Trafford one vote short of all-division honor

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Kayden Trafford swam and played water polo for Fallbrook High School as a freshman and sophomore. He still lives in Fallbrook, but due to academic reasons he transferred to San Pasqual High School for the 2020-21 school year. San Pasqual is in the Palomar League and in Division I for boys water polo, and Trafford was a second-team Palomar League selection for his junior year while missing all-division honors by one vote. He was also given the Golden Eagle Award by his teammates.

"Kayden's a force to be reckoned with," said San Pasqual High Coach Heather Calvin. "He's definitely somebody that people have to worry about when we play them."

Trafford scored 31 regular-season goals in 13 games, and he scored five additional goals during San Pasqual's two playoff contests for a total of 36 in 15 games. "That's huge," Calvin said. "It just shows how he was a dominating player."

Defensively Trafford recorded 52 steals and 18 field blocks including post-season games. "He dominated at guard for us this year," Calvin said.

The Palomar League post-season honors included seven players on the first team and seven players on the second team. San Pasqual finished third in the Palomar League standings, behind Westview and Poway. San Pasqual and Mission Hills are the only Palomar League teams without an on-campus pool.

San Pasqual's regular-season record was 6-7. The Golden Eagles played six of the eight teams in the Open Division playoffs. San Pasqual was in the Division I playoffs; a first-round win and a quarterfinals loss gave the team a final record of 7-8.

The all-division selections consisted of 10 players on the Division I first team and 10 players on the Division I second team. Trafford needed seven of the nine votes to be the final second-team selection and received six votes.

"He missed it by one vote. A lot of coaches within our division recognized what kind of a threat he was," Calvin said.

Calvin noted that guards are often overlooked when postseason awards are considered. "For someone to get noted as a player like that is a huge deal," she said.

The San Pasqual players voted for the Golden Eagle Award recipient. "The team thinks that he represents the program well, that he is a team player," Calvin said. "He fit in well to our family, our team. He did a great job defensively and offensively."

As a Fallbrook High School sophomore Trafford was given Valley League honorable mention recognition for the 2019 water polo season.