MEET TOKAY’S NEW BOYS WATER POLO COACH
Craig Bonham is back in charge. Recently, Tokay High Athletic Director Michael Holst announced that Bonham has been named the new Tokay High boys water polo coach. Bonham takes over for Chris Boss, who is shifting his focus toward his second season as the Tokay High boys basketball coach. Boss, who works as a campus supervisor at Tokay, coached the Tigers’ boys water polo squad only one season, during which they went 4-6 in the Tri-City Athletic League.
For the last two seasons, Bonham was the Tokay froshsoph boys water polo coach. Before that, Bonham, who works as a program specialist at El Dorado Elementary School in Stockton, took time away from coaching to spend time with his family and work as a fourth grade teacher in the Stockton Unified School District.
From 2006 to 2008, Bonham coached in the Tokay water polo program; he was the varsity girls and frosh-soph boys coach. Then he stepped down after the 2008 season after Jeff Chandler, who was the Tokay boys water polo coach during the same length of time, resigned.
“Jeff took a job in Houston, Texas,” recalled Bonham, “so I decided to step down with him.”
Bonham started the Bear Creek High boys water polo program in 1994, just a few years after the third high school in the Lodi Unified School District opened its doors. He ran the program until 1999, when he resigned.
In recent weeks, Bonham said that the bulk of returning swimmers and those moving up from last year’s frosh-soph squad have been working out with the competition. That being Lodi High girls water polo coach Robert Elrod, who conducts a summer program for boys and girls water polo players who are playing the upcoming season.
“Several of my players have been playing for him since early May, first part of June, four to five days a week, morning and night,” Bonham said. “They have been doing an hour of weights four days a week, and then they have been an hour and half of conditioning in the pool after weights,
then two hours of water polo.”
According to the SacJoaquin Section’s website — cifsjs.org — boys and girls high school water polo teams can start practices on Monday, Aug. 18. The start of the dead period begins on July 23. That is the same day high school football teams can start conditioning drills. The rest of the fall sports teams — cross-country, girls golf, girls tennis, volleyball and boys soccer for smaller schools that have opted to play in the fall instead of winter — start practices on July 30.
Bonham will keep his squad busy during the dead period. Teams can take part
in weight training and other workouts that do not include the use of a ball, which is prohibited by the section’s bylaws for all sports that use a ball during the dead period.
“We can train on dry land and swim but we just can’t touch a ball during the dead period,” Bonham said.
At this time, Bonham is thinking about running a two-meter offense when practices
begin in mid-August.
“I have a couple of players in mind, but I’m not sure until practices start and see what I have,” Bonham said.
This year’s pre-season schedule, Bonham noted, is almost similar to last year; couple of tournaments and then some non-league matches. Then Tokay jumps into TCAL action.
St. Mary’s and Lodi are the teams to beat this upcoming season, Bonham said. But he feels with most of the players working out this summer, plus Tokay coming close to an even .500 mark last fall that his Tigers are looking to make some noise in league.