Moorpark is in the early stages of building a water polo program from scratch, no easy task in a league as difficult as the Marmonte. The theme of the Musketeers' inaugural varsity season is building for the future.

``We get better every day,'' Moorpark coach Peter Daland said. ``But we don't measure our success in wins and losses. We set small, individual goals and are happy to be improving. ...

``I figure it'll take about five years to get the program situated.''

Daland, who has long been involved in area water polo as a former Westlake High player and more recently as a coach at Westlake and Thousand Oaks, started Moorpark's aquatics program last year.

The boys' water polo team competed at the junior varsity level with barely enough players to field a team. The Musketeers are fielding three levels of teams this season from freshman through varsity, but 23 of 33 players are freshmen, most of whom had no experience with the sport before this summer.

Moorpark doesn't even have a pool to call its own. The Musketeers, who hope to have an on-campus pool by the end of next year, get a couple of hours a night to practice at Westlake and swim all their meets on the road.

Moorpark would rather think about what it has than what it doesn't.

The Musketeers are loaded with enthusiasm and athletic young players. Although the varsity entered this weekend's Oxnard tournament with only two wins and several lopsided losses, the junior varsity and freshman teams had winning records.

Brett Rehder leads the varsity in scoring, entering the weekend with 16 goals. Ben Hader, Trevor Johnson and freshman goalkeeper Chris Huffman are among the program's other promising players.

``We're taking our lumps, but they're great,'' Daland said of the Musketeers' attitude.

Wednesday's game against Westlake served as an inspiration for how a struggling program can progress. For years, the Warriors were the doormat of the league and, like Moorpark, did not have a pool. But in the past few years, Westlake has made strides with a new coach, pool and dedicated players, who made their progress evident with a 14-1 victory over the Musketeers.

Moorpark gets a bigger test this week when it faces Royal and Agoura, two of the league's three teams in the Div. IV top 10.

``We're in a very hard league,'' Daland said. ``We'll get better from playing these type of teams. Winning isn't what's important now, it's learning, and they get to learn against some good teams. ... We'll get there. It takes time.''

Heather Gripp, [phone]

heather.gripp(at)dailynews.com