By Jacob Polacheck 
 

     “I have always been and will probably always be the most dominant physical force in the pool because I’ll always be the strongest. I’ll always be the fastest. It’s probably even a trademark of my game.”

 

     With an unfathomable winning streak still intact and two CIF titles, Stanford bound center, Ben Hallock has a great opportunity this year to cement his status as the best high school water polo player in the country. After leading Harvard Westlake(Studio City, California) to an incredible 48 game winning streak, Hallock continues to stay focused on the task at hand. “I don’t quite feel [the pressure] as much because I hold myself to an extremely high standard. I try not to think about the outside pressures. More pressure than anything has been becoming a leader for this team. It hasn’t been much added pressure. It’s what I expected from myself already, so anything below that has been pressure added by me.” Said Hallock on the pressure he feels to maintain the winning streak.

 

     Hallock first started playing water polo at the age of nine and started working with now Harvard Westlake Head Coach, Brian Flacks a year later. “He has been my coach since I was ten years old, when he was just graduating from Harvard Westlake. He’s been my coach the last seven years of my life and he’s been huge in helping me become the type of player that I am today.” With the help of Flacks, Hallock has become one of the most highly recruited water polo players in the Class of 2016 and on July 29, 2015, Hallock committed to the University of Stanford. “At the end of the day, I looked at it, water polo isn’t the biggest sport. It’s not something that will make me a lot of money, so I want to go to the best school possible and further my education. Stanford is a world class university and they also have world class water polo so I get the best of both worlds.” Hallock also held offers from UCLA and Pepperdine.

 

     Something that eased the pressure of the recruiting process for Hallock was the fact that his father was also recruited out of high school. “My family’s been really important throughout the recruiting process. My dad got recruited for football. He played football at USC and was recruited by USC and Stanford. He gave me his advice, [but] he also wanted to stay out of it and let it be my process, not try to tell me what to think when it comes to schools.”

 

 

     This season, Hallock has led Harvard Westlake to an undefeated 11-0 record this year, but with a rematch with Mater Dei coming up this week, they’ll face their toughest test of the season. “It's a very hostile environment that's extremely exciting to play in. They'll have a huge crowd. It'll be in Orange County, so that game will be a lot of fun.” Win or lose, Ben Hallock will certainly be a player to follow as he continues his career at Stanford.