I first met Lukas Lastra at our favorite eating place in Cayucos, The Sea Shanty. He was a leader for their wait-staff and a pleasant young man. Before we returned home from our summer vacation, I learned he was going to be leading a trip to Greece with some of the Morro Bay High School water polo team. I mistakenly assumed he meant he’d be traveling with a group of athletic young men. Wrong.
Lukas was raised in the Santa Ynez Valley, playing water polo for Santa Ynez High School. When he attended Cuesta College, he also played on their water polo team. Five years ago, Morro Bay High School needed a coach for the junior varsity boys team. Based on his several years of experience Lukas was hired as their coach.
The next year, the JV girls team needed a coach, and Lukas accepted the job. He did well and was moved up to the varsity girls team, where he’s been for the past three years. This past season, the Morro Bay girls won the CIS Division II Championship, decisively defeating Garces High School from Bakersfield 16-10. They advanced to Division III State Finals and placed second, losing only to the girls from Aptos.
The sport of water polo is tiring, quite physical, and played in water deep enough the players can’t touch bottom. For a shot on goal to be made, the shooter must anchor themselves in the water with strong leg kicks, then fire the ball toward the goal. The defenders swim in front of them attempting to block the shot. All motions, both offensive and defensive, must be made without touching bottom. Obviously, leg and upper body strength are crucial in this sport.
Living along the Central Coast of California ensures a certain degree of isolation from bigger cities and different cultures. Ryan Davis, a previous water polo coach at Morro Bay High, took his women’s team to Italy in 2023. He knew that exposure to different customs and languages can be a rewarding and beneficial experience. Combine travel with athletics, and you have a tremendous opportunity for young athletes.
Now that he was head coach, Lukas went online searching for additional travel opportunities, within water polo, for his team. He found a handful of clubs in California, Hawaii, and even Barcelona, Spain and Greece. He knew there was great value in taking a group of young athletes to compete with other clubs. Not only would this improve their playing skills, but the value of exposure to different cultures gained from traveling abroad is significant, especially as a young person.
The success of the Greek Women’s Water Polo in recent Olympic games assured the clubs around Greece would be amenable to meeting with other young women’s teams. A club was chosen who agreed to house the Morro Bay girls, feed them, and provide the requisite transportation. Their club had a pool where all the athletes could train, as well as conduct what Lukas referred to as, “Friendly competition.”
My middle son played water polo in his high school years. My observation of a water polo game, even one called “friendly,” would be a lot like submersing a mixer-blender into the pool. Friendly or not, it’s hard work combined with serious competition. However, from the descriptions provided me by my son, it was also great fun. I’m sure the opportunities to scrimmage with their Greek hosts are highly valued, and will long be remembered by all the girls, whether Greek or American.
The rules for inclusion on this trip were simple. A girl must have spent at least one year on the team prior to the trip thus she would be going into her sophomore, junior, or senior year. With the decision made as to where, the next step was how to raise the money for air fare for an entire water polo team and their chaperones.
Lukas knew he didn’t want to have supporters who simply handed the girls money for a trip like this. He wanted his team to earn their way. For two years prior to this trip, the girls volunteered at many events, helping wherever they could, plus holding numerous yard sales. Some of the girls had access to handmade jewelry and sat for hours outside various events selling on behalf of Women’s Water Polo. They even had a Water Polo Night at the movie theater in Morro Bay. During the annual Ironman competition along the central coast, the girls volunteered to hand out water, plus helping in many other ways. When July 21 arrived, by laboring diligently as a team, they had raised in excess of $55,000 to pay their own way.
Lukas’s girlfriend, Macy Rivas, is also a hired coach for Morro Bay High. She’s the pole-vaulting coach, plus other track and field events. She also coaches in weight training and strengthening. As chaperones for the trip to Greece, Macy and Lukas teamed up with Chris and Gina Palmer, parents of one of the girls on the team. Their daughter Gianna, a senior this fall, has been in water polo since her freshman year.
With an excellent win/loss record over the past three years, Lukas’ goal is to continually improve his girls’ skills by involving them with other teams. Trips such as this attract the attention of other young ladies, giving them a reason to want to be on the Women’s Water Polo Team with Coach Lukas Lastra at Morro Bay High School.
