October 20, 2008

Winter Water Polo

The winter club season is rapidly approaching and I would like to encourage everyone to play this winter. A big reason SLUH has been so dominant in recent years is because the last three classes have collectively decided to play year round and play together. Playing year round used to be the exception, but now it is the norm. Not playing puts you at a strong disadvantage in this sport.

In recent years, Chaminade water polo players have played for Daisy Water Polo Club and Jungle Cat Water Polo. There are a handful of other clubs out there, such as SLAP, Mad Dog and Flyers. It doesn't matter to me which club you play for, as long as you play. I coach for Jungle Cat Water Polo, but I want to be clear that I want you to just play and everyone will be given a fair shot during the high school season regardless of whether you played for me or a different club.

Most information can be found on mowaterpolo.com, and the Jungle Cat sign up sheet can be found here: http://junglecatpolo.com/

If you need information on a different club, let me know and I'll try and find it for you.

Zone Tryouts

Quick announcement, there will be tryouts for the zone team on November 22nd. Information can be found here: http://www.mowaterpolo.com/calendar.html

A lot of the top players from the St. Louis area played on these teams in addition to playing for their high school and their club. It's good to get exposure to different styles of play and different coaches. The team is very beneficial if you want to try and play in college.

June 2, 2008

This Summer

Just a couple last minute announcements:

1) EVERYONE needs to play this summer. Even if it's part time, that's okay as I don't know of any club that requires 100% attendance. Most clubs are still having sign-ups and most start next Monday. PLEASE sign up to play for a club, ANY club. It's a simple fact that the more guys we have playing year round, the stronger our program will be. If you are having trouble or don't know where to start, send me an email or go to http://mowaterpolo.com and click on the "club teams" page. Personally, I coach for Jungle Cats and we will be practicing at Chaminade this summer.

2) There is a camp THIS WEEKEND at SLU that I think would be good for everyone. I don't know the coaching staff and this is their first camp in St. Louis, but they have really good credentials and it will be good for anyone to receive more coaching. I was promised that "the kids that are signed up will have an experience like none other." I will try and go on Sunday to meet the staff and check out what they are doing. Currently there are 20 spots available. This is their website: http://www.elitepolo.com/st_louis.html and I emailed all the CCP boys the brochure.

All-District Teams Named

Congratulations to Michael Kubik, Blake Stabler and Jack Benage for being recognized as "All-District" players, which is essentially "All-State". Michael and Blake were named to the 1st team and Jack was named to the 3rd team.

You can see the full results here: http://www.mowaterpolo.com/District%20Teams/2008District.html.

SLUH lead the way with six players being named, followed by Chaminade, DeSmet and Marquette with three a piece. I think it's fitting that SLUH doubled the number of All-District players as they nearly doubled everyone's scoring this year. It's also fitting that the other three final four teams have more honorees than the other schools. To be honest, I am satisfied with the results and unlike most years, it's hard to make a convincing argument that so-and-so is too high or too low. Congrats to all the selections, especially Michael, Blake and Jack. Good season guys!

May 19, 2008

SLUH 7 - Chaminade 3

You can read about the game and see a picture of Kevin Arnold yodeling here: http://prepsports.stltoday.com/ssi/prep/stories2008.nsf/waterpolo/story/76E2F79ACB1C6DFF8625744D001F4532?OpenDocument

About an hour before the State championship against SLUH, I could tell that the boys were acting a little funny. The conversation was light-hearted and everyone was very excited, but there wasn't any anxiety about the upcoming game. Which I thought was a good sign. But, there were a lot of sentences that began with "It would be great if we won, but..."so I decided to call a team meeting at halftime of the 3rd place game. I told the guys that they had an hour to mentally prepare to win the state title. The attitude of "we're just happy to be here" wasn't acceptable because in order to win a game, you first have to believe you can win it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the attitudes shifted at that moment and you could see in the eyes of the Red Devils that they wanted to win and they believed they could. The conversation shifted from "it would be great if" to "it will be great when" which is a big difference.

Our boys we came out in the 1st quarter likes bats out of hell. Our goal going into the game was to have no regrets. We wanted to do everything we could to do the impossible and for a while, it seemed like the impossible was possible. Usually the ones on the delivering end of quick goals and counter-attack breakaways, SLUH found themselves playing from behind early on two counter-attack goals by Jack Benage and Danny Faust.

The CCP defense was amazing in the first half. We forced many bad passes by pressing on the perimeter without fouling. The bad passes resulted in a lot of steals and quick counter attacks. After the first two goals, SLUH had their best defender, Michael O'Neill, stay on their defensive side of half the rest of the game to thwart the CCP counter. And it worked as the Red Devils couldn't get anything going out of the half-court...but neither could SLUH.

SLUH opened up their scoring on a 5M from Tim Dale. It would be the first of three 5M's called on the Red Devils in this game (Tim scored on two of them), and I could never get a satisfactory explanation from either referee on any of them. The first was apparently on Blake who had both of his hands up, the second was on Arnold who was even with his man when the foul was committed (if he was fouling from behind I would have agreed) and the third was called on Kubik with the ball two or three strokes away from the SLUH player (how can it be a probable goal if he doesn't even have the ball?)

SLUH's second goal was again scored by Tim Dale who took Kevin Arnold into the hole and still rifled off a shot Kevin hanging all over him. Their third goal was the aforementioned Kubik 5M in the third quarter, again scored by Tim who had SLUH's first three goals. I have been coaching Tim since he was a freshman, and it was a dominant performance by him. It was one of the best games he has probably ever played and he received my vote for Player of the Year.


Despite the fluke 5M's, CCP's defense was great and we went into the second half tied 2-2. Another rendition of "Living on a Prayer" contributed to our good moods and I thought we were ready to take it to them again. Unfortunately, that 5M on Kubik was called early in the 3rd quarter and then the wheels started coming off. I'm not sure if we were tired and drained from the emotional roller-coaster the night before, or if SLUH was that much better than us, or the fact that we prepared so much for DeSmet that we ignored preparing for SLUH...whatever it was, after our first 2 goals, we gave up 6 unanswered goals until Chris Watkins stopped the bleeding in the 4th.

Although the result was not ideal, we still played a great game. It was the toughest anyone had played SLUH all year (it was the only game all season where SLUH didn’t at least double the opponents goal total) and we should be very proud of our accomplishments this season. At the beginning of the year, our goal was to make it to the state final and I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we have no regrets. We defied expectations and our season was a success.

Coaches Awards:
Most Valuable Player – Michael Kubik
Offensive Player of the Year – Michael Kubik
Defensive Player of the Year – Jake Entwistle
Most Improved – Chris Duncan
Rookie of the Year (1st Year on Varsity) – Chris Watkins
Most POTGs – Blake Stabler and Jake Entwistle

On behalf of the team, I would like to thank all of the parents for all of their support throughout the year. You have no idea how much you have carried us this season. From the cowbells, to the cheering, to the blinking Devils, to the dyslexic signs, to the Gatorade, water bottles and after-game snacks, it was a phenomenal performance by the parents this year. And at no point in the season could we say “nobody believes in us” because our parents always did (even my parents!). There was also a fantastic showing by alumni and even the parents of alumni. We truly have a great water polo community at Chaminade.

A very special thanks is owed to Bill Stabler and Kin Watkins for all of their hard work on the stats this year. The boys were very happy to have accurate stats and having the stats creates a good historical record of the season. If this were a banquet, I would ask for a round of applause. Thanks Bill and Kin!

Personally, I need to thank my parents and my girlfriend Mandy for all for their support this year. Thanks also to Coach Larry Stream who did a fantastic job with the JV and whose assistance was invaluable this season. Thank you to Patrick St. Cin for being our third coach when he was in town and helped us prepare for DeSmet. Thanks to Tom Fiala and Kevin Brennan for taking care of all of the details.

Lastly, I need to thank the senior class. Going in, I wanted to form a partnership with the seniors and try to do the best I could to achieve their goals. After all, it was their team and the season was going to be what they made of it. Well, they made it a season that none of us will ever forget. As the saying goes, you never forget your first time, and I’m glad I had such a great group of guys to lead me through my first time. I’ll miss you guys next year. Good luck in college, and make sure you come back to see us next year, Grassi’s will be on me!

Chaminade 5 - DeSmet 4

In the most exciting game I have ever been a part of, the Chaminade Red Devils upset the DeSmet Spartans 5-4.

CCP's Senior Michael Kubik started the scoring and really put the heat on DeSmet from the beginning. DeSmet's sophomore Andrew Schonhoff responded for the Spartans with 24 second remaining in the first to tie the game at 1-1. The second quarter was all CCP as Jake Entwistle, Jack Benage (on a 5M!) and Jack Meara all knotted goals. In typical Jake fashion, he got pissed off and decided to go into set and make something happen. Danny Faust set the ball and Jake tried a couple moves but wasn't awarded a foul. He looked around to see if anyone was driving, but they were all telling him to shoot, so Jake shrugged off his defender and barred in a lob to the far corner. We were celebrating the goal and rolling on the ground laughing at the same time. Another DeSmet sophomore, Matt Stiponovich, ended the Red Devil scoring streak with a unstoppable bullet to the near corner (un-savable in my mind) and we went into the second half up 4-2.

Halftime was not all smiles as the Red Devils were clearly still intense and focused and were disappointed by the DeSmet goals and some missed opportunities of our own. There was also a certain junior I told to cheer up who then told me he was "scared to death". I think sophomore Kevin Glauber felt the tension and started one of the most memorable moments of the night. The back story is that we created a team CD, where everyone chose a song and everyone on the team had a copy of the CD, including me. Senior Blake Stabler chose Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" for his song. I found it odd that Blake chose a song that is older than he is and is the anthem for every girl I ever met in college, but it was perfect. During a treading drill in practice, at the halfway point, the boys would sing the chorus..."whoa, we're halfway there, whoa-oh living on a prayer"...and I thought it was hilarious. Well as we were huddling up to get ready for the second half, Kevin sang the first couple notes..."whoa, we're halfway there"...and the rest of us, whether out of habit or sheer spontaneity or as a stress release finished off the chorus..."Whoa-oh! Living on a prayer! Take my hand, we'll make it I swear! Whoa-oh! Living on a prayer!" It was the ultimate team moment and I will never forget it.

Well, the second half wasn't as productive offensively as the first, with only one goal coming from Jack Benage two minutes into the third, but it didn't need to be as our defense was stifling and Blake's goaltending was amazing. The game plan was to play a drop-zone to prevent weak side passes and keep the ball out of the middle of the goal so the Spartans would be forced to take outside shots and beat Blake from the perimeter. Every time we played DeSmet up to this point, they would get the ball down on the left wing and drive someone hard to the right (usually Junior Danny Holtgrewe) and make cross-goal passes and score back-door. The plan hinged on Blake playing a great game, and he rose to the challenge making 14 saves. A couple of coaches who came to watch put it, "He stopped everything."

The zone worked all day except for a one minute span where Danny Holtgrewe got free for two goals. In principle, Danny scored the type of goals our defense was designed to prevent, but DeSmet took a play our of our playbook and ran flat-wing picks to get Danny open weak-side and he capitalized on two goals in the third to bring the score to 5-4. But we adjusted, and for the first time all season, we learned from a mistake and shut that play down. The defense was perfect from that point forward and despite some scares, including a 5M shot, 4 man-advantages, and some point-blank opportunities, the defense held and we pulled out a last second victory.

Overall, it was the one of the best games we had played all season and it was by far the most gratifying. We beat a team that we had played close all season and we executed the game plan when it counted. Our offense was aggressive early and our defense was near-perfect. I am very proud of the way we played and we accomplished our goal of making it to the state finals.

Goals: Benage - 2, Entwistle - 1, Kubik - 1, Meara - 1
Assists: Benage - 2, Faust - 1, Kubik - 1
Steals: Faust - 3, Kubik - 3, Benage - 2, Watkins - 2, Arnold - 1, Entwistle -1, Fernandez -1, Stabler - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 3 (first time all season anyone has gotten red-flagged), Kubik -1, and one unrecorded for the 5M

Player of the Game: Stabler - 14 saves on 18 shots, 1 steal and "stopping everything".

May 17, 2008

Prepcasts Live Broadcast of Districts

Hey everyone, it's Jack Benage here. I wanted to pop in to double check to see if everyone was aware of the live broadcasts being done by Prepcasts. Prepcasts has been doing audio broadcasts of the district tournament games. I wanted to make sure you all had the link for tonight's game so that if you are unable to make it to the finals tonight but you are around a computer and wanted to, you could listen to the game.


Tonight's broadcast of the Chaminade vs. SLUH finals game is accessible here:

Also, if you want to relive last night's game, or didn't have a chance to see it and would like to listen to it. Prepcasts keeps an archive of old broadcasts. The Chaminade vs. Desmet semi-final game can be found here:


On a side note: Thank you to all who have been attending our games and cheering us on. Your support certainly does not go unnoticed and the team really appreciates it. It's great to look up into the stands and see a sea of red. 

We'll see you tonight!
Go Devils!
~Jack

May 16, 2008

Tonight v. DeSmet

Tonight the Chaminade Red Devils play in the district (state) semi-final against the rival DeSmet Spartans. The game starts at 8:00 PM out at St. Peter's Rec-Plex.

There isn't really anything to say about this game that hasn't been said many times already. We have seen them three times and all three times they played hard the whole game and we did not. The 4th quarter has been our downfall...we were down 5-4 after three in the first game only to lose 9-6...we were up 4-2 after three in the second game, only to give up two 4th quarter goals and end up losing in overtime...we were tied 3-3 after three in the third game, only to give up five 4th quarter goals for our third loss.

If you have a dangerous enemy down, you can't let up, you can't relax or they can come back on you.

I'm fired up for tonight. It's going to be exciting and a lot of fun. I hope we can fill the stands with a sea of red.

Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust

May 14, 2008

Chaminade 9 - Ladue 4

Final Four here we come!

The Red Devils came to play on Wednesday night and completed the sweep of the Ladue Rams, who have been an increasingly tough opponent all year. The comments from our boys regarding the Rams have been nothing but positive and they were great competitors all season. I'm glad this was the last time we had to face them, because they might beat us if we had to meet again.

Right from the get-go, you could tell the CCP boys were fired up and played very aggressively on the offensive end. We countered hard, we made good passes and we attacked the goal. The goal output was a very consistent 3 goals per quarter until we pulled back the reigns in the 4th quarter.

Defense was a little shaky in the early going as a lack of communication gave the Rams a lot of opportunities in the first half. Senior goalie Blake Stabler bailed his teammates out often as we got caught watching and left the most dangerous shooter open (the idea is to let the guys hanging out at half be open and guard everyone who is 7M or closer to the goal...it's also not a good idea to make your teammate swim from 2M to 2M). Blake's 21 saves were a season high and is playing his best water polo at the end of the season, which is awesome. There were some passes in the second half that had me scratching my head, but he still played a great game.

Things that went right:

  • Goaltending
  • Defensive recovery - we made mistakes, but we recovered well and usually didn't repeat the mistake
  • Offensive aggressiveness - we attacked, attacked and then attacked some more. A great offensive effort
Things that went not so right:
  • Communication - how many times has this appeared in this section? Too many. It got better in the second half, but we still need to talk to each other in the water more
  • 6-on-5 - I made the mistake of calling a timeout when the goalie got kicked out, but we still should have scored on the time out. Also we took a lob on 6-on-5...a big no-no.
  • 5M shot - I think Jack was too tired, I should have had Kubik take it.
Goals: Benage - 3, Kubik - 2, Arnold - 1, Entwistle -1, Meara - 1, Watkins - 1
Assists: Kubik - 3, Stabler - 2, Benage - 1, Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1
Steals: Kubik - 4, Meara - 4, Entwistle - 1, Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Schwartz - 1, Stabler - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Stabler - 21

Player of the Game: Stabler - 21 Saves on 24 shots, 2 assists and 1 steal

Up Next: 8:00PM on Friday May 16th v. DeSmet at St. Peters Rec-Plex.

Tonight v. Ladue

Tonight, the 3rd ranked Boys in Red will begin their post-season quest against the 6th ranked Ladue Rams. The game will start at 6:15PM at the St. Peter's Rec-Plex and I would like the boys to try and arrive at 5:00PM.

This will be the 4th meeting of these two teams with the last meeting ending 5-3 just 10 days ago. Ladue is a very good team with two excellent 2M's Zach Varwig and Hayden Yancey. Their goalie is unheralded, but has played very well against us this year. We need to do a good job of getting cross-goal shots and using fakes to keep him off-balance.

It's "make or break" time as this could be our last game of the season. I have been saying all along, we are a great team, maybe the best team, if we are all focused and we execute. We cannot win this game on athleticism alone, we need to be ready and focused. I'm pumped. See you there.

Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette

May 12, 2008

Summer Water Polo

I highly encourage everyone who wants to play water polo next year for Chaminade to play for a club this summer. There are a handful of clubs in the area and all have different advantages and disadvantages, but all are doing a good job at developing their players. The clubs that participate in the Strike Zone summer league are the ones I would recommend, and they are Daisy, Jungle Cats, Mad Dog and SLAP. Flyers is a good club as well, but I believe they don't have a club this summer because Lindbergh pool is under repair.

As for me, this summer will be my 5th summer coaching for Jungle Cat Water Polo. Jungle Cats was started when I was in high school by SLUH's varsity coach Paul Baudendistel and we just celebrated our tenth season. The last few years have been very successful as we have won the Strike Zone league three times straight and have gone out to California twice to participate in Junior Olympics. This summer, we will again be travelling to play in the Junior Olympics in Irvine, CA.

I would very much like everyone to play for a club, any club, as playing for a team and being coached year round exponentially increases a high school player's experience and ability. As I've said many times before, water polo in this city is not like soccer where everyone has been playing since they were 6 years old and by the time you reach high school you only get incrementally better each year. Since most kids START playing in high school, water polo is a sport in which you can increase your experience EXPONENTIALLY by playing during the offseason.

So again, PLAY this summer, for any club. There are different clubs with different practice times at different locations, so pick the one that is right for you. I will not play favorites to those who play for me at Jungle Cats.

FYI: Jungle Cats will be practicing at Chaminade this summer. Sign-ups have begun and more information can be found at http://junglecatpolo.com/

Senior Bio: Dan Fernandez

Name: Dan Fernandez
Age: 18
Height: 6'2''
Weight: 220
Grade Started at Chaminade: 6th
Going to College: SMU
Best Water Polo Skill: Passing and breaking for offense
Favorite Water Polo Moment: Last year, after I subbed in the middle of a game at the Rec-Plex vs DeSmet, I got the ball on our 7m from blake, and drove it all the way down to DeSmet's right post and skipped it past the goalie.
Quote: "ATTACK!" -Jack Benage


May 8, 2008

CCPWP Development Program continues today

The turnout so far to the Development Program has been encouraging, but I think we can do better. Remember, ANY Chaminade student that is a sophomore or younger can attend. No prior experience is required. It's a fun time and we play and shoot a lot. The more students that attend, the brighter Chaminade's water polo future will be!

Senior Bio: Blake Stabler

Name: Blake William Stabler
Age: 18
Height: 6-2
Weight: 177
Grade Started At Chaminade: 6
Going to College: Mercyhurst
Best Water Polo Skill: Shot-blocking
Favorite Water Polo Moment: I'll let you know after the state finals
Quote: "I wish my girlfriend would call me coach" -Jake Entwistle

May 7, 2008

Senior Bio: Jack Benage

My girlfriend came up with the idea of putting player bios on the site so casual fans could get to know the players better. It's also nice filler as we wait agonizingly long for our next game. Here is the first stab at it. I'm starting with Jack Benage because he is the first one to send me his bio with a picture. Enjoy!


Name: Jack Benage
Age: 18
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 145
Grade Started at Chaminade: Attended 6th - 12th
Going to College: SMU (Southern Methodist University)
Best Water Polo Skill: Irritating Coach.........Just Awareness in General
Favorite Water Polo Moment: A couple years back, during club season, the opposing team shot the ball hard enough to rebound off the crossbar all the way back to his own goalie who wasn't paying attention. The ball hit his goalie in the head and went in. He shot on the right goal, but scored on his own team!
Quote: Some favorites right now:
  • "We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are." - Calvin & Hobbes

  • "Learn to embrace the chaos." - Dr. Greg Mantych

  • "I'm a threat!!" - Danny Faust

May 6, 2008

All-Conference Teams Named

The All-Conference selections were announced today. Out of respect for the players on other teams (they should hear it from their coach), I will only mention our boys:

First Team: Michael Kubik, Blake Stabler
Second Team: Jack Benage

Congratulations guys! All three of you are very deserving of the honor and I believe that is about the right number of players from a team in third place in such a talented conference. Also, I think these three will be eligible to make the All-District team that gets voted on later and I expect all of them to be in the running.

May 5, 2008

District Rankings Set

The Chaminade Red Devils were voted #3 by area coaches, which is exactly where I think we belong based on our season so far. Can we end up #1? I think so. We just have to be firing on all cylinders come tournament time.

Our first game will be Wednesday May 14th out at the Rec-Plex. We have a first round bye so do not know our opponent yet. We will play the winner of #6 Ladue and #11 Parkway South, two teams that we have played at least twice this year. A victory in our first game, which is the quarter-finals, would put us in the semi-finals, likely against DeSmet (again, a team we have seen three times). A loss in the first game would end our season. Ladue and South play this Saturday at Rec-Plex, so I strongly suggest we go out an watch that game in order to mentally prepare for next Wednesday. These are two good teams that have the ability to upset us and send us home early. We need to be ready.

Since we don't have a game for 9 days, I likely won't post for about a week until there is some news to report. I hope your imaginations can keep you busy until then.

Chaminade 5 - Ladue 3

Jake Entwistle is my hero. Jake is probably our most gifted player physically and when he puts his mind to something (like setting up in the hole and ripping a halo backhand for a game-winning goal) he can do almost anything in the water. Now if I can only learn to get him to put his mind to doing that ALL THE TIME, then the Red Devils might be looking at the school's first water polo title.

The game was very nerve-wrecking (or is it nerve-racking? Not sure which it is). As expected, our team defense was excellent, allowing one first half goal on a perfect shot into the corner that most Olympians couldn't have saved. Ladue's second goal came in the 4th off a counter attack. The Rams leading scorer, Zach Varwig, left Jake as he was walking towards the goal with the ball. Our lack of communication again came back to bite us as Blake, Jake and everyone else on the bench (including me) should have made sure someone was going back to cover Zach. Jack Meara got the message too late and Zach had a one-on-one with Blake (impossible for the goalie to stop). As a lesson to all, you cannot let someone "cherry pick". If a defender leaves for offense, you need to go with him (or make sure someone is going back for you). Ladue's third goal was a weak backhand that caught Blake by surprise and he still nearly saved it.

Q: So if the defense was so good, why was the game nerve-wrecking/racking?
A: Because our offense was so flat that we didn't score until 3 minutes into the second half.

The opportunities were there for us, especially in the first half with at least 4 breakaways. I can point to many things that we could have done better, but the offensive woes boil down to three things:

  1. Having beaten Ladue twice already, the boys were not focused before the game. As a team that beats teams by being smarter and executing better than the other team, being unfocused before a game is suicide. We aren't a bunch of 200 lb. bruisers who can have an off night and get by on our athleticism. We need to have sharp mental focus if we are to succeed.
  2. Even though we practice passing ad nauseum during practice, our passing (especially wet passing to a guarded or moving target) is atrocious. We do a good job getting open on offense, but the window to get the ball to an open driver is small and we need to execute better.
  3. Senior captain Kevin Arnold was out with a concussion that he suffered during the DeSmet game. Largely considered the emotional leader and one of the better passers, Kevin's absence magnified that two biggest problem areas in this game.
But, we survived and finsihed third in the Suburban Central Conference. We persisted and we did not give up. I'm proud of the way we played in such a close and emotional game. We will likely see this team again, so we need to make sure we get up for it next time.

Side note: if the shot clock is off (less than 35 second remaining) and you are in the lead, you NEVER should shoot. Shooting gives the other team an opportunity to make a play and come back on you. Even if you are all alone in front of the cage, I would prefer you hold the ball rather than try and score. History is littered with examples of people having a "sure thing" like a goal on an open cage and the sure thing ends up going awry. The best thing to do is play keep-away until the clock runs out.

Goals: Kubik - 2, Benage - 1, Entwistle - 1, Watkins - 1
Assists: Meara - 2, Benage - 1, Kubik - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Kubik - 3, Benage - 2, Duncan - 2, Meara - 2, Faust - 1, Hoette -1, Stabler -1
Kickouts: NONE
Saves: Stabler - 15

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 1 goal (game winner) on 1 shot, 6 steals and displayed his ability to be an unstoppable beast if he wants to be.

Up next: Districts!

May 2, 2008

Senior Blake Stabler Honored

Blake was honored as one of the seven Athletes of the Week for April 30th by the Post-Dispatch. It's a big week for Blake as he also signed his letter of intent to Mercyhurst College. Congratulations Blake!

May 1, 2008

DeSmet 8 - Chaminade 5

The Red Devils again could not put together a 28 minute game as DeSmet tallied 5 goals in the 4th quarter (the most goals scored against in a single quarter) for 3 consecutive victories this season against Chaminade. Tied 3-3 going into the 4th after three great quarters, I was confident in the team’s ability to prevent the Spartans from scoring without the aid of the bottom of the pool, and it worked for the first 3 minutes of the quarter. With 4:36 remaining, CCP’s Junior 2M guard Chris Duncan got an ejection on the perimeter and the wheels started to come off. I made the mistake of telling Peter Hoette to leave a man in the middle, which resulted in a Spartan goal and a 4-3 lead.

On the very next position, the Spartan’s Danny Holtgrewe notched his third goal of the game on a cross-goal pass with CCP’s Jake Entwistle holding his arm. The pass had to be perfect (and it was) and Danny had to be strong enough to shoot with Jake on him (and he was). It’s tough to stop something like that.

The Red Devils were looking really down at this point, and I was losing my cool (sorry about that, I guess I just wanted to win pretty badly), but we didn’t give up (yet). Two possessions after Holtgrewe’s third goal, Junior Chris Watkins broke out of his shell and notched his second goal off a foul outside 5M. Clearly, this game was Chris’ coming out party as he played his best game of the year finally finding the offensive aggressiveness I knew he had. As Jack Benage said to me: “Chris is better than he thinks he is”.

We were back within one with three minutes remaining, but we were either too physically overmatched or mentally beaten down to overcome the deficit. DeSmet kept after the Red Devils with relentless countering and back door drives and notched two more goals on consecutive possession to put away the Red Devils. Down three, Junior Jack Meara didn’t give up and was a one-man wrecking crew getting possession of the ball deep in front of the cage, got a hard shot off, went after the rebound and forced DeSmet’s goalie to take the ball under, resulting in a Chaminade 5M attempt, which Jack Benage buried. Jack and Jack’s efforts were too late as the Spartans still led by 2 with less than two minutes remaining. A late Benage kickout and a DeSmet 6-on-5 goal capped the scoring.

The story, as I see it, is an old cliché: they wanted to win more than we did. We played a solid 24 minutes; the Spartans played a full 28. The biggest compliment I can pay DeSmet is they never faltered, never quit. They kept coming at us with a relentless and invincible attitude that we usually bring to every game. Luckily, this wasn’t districts and we will get a chance at redemption. Now we need to focus on Ladue on Saturday.

Things that went right (during the first 24 minutes):

  • Offensive aggressiveness – we countered hard and took a lot of high quality shots off of ball side drives. Kubik and Benage had a lot of fast-break opportunities. Arnold and Meara had good chances in the hole. The opportunities were there, and you don’t get opportunities like that without doing a lot of things right.
  • Anticipation – our best game of the year from an anticipation standpoint. I don’t recall any DeSmet player getting a fast break in the first 24 minutes. I don’t even recall a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2. We hustled back to defense. We also left early for offense when the clock ran down (see: offensive aggressiveness). Kubik, Benage, Arnold, Meara and Watkins were all anticipating and were hungry for goals. I loved the killer instinct.
  • 6-on-5 – 1 for 2. Kubik’s pass to Meara was perfect.
  • 5M shots – I guess “5M Survivor” is working

Things that went not so right;

  • COMMUNICATION – maybe it’s a product of my talking the whole game, but I stopped counting the number of times our guys would switch on defense and didn’t call it out. I also stopped counting the number of times we didn’t call for help when we got beat on defense. I only have 10 fingers and 10 toes.
  • Shooting – sometimes you shoot well and sometimes you don’t and sometimes you score 5 goals on 27 shots for the lowest shooting percentage of the year (18%). For those parents wondering, you aren’t supposed to throw the ball at the goalie’s hands. Looking back, with the number and quality of our shots in the first and third quarter, we were two or three near-side-lows from blowing them out (i.e. a 3-3 game after three could have easily been 6-3 or 7-3).
  • Defensive break downs and learning from mistakes – goes hand-in-hand with communication. If you know a team is going to try to go back door on you, it might be a good idea to not let the weak side wing get open.
  • Too many kickouts – dropping your hips and over-committing against good players will result in a season high in kickouts (we also got 4 kickouts in our loss to Marquette…don’t think there isn’t a correlation between kickouts and losing).

Goals: Watkins – 2, Benage – 1, Kubik – 1, Meara – 1
Assists: Stable r – 2, Kubik – 1
Steals: Stabler – 4, Arnold – 3, Entwistle – 3, Benage – 2, Duncan – 2, Meara – 2, Faust – 1, Kubik – 1
Kickouts: Benage – 2, Duncan – 1, Meara – 1
Saves: Stabler – 7

Player of the Game: Watkins – 2 goals on 2 shots in a “coming out party”. Add him to the list of guys on our team who makes things happen.

Up Next: 7:00 PM Saturday May 3rd v. Ladue at Ladue.

April 30, 2008

Goalie Blake Stabler to sign letter of intent

In case you didn't know, today Senior goaltender Blake Stabler is signing his letter of intent to play water polo at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. The Lakers already have one St. Louisan on the team, DeSmet grad Andrew Schonhoff. Congratulations to Blake and we wish him the best of luck in college.

Where are the other seniors going to college you ask? Here is what I know off the top of my head:
Kevin Arnold - St. Louis University
Jack Benage - Southern Methodist University
Dan Fernandez - Southern Methodist University
Michael Kubik - St. Louis University
Kevin Rejko - University of Missouri - Columbia

I don't know what their plans are, but SLU, Mizzou and SMU all have water polo clubs. I hope the boys continue to play the sport they love. I also Hope they come back and give back to the sport, thru either coaching or refereeing. You can bet I will be hounding Arnold and Kubik to ref next year!

Tonight v. DeSmet

Tonight it's CCP-DeSmet Part III. The game will start at 7:30 PM at MICDS. We will again be short Kevin Glauber who will be playing for the JV in the conference tournament. Kevin will be back on varsity for the district tournament.

We have seen DeSmet twice and have lost both times by scores of 9-6 and 5-4. Those numbers tell me two things:

  1. We have improved since the first meeting
  2. We lost, but we didn't lose by a significant margin

In fact, we were tied 6-6 going into the 4th quarter of the first matchup and we went to overtime in the second matchup. Even in those basic facts, it's easy to see that we can play with these guys and if we are firing on all cylinders, we can beat them. I expect it will an intense game and I think both teams will come out early with a lot of energy and aggressiveness. Let's do our best to pack the house with red shirts and cowbells! I'm waiting for the day when Bill Stabler and Kin Watkins show up to scorekeep with red face paint.

Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust

April 29, 2008

Chaminade 9 - Parkway South 0

The first shutout of the season! The Red Devils continued imposing their defensive will this season by shutting down the Parkway South Patriots. Despite early offensive woes, the Red Devils never relented on defense and frustrated the talented Patriots all night.

On the offensive end, the Boys in Red tallied the second lowest shooting percentage in a win, and the fourth lowest shooting percentage all season. As expected, South's Jim Bowers was a wall in the first half and kept Chaminade to only three first half goals. But, the Red Devils never relented and never got discouraged with themselves or each other. When things aren't going the way you want, you can choose to give up and bicker amongst yourselves or you can choose to persist. Our boys were persistent and I'm proud of them. Seniors Jack Benage (5 goals) and Michael Kubik (3 goals) led the team out of the slump by countering hard all the way to the goal and attacking the goal whenever the opportunity arose.

We have DeSmet up next, hopefully tonight's second half carries thru to the next game so we can get a jump on the Spartans early and never look back.

Goals: Benage - 5, Kubik - 3, Meara - 1
Assists: Stabler - 5, Kubik - 1, Meara - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Kubik - 7, Stabler - 6, Entwistle - 4, Benage - 3, Faust - 3, Watkins - 3, Arnold - 2, Meara - 2, Hoette - 1
Kickouts: Meara - 1
Saves: Stabler - 11

Player of the Game: Stabler - 11 saves, 5 assists, 6 steals and his first career shutout

Up Next: The semi-finals of the Suburban South Conference Tournament. 7:30 PM on Wednesday April 30th v. DeSmet at MICDS.

Tonight v. Parkway South

Tonight, the Red Devils begin the post-season against the Parkway South Patriots. This is the first round of the Suburban Central Conference Tournament. The game will be played at MICDS and will start at 7:30 PM. This is our second meeting with the Patriots this year. The Red Devils won the first matchup 9-3 in what was a closer game than the score shows.

South's Senior goalie Jim Bowers is one of the best in the area and we need to make sure we take premium shots. We need to make Jim move side to side and we need to fake in order to lock him down. Jim can be a game changer and if he is on, South will be difficult to beat.

Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold
#6 Jake Enwistle
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette

April 24, 2008

Conference Tournament schedule set

Chaminade's varsity and junior varsity are both ranked 3rd in the Suburban Central Conference. JV's first game will be against 2nd ranked DeSmet at 6:15PM on Wednesday May 7th at Ladue High School, giving the JV a full week and a half to prepare. This will be the 4th meeting against DeSmet's strong JV team. Even though our JV has been able to compete with the Spartans, DeSmet has won the previous 3 meetings. A win puts the JV in the finals of the conference tournament. A loss will give the JV an opportunity to play for 3rd place.

The varsity will meet 7th ranked Parkway South for the second time at 7:30PM on Tuesday April 29th at MICDS. The Red Devils won the first meeting 9-3 at Parkway South. A victory puts the Red Devils in the semi-finals against the winner of DeSmet and John Burroughs on Wednesday. A loss will lead to the consolation bracket (and it is very possible to lose to South). We have 3 days of practice to prepare for a tough game.

CCPWP Development Program rolls along

So far, the Development Program has been a great success! We have been getting strong numbers and we can tell this school has a bright water polo future. We would still like to have more participation! Even if you don't plan on playing for the team next spring, you can still come out and try the sport out. There is no pressure and practices are fun.

Sessions continue today at 3:15PM and will occur every Thursday through May 15th, which will be the 6th and final session. We hope to see you there!

April 21, 2008

Chaminade 13 - John Burroughs 3

Senior Night was a roaring success. The Red Devil seniors came out strong and the rest of the team followed up by dismantling the Bombers 13-3. The effort was there from start to finish and but for a Dan Fernandez kickout, a last second bomb and a backhand, the boys would have had a shutout. In one of my proudest moments as a coach, I overhead the Burroughs players talking after the game and one of them said "I like playing that team." The Red Devils played a hard clean game and didn't showboat or embarrass anyone. We won the right way and I'm proud.

Goals: Fernandez - 3, Kubik - 3, Duncan - 2, Arnold - 1, Entwistle - 1, Meara - 1, Rejko - 1, Stabler - 1
Assists: Benage - 4, Glauber - 2, Watkins - 2, Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Stabler - 2
Steals: Stabler - 6, Entwistle - 4, Benage - 3, Kubik - 3, Schwartz - 2, Watkins - 2, Faust - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1
Kickouts: Fernadez - 1

Player of the Game: Rejko - best 5M shot of the year in the seniors' last home game

Up Next: The Conference Tournament. I will post when I know our ranking.

Tonight v. John Burroughs

Tonight at 7:00 PM at Chaminade, the Red Devils varsity will close out the regular season against John Burroughs. The JV will play SLUH's JV tonight at 6:00 PM at Chaminade and will have one more regular season game against DeSmet's JV on Tuesday at MICDS.

Tonight's game against Burroughs will be the seniors last home game, so please come out early and support them on Senior Night. We'll see you tonight as we try and kick off a new winning streak (that hopefully won't end until next year).

Starters for varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#7 Kevin Rejko
#11 Dan Fernandez

DeSmet 5 - Chaminade 4 (OT)

This one is on me. There are two major mistakes I made in this game and, either through inexperience, stubbornness or stupidity, I couldn't realize what was going on. The most obvious mistake was the last play of the game. After the opposing team scores a goal (such as DeSmet did with 4 seconds remaining in overtime) you can call a timeout and then you are allowed to set up in the offensive side of half. Even though I have known this rule since I was a kid, it somehow slipped my mind in this instance and we settled for a half court shot...albeit a really good half-court shot by Jake Entwistle.

The second mistake is less obvious. We went into the 4th quarter leading 4-2 and we had DeSmet on their heels. We had our foot on their throats...and we let up. And I could tell we were letting up. I could see that we were playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. That, as you know, is a dangerous game to play. I had a timeout in hand and should have used it to wake the boys up to what was going on...but I guess I was playing not to lose as well. I figured our defense was playing so well that a timeout would only give their best players a rest and the longer play went on, the better our advantage would be. I was wrong, and the more tentative we played on our offensive end, the more aggressive they became.

The two lessons learned from this game are:

  1. Our defense is nearly impossible to score upon if all 7 guys in the water are focused and working hard. If one guys lets up, the machine breaks down and a good team will take advantage of the break down. You can't relax against a good team or you get two back-door goals scored against you.
  2. Against teams that hold and grab your legs or your suit, you cannot rely on the referees to call a foul. DeSmet likes to run plays that cause chaos so the referees can't see that a lot of the defenders are getting held. It's illegal, but a cheap way to get a goal if 11 seconds are left in overtime. My message to our players is this: you know you are going to get held, so you need to make sure you don't get held. Especially on those chaos plays, we need to have our hips up and keep our distance from their players. If you do get grabbed, don't sink and pray for a call, get your hips up and start swimming and kicking as hard as you can.

I say this a lot to the boys, there is a fine line between being aggressive and being dirty. There is a difference between kicking someone and someone getting kicked. When my suit would be held in college, I would get my hips up and flutter kick so hard and fast that either the guy holding me would let go or he was about to get a concussion. I would never aim for a defender or try to harm him, but I was determined to swim away from him and if he wanted to ride along he was risking getting hurt.

Overall, it was one of our best performances. Our game plan worked for the first 3 quarters and we were in control. We were very efficient in our shooting (4 for 10) and rarely rushed or forced a shot. But, I think we still have a lot of room for improvement. I want us to play a full game of defense, not just 90% of a game. I want us to finish teams off, too often we let teams back in the game. I want us to finish our drives, we do many great things on the offensive end but never get a quality shot off. I want us to know our roles, who should be guarding the back line and who should be guarding up top. I want us to have different offensive plays and different defensive schemes so we aren't so predictable.

One more conference game and then we are in the post season. We will get another chance at DeSmet in the conference tournament, so we need to be ready. I am looking forward to practice this week.

Goals: Kubik - 3, Benage - 1
Assists: Benage -1, Meara - 1, Stabler - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Stabler - 6, Duncan - 4, Benage - 3, Kubik - 2, Meara - 2, Hoette - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Stabler - 11

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 6 steals, fantastic 2M defense and did not take a sub once

Up Next: Monday April 21st v. John Burroughs at Chaminade. JV plays SLUH's JV at 6:00 PM and the varsity game against JBS will start afterwards at 7:00 PM.

Chaminade 10 - Clayton 5

In beating the Clayton Greyhounds 10-5, the Chaminade Red Devils learned a thing or two:

  1. Paul Orland and Alex Phillips ARE good. They combined for 4 of the 5 goals and were very explosive to the ball and shot with aggressiveness. When you are playing defense against good players, you need to have your hips up and need to always know what he is doing and where the ball is. It takes a lot of effort to guard guys like that effectively.
  2. Meara is not an impenetrable goaltender.
  3. We CAN score on 5M's!
  4. We CAN score 6-on-5!
  5. We CAN score off wet shots!

In my favorite moment of the afternoon, Chris Duncan took a pass from Chris Watkins and with a man on his back, rifled a tee shot for a goal. He set it up perfectly by getting his hips out of the water, taking his time, and putting some velocity on the ball. Too often when the CCP boys take wet shots, they try to rush the shot, they pick up the ball on top and want to bring their arm back for the shot. Chris did none of those things, and the result was a goal, good job Dunc!

Goals: Benage - 3, Duncan - 2, Kubik - 2, Arnold - 1, Fernandez - 1, Hoette - 1
Assists: Stabler - 2, Watkins - 2, Benage - 1, Fernandez - 1, Hoette - 1, Kubik - 1
Steals: Stabler - 4, Meara - 3, Arnold - 1, Duncan - 1, Entwistle -1, Kubik - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Stabler - 11, Meara - 3

Player of the Game: Duncan - 2 goals, 1 steal and the best wet shot I have seen all year.

April 18, 2008

Today v. Clayton

Today the Chaminade Red Devils take on Clayton Greyhounds at Clayton High School. The JV game starts at 4:00 PM and the varsity game will follow at about 5:00 PM. We will have a full squad as the band event that would have absented Dan Fernandez and Kevin Rejko was cancelled.

I don't know anything about Clayton except what I read on the statistics page on STLToday.com. What you see is Alex Phillips and Paul Orland lead the ENTIRE CITY in goals and points, and by a decent margin. They are the only two in the area with 60 goals at this point and have combined for 130 total. As a contrast, Chaminade has scored 136 goals in TOTAL. To be honest, I don't think I have even seen Alex or Paul play and I don't think I know what they look like. But, it's obvious that they know how to score goals, so Jake Entwistle and Danny Faust should have their hands full today.

Starters for varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust
#12 Chris Watkins

April 17, 2008

CCPWP Development Program continues today

The second session of the Chaminade Water Polo Development Program begins today at 3:15 PM. Coach Stream will again be running the show, but he will have some additional help from a few of the varsity players. Again, no experience is necessary! If you are in grades 6-10 at Chaminade, all you need to do is bring a swimsuit and show up to the pool! There is no sign-up required.

It should be a fun afternoon.

April 16, 2008

Chaminade 6 - MICDS 1

In one of the best played games to date, the Red Devils beat the MICDS Rams by playing flawless defense. As expected, the Rams played great defense as well and goals were hard to come by for both teams. The Rams came at Chaminade with a lot of aggressiveness and speed, running picks to get open. The Red Devils communicated on defense and were able to switch to make sure the Rams couldn't get any ball side drives. As Senior Blake Stabler said as the game ended: "We played awesome."

Offensively, we executed very well up until the point where we shot the ball. We drove hard, made great picks, made some good passes, protected open water, expended a ton of energy getting in position to score...and didn't finish. Scoring under pressure is a necessary skill that we need to develop in order to succeed this year. We'll be taking lots of wet shots and lay-outs in the coming weeks.

Goals: Arnold -2, Benage - 1, Entwistle - 1, Fernandez - 1, Kubik - 1
Assists: Kubik - 3, Fernandez - 1, Stabler - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 9, Stabler - 6, Arnold - 3, Watkins -3, Faust - 2, Fernandez -2, Meara - 2, Benage - 1, Kubik -1
Kickouts: Kubik - 1, Meara - 1, Stabler - 1
Saves: Stabler - 6

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 1 goal on 4 shots and 9 steals.

Up Next: Friday April 18th v. Clayton @ Clayton. The JV game starts at 4:00 PM. The varsity game will follow at about 5:00 PM.

Additional JV Game Scheduled

Next Monday April 21st, the JV will play against SLUH's JV before Chaminade's varsity plays John Burroughs. Burroughs is playing a varsity-only schedule this year due to dwindling numbers. JBS has a strong history of water polo, and we all hope that they come back strong next year. The JV game against SLUH's JV will start at 6:00 PM and the varsity game will remain at it's original time of 7:00 PM.

Tonight v. MICDS

Tonight the Chaminade Red Devils varsity squad will take on the MICDS Rams who are playing a varsity-only schedule this year. Coach Casey told me that they have really been hurt by the change of season, but he thinks they can come back strong next year and going forward. This matchup will be at 8:00 PM at Chaminade. Prior to the game, the JV faction of the CCP water polo program will encounter the Longhorns of Parkway West at 7:00 PM.

I played for both Coach Casey's when I was a kid and have coached against them in club play, but never in high school. I'm nervous and excited as these were the two people who first taught me how to play water polo. They also have taught nearly everyone on our team how to play water polo as well. And as you all know, Dan Casey started our program here. So basically, we are all very grateful for Don and Dan Casey and how they have enriched our lives with this sport...but let's drop the hammer on them tonight.

The coaching staff poses two major problems for the Red Devils:

  1. They have coached every single player on this team. They know our boys in the same way I know the South and SLUH boys. I bet they know more about our boys than I do.
  2. They know how to coach defense. No offense to any other program, but the Casey's and Baud at SLUH are about the only coaches who know how to coach really good defense in this city.

So what does that mean for us? We need to execute. We need to be patient. We need to protect the ball. We need to communicate. If any of those four "needs" breaks down, we might find ourselves on the losing side of this battle.

Starters for varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust
#12 Chris Watkins

I'm excited for the Parkway West game. West's varsity coach Charlie Cutelli and I have become good friends as he has been coaching Jungle Cats with me for the last couple years. We are the same age and he lives a block away. He is a good coach and very passionate about the sport. Jungle Cats was started when we were sophomores and Charlie and I were among the first in the program. When we were in high school, Charlie's Parkway South team lost one game in two years and that was to my SLUH team our junior year (with SLUH's JV coach John Penilla and Conner Keefe's older brother Ryan as our captains). He has two state titles, so I don't have much sympathy for him when his Longhorns struggle!

See you tonight.

April 15, 2008

Marquette 6 - Chaminade 4

Marquette brought their defensive "A" game to the second Chaminade-Marquette matchup of the year, this time for 3rd place in the DeSmet Invite. Marquette played smothering press-no-foul defense on the permieter and forced MANY bad passes from the Boys in Red. If we did get passes off, goals were still hard to come by, and I partially blame myself for not substituting more often, not changing strategies when the game plan didn't work and not encouraging patience enough. Marquette's goalie played well and we made him look like an Olympian with 18 shots and only 4 goals. We refused to take the highest percentage shots (near-side low) and our refusal to fake has finally caught up with us and burned us when we needed goals. But, the story of the game is not entirely how our offense played (because again, even though we made bad decisions with the ball, our accuracy was off and if the goals just won't go in, it cannot be forced) but also how the defense played.

Junior Jake Entwistle did a magnificent job against Marquette's big 2M Tim Meyers. Tim only scored one goal all game and it was on a backhand with Jake resting on the bench. The rest of the Red Devils, though, just played OK defensively, which is enough to get by against weaker teams but gets you beat by a good team (and Marquette is a GOOD team). Our defensive woes were entirley comprised of Chaminade defenders having their hips down, not playing in the passing lanes and fouling on the perimeter. By relaxing and playing lazy defense against a good shooting team, you give up high quality shots and do not get as many steals, which results in goals against and a low amount of counter-attack opportunities.

For those of you wondering, "hips up" means getting your suit on the surface of the water. This position is ideal for a few reasons:

  • If you are facing the man you are covering, he has nothing to grab onto except your hands, which are easier to wrestle free.
  • If your man somehow gets a hold of your suit or leg, everything is close to the surface for the referee to see.
  • If you do get beat, or are even with your man, being high in the water allows you to knock down his shooting arm or foul if necessary. If your hips are down he can overpower you.
  • If your man drives or you need to help on a drive, it is easier to change directions if your body is on the surface of the water (less resistance)
  • In the same vein, if there is a turnover, you can get started quickly to offense because you are already in the ideal swimming position, with your legs behind you instead of underneath you.

Congrats to Marquette for winning third place and playing one of the better defensive games anyone has played against us. Maybe Coach Emde is taping our practices!

Things that went right:

  • 2M defense
  • 6-on-5 (3 for 6 is pretty good)
  • Having high expectations of each other (the boys screaming at each other, although not ideal, shows that they care and have passion...it's better than being indifferent, and it makes them want to work hard in practice to get better)

Things that went not so right:

  • Defending the perimeter, fouling too much on the perimeter
  • Shot selection and patience on offense (I cannot remember an instance where we took a foul in the hole and looked for a cross-goal pass)
  • Screaming at each other (passion is good, rage is not)
Goals: Benage - 2, Kubik - 1
Assists: Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Kubik -1, Meara - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 3, Benage - 2, Kubik - 2, Meara - 2, Arnold - 1, Faust - 1, Watkins - 1, Stabler -1
Kickouts: Benage - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1
Saves: Stabler - 8

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 3 steals and fantastic defense throughout the tournament. If we had a team MVP for the tournament, he would have my vote. Now if we could only get him to go on the offensive end of the pool...

Up Next: Wednesday April 16th v. MICDS @ Chaminade. The JV plays against Parkway West at 7:00 PM and the varsity takes on MICDS at 8:00 PM.

Chaminade 15 - Oakville 3

...redemption was had! The story of this game was opposite of the Ladue game. The starters struggled early, ending the first quarter tied with Oakville 3-3. The intensity picked up in the second quarter as 4 Red Devil goals went unanswered by the Tigers. The reserves came in the second half and redeemed the previous nights defensive woes by shutting out Oakville the rest of the way. Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan led the defensive charge and wouldn't let Oakville's top scorer Tom Diekemper build on his two first quarter goals.

Everyone got in the water in this one and played up to the Chaminade standard of excellence. Sophomore Jake Schott and Freshman Aaron Gremp recorded the first of what will be many varsity goals. Sophomore Chris Lauber played brilliantly, allowing zero goals and making great passes in what is the longest pool he will ever play in.

Goals: Kubik - 4, Hoette - 3, Meara - 3, Fernandez - 2, Benage - 1, Gremp - 1, Schott - 1
Assists: Watkins - 3, Entwistle - 2, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1, Kubik - 1, Rejko - 1, Schott -1, Stabler - 1
Steals: Hoette - 4, Watkins - 4, Duncan - 3, Benage - 2, Kubik - 2, Meara -2, Stabler - 2, Entwistle -1, Fernandez - 1, Lauber - 1, Gremp - 1
Kickouts: Fernandez - 1
Saves: Stabler - 4, Lauber - 1

Player of the Game: Hoette - 3 goals on 6 shots, 4 steals and a never-seen-before offensive aggressiveness that I hope he brings to every game going forward.

April 14, 2008

Chaminade 12 - Ladue 8

In their second meeting with Ladue this season, the Chamimade Red Devils took care of business by netting 12 goals, all from starters Arnold, Benage, Kubik and Meara. The story from this game was the dominance by these four and the other top players whenever they touched the water. Scoring came at will and the defense was smothering. The reserves, on the other hand, did not display the same determination on the defensive end and let Ladue back into the game multiple times. Since the score was 1-0, Ladue was never within 1 goal of the Red Devils, but the lead was only two at multiple times during the game (2-0, 3-1, 4-2, 9-7). This demonstrates both the Rams refusal to quit and the Red Devils refusal to play defense for 28 minutes. 7 of the Rams 8 goals came from their big 2M's Zach Varwig (5) and Hayden Yancey (2). The reserves did get their chance at redemption though...

Goals: Kubik - 5, Arnold - 3, Benage - 3, Meara - 1
Assists: Benage - 5, Entwistle - 1, Kubik - 1
Steals: Benage - 5, Entwistle - 3, Kubik - 3, Arnold - 2, Watkins - 2, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Meara - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1
Saves: Stabler - 10, Lauber - 3

Player of the Game: Benage - 3 goals on 4 shots, 5 assists and 5 steals

SLUH 8 - Chaminade 4

Chaminade again played top-ranked SLUH very tough for most of the game. We doubled our previous offensive output from the last meeting, mostly through aggressive drives and sharp shooting. What was lacking was the defensive discipline and refusal to learn from mistakes, combined with an absence of the mental toughness needed to protect open water and fight for position and for 50-50 balls.

SLUH's Junior Will Page netted 4 goals, most of which came from leaving for offense early and beating the Chaminade defenders down the pool. I didn't keep track, but at least 3 of SLUH's goals would have been prevented by not watching offense and going early to defense at the first sign of trouble. Their anticipation of turnovers was fantastic and ours was lousy, on both ends of the pool.

Another SLUH goal came from our 2M guard swimming around the 2M on the front side instead of goal-side, leaving the SLUH 2M (John Heafner I believe) plenty of open water. There was another instance where John Heafner again overpowered his defender whose hips were down. And for the first time this season, we lost the kickout battle and SLUH made us pay with 2 man-advantage goals.

Should we meet SLUH again, our boys need to be prepared to play defense for 28 minutes. The SLUH boys work constantly for position, are relentless and always take advantage of mistakes. I still believe we are the only team with the defensive capability to beat SLUH this year, but it takes an enormous amount of focus and awareness and will require the same relentlessness and determination that SLUH brings to every game.

Goals: Kubik - 3, Meara -1
Assists: Benage - 1, Hoette - 1
Steals: Meara - 2, Benage - 1, Entwistle -1, Fernandez - 1, Kubik - 1, Stabler - 1
Kickouts: Arnold - 1, Faust - 1, Meara -1
Saves: Stabler - 13
Player of the Game: Kubik - 3 goals and 1 steal

April 11, 2008

Today v. SLUH, Tonight v. Ladue

Today we have two games out at the Rec-Plex for the round robin stage or the DeSmet Invite.

The first game is at 5:25 PM against top-ranked SLUH. Our first meeting was a defensive battle that I thought would have been closer had there been no shallow end. Now we get the chance to prove my theory correct. We match up with SLUH very well because we have the defenders in quantity and quality to match up with their high-powered scorers Tim Dale, John Heafner and Will Page. They are smart, aggressive and good shooters. If we keep them in front of us and don't foul, we will have success at shutting them down. On our offensive end, we have been struggling since the Marquette game to get into a rhythm. Forcing passes, forcing shots and being impatient are the symptoms of our illness. The cure is patience and staying high in the water when we are pressured and when we are passing.

The second game of the day will be against Ladue at 9:35 PM. I'm worried about this game because a) it's the second game and we might be tired and out of focus by game time and b) Ladue started to figure out how to attack us at the end of our first meeting. Zach Varwig and Hayden Yancy are still very dangerous 2M's and if we don't take them seriously, we could find ourselves down early.

Starters against SLUH:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette

April 10, 2008

Chaminade 7 - Lindbergh 4

The most telling stat from this game was 7 goals on 30 shots. THIRTY SHOTS! And not too many were high percentage either. Shooting thru traffic, shooting with a man hanging on your arm and taking backhands when you aren't directly in front of the goal at 3M (the only time I won't get mad at a backhand) are the definitions of bad shots. The Boys in Red again played stifling defense against the Flyers of Lindbergh, but the story of the game was 5 minutes of good offense to start the 3rd quarter (including two goals in 30 seconds) and 23 minutes of pretty crummy offense.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe offense is something you cannot force and if the shots don't go in, then they just don't go in. But it is something entirley different to take shots with a guy hanging on your arm or shooting when the goalie and other defenders have locked on to you. The manner in which we played offense was troubling in that EVERYTHING was forced. Forced shots, forced passes and widespread impatience. We were very low in the water and whether we were passing or shooting, we always had our chins in the water and never created separation from the Flyer defenders as we attempted our passes/shots.

The good news is

  1. Most of our offense woes are an easy fix. The boys just need to decide that they are going to play at a higher level. If they get their shoulders out of the water everytime they come in contact with the ball, eveything gets easier. Protecting the ball, passing and shooting all become very simple when you get out of the water.
  2. We still play great defense when we want to. If everyone is focused, communicating and aware of what is going on, then we are REALLY HARD to score upon.

Goals: Faust - 2, Kubik - 2, Meara - 2, Arnold - 1

Assists: Faust - 2, Stabler - 2, Arnold - 1, Kubik - 1, Meara -1

Steals: Kubik - 4, Meara - 4, Benage - 2, Entwistle - 2, Hoette - 2, Arnold - 1

Kickouts: Stabler - 1

Saves: Stabler - 12

Player of the Game: Faust - 2 goals on 2 shots, 2 assists and the usual defensive excellence

Up Next: Two games on Friday April 11th. 5:25 PM v. SLUH @ Rec-Plex and 9:35 PM v. Ladue @ Rec-Plex. This is still the round robin stage of the DeSmet Invite

CCPWP Development Program starts today!

Today at 3:15 PM, Coach Stream will be running the Chaminade Water Polo Development Program. It is open to any Chaminade student in grades 6-10. No experience is required, and all ability levels are encouraged to come, even if you have never played before! It is a water sport that can be tiring, so being able to swim is recommended for playing (although shallow end goalie's can stand on the bottom!).

We will not have sign-ups, so just show up! You can come and just try the sport for one day or you can come to all the sessions. There is no obligation, we just want you to try the sport we love!

If you have any questions, just show up at 3:15 PM today...or grab a water polo player in the halls, they know all about it.

Tonight v. Lindbergh

Tonight the Chaminade Red Devils will take on the Lindbergh Flyers in the round robin stage of the DeSmet Invite. It is a varsity-only tournament, so there is only one Chaminade game at 7:00 PM at Lindbergh High School. We will have all of our varsity players dressed as well as 4 JV players. I asked Junior Andrew Spilling, Sophomores Jake Schott and Chris Lauber and Freshman Aaron Gremp to dress for these games in order to help keep our top players rested for later in the tournament. But, the top players won't rest until we take care of business.

What I knew of Lindbergh graduated last year, so I'm in the dark as to who their top guys are. I do know, however, how they play. Coach Lombardo always has a lot of good swimmers who play good defense. Offensively, they always have a good 2M who is the focus, so we need to identify him quickly and get Fausty, Entwistle and Dunc on the case.

This is going to be a TOUGH tournament. Our bracket is especially hard with Lindbergh, SLUH, Oakville and Ladue. We need to come out to each game focused because teams play differently in the all deep pools, and we need to be able to adapt. See you tonight.

Starters for Varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette

April 9, 2008

Additional JV Games

Coach Stream and I have scheduled a JV game with Parkway West to be played on April 16th at 7:00 PM before the varsity plays MICDS. Unfortunately, MICDS had to do a varsity-only schedule this year due to dwindling numbers. Hopefully Coach Casey can get the numbers for next year and this will only be a one year aberration.

John Burroughs is also playing a varsity-only schedule and we are working on adding a JV game before our matchup with JBS on April 21st. Stay tuned.