Belen Jesuit’s De Leon and Gulliver’s Montalvo are Dade Water Polo Players of the Year

Gulliver Prep senior Gaby Montalvo has known since her sophomore year she wanted to attend Brown University.

Besides the academics and the chance to continue to play water polo there, it was the diverse range of topics she wanted to study that made the prestigious school appealing in the first place.

“I like that I can choose among different ‘concentrations’ as they call them, and merge them,” Montalvo said. “One is marketing and the science of decision making, and there are some art classes as well.”

Don’t be surprised if Montalvo succeeds at a wide range of pursuits outside of the pool.

Her talent in the pool is just as versatile and it’s why she was a dominant force once again this season, scoring a Miami-Dade County-best 132 goals and recording 84 steals to lead Gulliver to the state championship match for the second time in three years.

Over at Belen Jesuit, senior Andre De Leon showed similar versatility. De Leon made sure Belen earned another opportunity to play for a boys’ state title with 50 goals, 36 assists and 48 steals as he dominated at both ends of the pool to lead the Wolverines back to the final.

For these reasons, Montalvo and De Leon are this year’s Miami Herald’s Girls’ and Boys’ Water Polo Players of the Year respectively.

Montalvo capped one of the most dominant careers of any player in the county in recent years, which helped her team go 23-2 this season. Prior to the state final against Orlando Lake Nona, Gulliver had outscored its opponents by over 250 goals. Montalvo’s presence at Brown will no doubt help for similar success at the college level.

“I’m super stoked. I’m excited for the academics and the team dynamic out there,” Montalvo said.

For De Leon, his run with the Wolverines might be his last foray into water polo at least for the time being. De Leon is headed to Spain where he plans to study economics in college in Madrid.

But while Belen Jesuit is typically replete with talented water polo players, the Wolverines are sure not to forget one of their most instrumental players in recent years.

This season, De Leon evolved from being more of a distributor in the pool to one of the county’s more prolific scorers. And he did all this while not sacrificing one of the team’s most important principles - playing tough defense.

“Winning Player of the Year means a lot to me since I’ve worked so hard for the past seven years at getting better in water polo,” De Leon said. “The little moments with my teammates like when we go out of town and we bond together, that’s what I’ll always remember.”