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!

4 comments:

Dan said...

Thanks for such a great season, coach. I didn't know what to expect going into this season with yet another new coach, but when you first had that meeting after a swim practice where you presented us with a letter, contact information, and expectations, I knew I had something to look forward to during the winter. Thanks for a great senior water polo year. I look forward to following the team on the blog next spring.

Best of luck,
Dan

Jack said...

Coach, why do you keep giving Kubik that SLUH game goal? I scored that counter goal! You even gave it to him on the end of the year stat sheet!

Jack said...

Just to echo what Dan said: Thanks again for a truly memorable experience with Polo this year!

-Jack

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dave for all the great photos you took of the team this season, and to Jack for sharing them on the blog. Also, for the hours spent making the water polo video so that the memories can live on. Have a great summer.