Gorham is the Flames’ last line of defense
Accomplishment: Tristan Gorham was a seventh-grader when his mom, Nicole McGivern, had a suggestion.
“I didn’t have a hobby. My mom was like, ‘I want you to try water polo,’ ” Gorham said. “I said, ‘Water polo. What even is that?’ I went to a practice, and I liked it, so I went again, and again, and again.”
Today, Gorham, a senior at Lodi High, is an integral part of the Flames’ boys water polo team.
He’s the goalkeeper, the last line of defense on a team that, while talented, has almost no subs to rest players. That means a lot of tired defenses in front of him late in games.
It came down to Gorham a lot during the Flames’ 3-2 showing over the
weekend at the Napa Tournament, with wins over Encinal (7-2), Whitney (12-4) and Concord (10-2). The two losses were 8-6 to Cardinal Newman and 8-6 to Terra Linda.
“Defensively, well, we all did our best on defense, but there were teams that were outnumbering us, because we don’t have any subs,” Gorham said. “Later in the game we get tired and slack on defense a bit. We start falling apart a little bit, where they don’t. That’s where I come in. Usually they do really good and I don’t have to block anything, but sometimes yeah, I have to step in.”
Gorham has recorded 39 saves across the five games, including 15 to keep Lodi in the game against Terra Linda.
“He’s been saving our bacon in a lot of games,” Lodi coach Dan Christie said.
In the Tri-City Athletic League opener on Monday at Tokay’s swimming pool, Gorham blocked 13 shots in a 10-3 victory over Lincoln.
Since taking up the sport in junior high, Gorham has refined his game, working on two main things — his legs, and his reflexes. For the reflexes, he treads water in front of the goal with his coach holding the ball. When Christie swings the ball to one side, Gorham lifts out of the water and lunges to that side, then gets back to the middle as quick as possible.
He has one other secret weapon as a goalkeeper.
“My strength is my length,” said the 4-foot, 4 1/2inch senior with a long wingspan.
Gorham started playing with Lodi Water Polo Club, then moved to Big Valley Water Polo Academy when he hit high school. He has played for the Flames throughout his high school career.
He’ll be a key member as the Flames work to overcome their thin roster and make a run at a playoff spot. Lodi lost 19-3 to St. Mary’s on Wednesday, but the Flames feel good about making a run at the No. 2 spot in the league.
“A lot of us came really late to the season, so when we came back, we just jumped right into games,” Gorham said. “We’d never played together, really, so we’ve had to, over time, start playing more and more as a team.”