Bower becomes SHS all-time scorer

An eight-goal performance from four-year varsity starter, Moses Bower, propelled the senior into the boys water polo record books Wednesday as Bower became Strathmore High School’s all-time leading scorer with a total of 175 career goals after the Spartans’ 13-9 win over Tulare Western at home.

“I knew that when he was a freshman he had the ability to play water polo at a high level and every year he’s progressed,” SHS head coach Tim Stadtherr said. “Every year he’s gotten better. And he’s one of those players that dedicates himself to the sport year round. Especially this past junior year. He actually stopped playing basketball in the winter and started to get more serious about swimming and conditioning. He actually lost a lot of baby fat doing that and it’s definitely upped his game — a lot this year. So far.”

Stadtherr said that he talked to Bower a little bit about the record but that both of them tried not to put too much emphasis on the upcoming accomplishment. But even though there was no big celebration after the record goal was scored — however Spartans players did chant “M-V-P” after the final whistle — Stadtherr said it was a great accomplishment.

“I tried not to make it a big deal but I talked

to Moses about it last night,” Stadtherr said. “We were texting back and forth about it and we decided we’re not going to make a big deal about it but it’s a pretty big deal. I mean we’ve only been playing water polo for 10 years at this school and we’ve had some good goal scorers come through here — Drew Della, Garrett Wilson, Jason Crater — and it’s just a testament to how good Moses is that he’s able to beat all those guys in goal total. And he’s still got 20-some odd games left in his high school career so who knows how many more he’s going to score.”

The previous record of 167 goals was set by Wilson in 2016.

Stadtherr went on to say that although Bower is poised for more and more goals, he’s certain that team’s will start to hear about him and the team is already doing a good job of distributing their scoring.

Also contributing goals in Strathmore’s 13-9 win over Tulare Western (12) was the Spartans Cotter Ashcraft and Lucas Wilkinson with two goals and Owen Patterson with one. Strathmore (2-1) goalkeeper Cody Allen also had eight blocks.