The Torrey Pines High School water polo program has two Division 1 committed athletes in the class of 2025. Jack Mason, the boys water polo team captain, will be headed to the United States Naval Academy this summer while Ryland Smith, captain of the girls team, will go on to play for the University of Michigan.
Before departing for Ann Arbor and Annapolis, the pair will first finish up their high school careers as Falcons.
“The Torrey Pines Water Polo program is so proud of both Jack and Ryland for all of their accomplishments while at Torrey Pines,” said Brandon Carman, head coach for both the boys and girls teams. “We are beyond excited to see them make the same impact at the collegiate level as they did at Torrey Pines. The Naval Academy and University of Michigan are getting two outstanding players and people.”
Ryland, a California girl, will get to experience her first Michigan winter this year. Michigan was her top choice as she was drawn to its opportunities for student-athletes and its huge alumni base. After a visit, she fell in love with the academic, athletic and social environment and especially with water polo Coach Cassie Churnside: “I’m very excited,” said Ryland, who verbally committed in August.
Ryland jumped into water polo completely new to the sport when she was a freshman. She had been a swimmer in elementary school but stopped when she picked up travel softball. When she started high school at Torrey Pines, her goal was to play a sport every season. She did cross country in the fall and was planning to play basketball in the winter when she saw a poster advertising the water polo team “The sign said ‘no experience needed’ and I knew how to swim so I thought might as well,” she said.
Her talents in softball and in the pool combined well for water polo, although there was a learning curve as she developed her water polo IQ.
“I never even watched a game before I started to play it,” Ryland said. “I liked how intense it was and how quick the game was compared to softball.”
She is now in the pool nearly year-round, playing for the San Diego Shores Water Polo Club and Torrey Pines. Ryland is left-handed so she plays the right side or guard, using her left-handedness and her 5’11 height to her advantage. She believes a strength is her ability to read the pool.
Coach Carman said Ryland is “extremely athletic and naturally gifted”. The newbie who only found out about the sport from a poster became the poster child for how hard work pays off, he said.
“Ryland has done so much for the Torrey Pines water polo program
. She has been a leader in and out of the water, has helped establish a culture of success, and has truly been an inspiration to her teammates by putting in the endless hours to elevate herself to the next level,” Carman said. “Ryland has been the captain of Torrey Pines since she was a sophomore and has led her teammates to new heights every season. She has a tremendous amount of accolades for someone that has only been playing for three years. All of which were hard earned. I knew from the first season I coached Ryland that she could achieve whatever she set her mind to and have a tremendous impact on others along the way.”
Ryland was part of the 2022-23 team that won the Southern California Regional Division II title, which moved Torrey Pines to the top eight teams of the Open Division, playing against tough teams like Bishops and Clairemont.
As she is leaving Torrey Pines next year, it was bittersweet to see the school break ground on a new pool this year.
“I definitely wish that I got to experience it because I think it’s very nice to have. I think it will really help build the program,” said Ryland. Her sister Kaiah, a sophomore, will be able to play water polo in the new pool and she is excited to watch how the program will continue to grow with increased visibility.
She also has mixed feelings about her last season with Torrey Pines, which will start in November.
“It will be sad but I’m excited because I’ll get to play with my sister and all my high school teammates and hopefully leave an impression,” said Ryland.
Captain Jack
The boys water polo season is just wrapping up, with Captain Jack Mason leading the Falcons with a 19-7 record, currently undefeated in league play with playoffs on the horizon.
The son of a water polo player and swimming dad and swimmer mom, Jack has always been in the water. Being from a military family, he moved all around the country with stops in Washington D.C. to Virginia Beach, Hawaii and Florida before landing in San Diego when he was in third grade.
He started out playing basketball and lacrosse but when his older brother started playing water polo, he wanted to try it out too, ing the Del Mar Water Polo Club when he was a sixth grader.
“Right when I started playing water polo I didn’t have a background in anything like that and and they set the expectations I have for myself, working hard and being a good teammate and I think that’s carried onto other aspects of my life,” Jack said. “That continued at Torrey Pines, keeping the standard for myself high and trying to push everyone else to that level.”
At Torrey Pines he played varsity all four years (including two years with his brother) and was co-captain this year before being captain this year.
“I have been coaching Jack for three seasons now and while he has always been talented, what has really stood out for me since day one, is his natural ability to lead others. Jack does an incredible job at setting the tone with his teammates both verbally and by example,” said Coach Carman. “He has never been the biggest guy in the water, but his determination to be the best is what sets him apart from the rest of his peers. He is very competitive with others as well as with himself.”
“Last season after a difficult loss Jack approached me frustrated with his team’s play as well as his own and said ‘when I make a mistake I make sure that I go home and study what went wrong. I make sure I never make that mistake again. If our team wants to win then everyone has to have the same mentality’,” Carman continued. “After he said that to me as a junior in high school, I knew Jack was built differently and there was no doubt that he would be playing collegiate water polo. The guys on the team truly look up to Jack as their leader.”
With Del Mar Water Polo, he’s competed at Junior Olympics every year except for the pandemic years. For the Falcons, he plays the 1-2 side attacker and for club, he’s on the right side of the pool as the 4-5 side attacker. At Torrey Pines he’s often taking the shot or leading the drives while on the right side of the pool in club play it’s a lot more ing and setting everyone else up.
“I think my strongest part of the game is my awareness offensively,” Jack said. I feel like I always plan out and make the right es and make myself available when the ball needs to get to me.”
When he started talking to coaches about the next level in water polo, he was looking for a college where he could play but also one that would set him up for success in the future. He was drawn to the U.S. Naval Academy. The honor of attending a service academy comes with an obligation and commitment to serve in the military for a minimum of five years upon graduation.
“I fell in love with the idea that I’m really working toward something. I get to help out and contribute to my country and work for something more than just going to college and doing whatever I do after college,” Jack said. “I was pretty dead set on Navy—both of my parents went there so I was always exposed to military life and as I got older it became attractive to me when I started thinking about my future.”
Jack will be following in his parents’ wake as his mother swam for Navy and his dad played water polo and swam for the school. While he’s heard that “Plebe Summer,” the indoctrination for new students at the academy, can be really intense, he is actually excited to get it done.
He has always set high standards for himself and reaching this next level, he said, is his reward for those high hopes and hard work.
