COULD BE A CLASSIC- Newbury Park's Thomas Delyon gets some extra work in the pool last JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers week in preparation for this weekend's Conejo Classic Water Polo Tournament. Starting Friday afternoon 24 teams, including five Marmonte League squads, will compete in the round-robin event. The Conejo Classic Water Polo Tournament keeps getting bigger every year.

This year, the event has expanded to 24 boys' teams and four different venues over two actionpacked days.

Host pools include Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Newbury Park high schools, as well as Mavericks Gym in Moorpark, home of the Moorpark High aquatics program.

"We're excited about the teams we have competing," tournament director and Thousand Oaks aquatics coach Mike Giles said during a phone message. "The competition should be great from top to bottom."

The field includes six fourteam divisions, with round-robin play slated to begin Friday afternoon at the various sites. Each team will play five games total over the two days.

On Saturday, the previous day's first-place division finishers will meet at Thousand Oaks to determine first through sixth place overall. Friday's secondplace divisional teams will play at Newbury Park on Saturday, with the six third-place squads facing off at Westlake. The fourth-place teams meet at Mavericks Gym.

Five teams from the Marmonte League- Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Newbury Park, Moorpark and Westlake- will compete. Rio Mesa, Camarillo, Pacifica and Oxnard will represent the Pacific View League.

Other area squads who will be in action include defending tournament champion Oaks Christian, Malibu, Ventura and Buena.

Westlake head coach Todd Irmas said after training and practicing against each other for the past few weeks, his player can't wait to face off against live competition.

"They're chomping at the bit right now; they can't wait to start playing," Irmas said. "They're getting stir-crazy."

Friday's matches will feature five-minute quarters. On Saturday the teams will play six-minute quarters and will be granted one timeout each.

Although it's very early in the season, Irmas expects the majority of the athletes in attendance to be primed to perform.

"Most of the coaches do their conditioning at this time of the year because it gets too crazy later on with all the games and stuff," Irmas said. "The players are probably in their absolute best shape at this point."

While many coaches will use the tournament as a way to gauge their teams' capabilities and prepare for the upcoming regular season, others, like Moorpark firstyear head coach Jason Nevis, will have an opportunity to scout the competition for the first time.

"It's going to be a learning experience for everyone, including myself," Nevis said.

"That's where I'm going to spend my Friday and Saturday, just sitting on the pool deck watching and paying attention so I know what to expect when we play these teams in our league games."

The tournament, which is free for spectators at all of the aforementioned sites, is sponsored by California Ultimate Designs and Outback Steakhouse.

Tournament field

Buena Burbank Calabasas Cabrillo Camarillo Cresenta Vlly. Dinuba Leland Lompoc Loyola Malibu Moorpark Newbury Park Nordhoff Oaks Christian Oxnard Pacifica Paso Robles Reedley Rio Mesa San Ynez TOHS Ventura Westlake