Gulliver’s Vaughan and Ransom’s Lefebvre are Dade Water Polo Coaches of the Year
It had been nearly a decade since Ransom Everglades played for a state championship in boys’ water polo.
And on the girls’ side, Gulliver Prep continued to prove it was the best team in South Florida.
Their longtime coaches, Eric Lefebvre at Ransom, and Carroll Vaughan at Gulliver, continue to spearhead their respective teams’ standards for success.
This season was no different, which is why Lefebvre and Vaughan are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade Water Polo Coaches of the Year.
Lefebvre is the Boys’ Water Polo Coach of the Year after leading Ransom Everglades to the state final for the first time since 2017 when it last won a state championship.
Unfortunately for Ransom, which was ranked No. 1 nationally during the season, it was unable to complete a dream season after losing to Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas in the state title game.
But Ransom made strides for a program that had been seeking a return to state in recent years. The Raiders went 27-3 with a senior-laden group led by Miami Herald Boys’ Water Polo Player of the Year Jack Merrick. Ransom will look to regroup with its juniors and underclassmen to sustain what it accomplished this season.
Vaughan is the Girls’ Water Polo Coach of the Year.
Coming off a state championship last year, Gulliver had a bit of a younger roster as it hoped to repeat. As it often does, Gulliver gained valuable experience after playing a challenging schedule and survived the tough Miami-Dade region to return to the state final four. Although they lost to Winter Garden West Orange in the state semifinals, Vaughan is set to return the majority of her team for next season in the hopes of winning the program’s second state title in three seasons and 11th since 2001, which pre-dates the sport becoming sanctioned by the FHSAA.
