End of the Year Awards

Chosen by their teammates, here are the award winners for the 2009 Chaminade Red Devils...

The Conner Keefe Player of the Year:
JACK MEARA

The Patrick St. Cin Offensive Player of the Year:
ED ROSE

The Jake Entwistle Defensive Player of the Year:
JAKE ENTWISTLE

The Jon Fernandez Most Improved Player:
CHRIS LAUBER

The Jack Benage Hardest Worker Award:
CHRIS WATKINS

The Blake Stabler Rookie of the Year:
JAKE SCHOTT


For reference, the 2008 winners:

The Conner: Michael Kubik
The St. Cin: Michael Kubik
The Jake: Jake Entwistle
The Fern: Chris Duncan
The Jack: Jack Benage
The Blake: Chris Watkins

The permanent plaques are currently being made and will be hung in KB's office.

MICDS Pics

On the right side of the page, you will see picutres of our second round game against MICDS. These were taken by Kirkwood coach Reza Benham. As you can tell, he's really good. My favorite is probably Meara in mid-shot, although there are some good ones of Lauber making saves and of the bench watching the game (do all the boys bite their fingernails?). I would like to thank Coach Benham for supplying these pictures free of charge. If you would like a print of any of these pictures, please go to http://shariphotos.com.

Sea of Red Tonight

Tonight at 6:30pm at the St. Peter's Rec-Plex, the Red Devils take on #1 ranked SLUH in the semi-finals of the state tournament. I would like all Chaminde supporters to wear as much RED clothing as they can put on their body. SLUH will likely bring a horde of students painted blue, so we need to counter that with our own Sea of Red.

See you tonight.

Chaminade 8 - MICDS 6

The back of senior captain Jack Meara is quite strong, as he carried his entire team to victory tonight. 6 goals in all, including his first backhand of the year, with 3 coming in the first quarter as the Red Devils jumped out to an early lead against MICDS and didn't look back.

The game plan was to minimize first team all-conference player Parker Condie and make his teammates beat us. For most of the game, we played a drop defense which worked very well by preventing Parker from getting the ball in front of the goal. Although there were some breakdowns when the Rams drove through, for the most part, the MICDS offense was held at bay. Kudos to everyone who touched the water tonight for playing solid team defense.

The two major breakdowns came in ejections and in communication. Four kickouts matches our season high and MICDS capitalized on three of them. Communication, especially LOUD communication, is something we have struggled with all year. Otherwise, we played about as good a game as we could, aggressive offensively and sound defensively.

The Red Devils came to play tonight and the hard work all year paid off when they needed it to. We stuck together, never got down on ourselves when the Rams made a late comeback, and we held on for the program's 5th final four in 6 years. As I was quoted as saying last year: from this point on it's all gravy, so we should just have fun with the rest of the season. All year long, I believe we are the team best equipped to play with SLUH and Friday night is our chance to prove it.

Goals: Meara - 6, Entwistle - 1, Glauber - 1
Assists: Glauber - 2, Watkins - 2, Duncan - 1, Rose - 1, Schott - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 3, Meara - 3, Duncan - 2, Lauber - 1, Rose - 1, Schott - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Meara - 1, Rose - 1, Watkins - 1
Saves: Lauber - 11

POTG: Meara

Up Next: Final Four on Friday night.

Quick Notes

The Missouri Water Polo Banquet is Saturday May 30th. It will be precluded by the Senior All-Star Game and Skill Competition. This will be the first ever Skills Competition and it will include jump balls, swim-offs and hardest shot. After the game, there will be dinner and a banquet where the All-District teams and the "Of The Year" awards are announced. The registration form for the banquet is linked from the home page of http://mowaterpolo.com.

Kirkwood's coach, Rez Benham, is also a great photographer and he has taken some photos of our games this year and last year. He will be at the pool on Wednesday for our game against MICDS as well. I know Mr. Duncan has been taking photos throughout the year, but Rez might have some shots worth taking a look at. His website is http://www.shariphotos.com.

See you tomorrow night!

Entwistle Nominated for DPOTY

Chaminade’s senior Jake Entwistle was named as a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. The voting was done this week and the top three nominees in each category were announced. The winners, along with the All-Distict teams, will be announced at the Missouri Water Polo Banquet on Saturday, May 30th at MICDS. The Banquet will be precluded by the Senior All-Star Game and Skills Competition. To attend, please go to http://mowaterpolo.com and on the front page you will see a link to the registration form. I hope you can make it out to watch the game and support Jake in his nomination.

The other finalists (in alphabetical order):
Coach of the Year: Paul Baudendistel, Rich Davison, Gerard Gonthier
Offensive Player of the Year: Parker Finlinson, John Heafner, Matt Stipanovich
Defensive Player of the Year: Matt Baumgartner, Jake Entwistle, Michael O’Neill
Female Player of the Year: Grace Kenyon, Demi Nichoalds, Taylor Rackovan
Player of the Year: William Page, Kyle Schnoring, Matt Stipanovich

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: Jack Meara
Second Team: Jake Entwistle, Ed Rose

Congratulations guys! All three of you are very deserving of the honor. All-District voting began yesterday and the results won't be announced until the Missouri Water Polo Banquet on May 30th.

DeSmet 9 - Chaminade 6

Riding high off of yesterday's victory over Parkway North, the Red Devils gave a tremendous effort against #2 DeSmet. The Red Devils overcame two separate three goals leads in the first half to tie the game 6-6 after 3 quarters. In the fourth quarter, DeSmet tightened up defensively and a couple of Red Devil mental mistakes led to two DeSmet goals by junior Matt Stipanovich off a kickout and a 5M penalty shot. The Red Devils could not recover and gave up one more at the end as DeSmet shut down the Chaminade offense in the 4th.

This game boils down what it usually boils down to, mental mistakes. Our effort is always there, as we work hard for 4 quarters at both ends. We are a smart team that can adjust when teams run different schemes (i.e. when DeSmet started dropping on the 2-meter, we started driving through to move the drop man and started to shoot more aggressively), but there are often times when we don't adjust (we refused to help on the 2M when almost all of their goals came from the hole). We certainly have the ability to play mistake free (the win v. Lindbergh at Rec-Plex, yesterday v. North), but we haven't been able to consistently bring that focus every game.

That said, we are playing VERY well right now and if we can get a healthy Danny Faust (flu-like symptoms) and Ed Rose (swollen knee) we can beat anybody. For the 8th time this year, Jake Entwistle was our player of the game. Not only did he do a good job on arguably the best player in St. Louis (Stipanovich), Jake also chipped in two goals and two assists. Jake is probably our most talented player and when he makes the effort to pitch in on the offensive end, this team is lethal.

Things that went right:

• Shooting aggressiveness - finally, we are confident taking shots when we are open. Now we just need to do it sooner and off of cross-goal passes
• Protecting the ball - for the most part the passing was better in the half court, although too many times we would set the ball when a defender was sluffing off on the 2-meter. But I recall maybe one perimeter steal by DeSmet.
• Mental toughness - three times we were looking at 3-goal deficits and we roared back on two of them, including taking a brief lead at the end of the third. We never gave up until we ran out of gas after the ejection and 5M calls (the 5M was heavily disputed by me, but we can't let the refs dictate the game for us).

Things that went not so right:

• Counter-attack passing - goalie Chris Lauber was pretty good actually, but during fast breaks, the second pass was too often a 50-50 ball, thrown too long or too high or sometimes too late. This can only be fixed by the boys using their legs to get out of the water and passing with confidence. Good passes are always thrown with confidence and aren't "wished".
• Shooting accuracy - Entwistle stepped up with some big outside shots, but he also had 6 others miss. Ed Rose was also 2 for 8. Chris Watkins was 1 for 4 (although his goal was a GREAT shot). In total, the team shot 23%. I think there might be a mental barrier that comes with playing DeSmet. We need to play looser against them.
• Helping the 2M - if your man isn't a threat, don't guard him
• Fouling outside 5M - our Achilles heel

Goals: Entwistle - 2, Rose - 2, Glauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Assists: Entwistle - 2, Hoette - 2, Meara - 1, Rose - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 4, Watkins - 4, Hoette - 3, Lauber - 3, Duncan - 2, Meara - 2, Glauber - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 2
Saves: Lauber - 4

POTG: Entwistle - tied for lead in every field category, except kickouts (which he held the lead all by himself)

Up Next: SLUH @ Lindbergh

Chaminade 11 - Parkway North 3

When I asked for thoughts after the game and why our performance against Marquette and our performance this afternoon against North were so different, the general response was that the team was in a better mood. We were more relaxed, more focused, more ready to take on the challenge in front of us. I've said it before, when we play our game, largely devoid of mental mistakes, we can beat anybody.

Guest assistant Conner Keefe mentioned that this was the same game as Marquette, a good defensive team that is fast and physical, except that since our play was more relaxed and fluid, the shots that missed against Marquette went in against North. The stats back it up as we shot 20% against Marquette and 52% against North.

Overall, it was one of the better games we played all season and even my negative nature can't find anything to gripe about. The team defense was fantastic, the drives were aggressive as always and the passing and shooting accuracy was much improved. The team had a big challenge in front of them and they banded together and overcame that challenge and I'm proud of the way we played. Peter Hoette and Ed Rose deserve special recognition for their performances. Peter had his largest save total of the season, including a couple that he wasn't expected to stop. Peter's passing was consistently good as well. Ed played his best defensive game of the season, for which his teammates rewarded him by finding him a number of breakaways. Ed scored 6 goals on 7 shots, which is very impressive (although the manner in which a couple were scored were...shall I say...interesting). Ed was even interviewed after the game and I imagine we will both be quoted in the Suburban Journal tomorrow.

Goals: Rose - 6, Meara - 2, Watkins - 2, Glauber - 1
Assists: Glauber - 2, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1, Faust - 1, Hoette - 1, Schott - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 9, Watkins - 4, Faust - 2, Hoette - 2, Schott - 2, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Duncan - 1, Entwistle - 1, Meara - 1
Saves: Hoette - 13

POTGs: Hoette and Rose

Up Next: Lindbergh Invite this weekend

Marquette 6 - Chaminade 5

On senior night, the Chaminade Devils had to play short two seniors, captain Danny Faust and Andrew Spilling, and although the game was well played by both sides, the Marquette Mustangs ended up on top. Both teams played great defensively and the difference was the shooting accuracy of Marquette. The Mustangs big 2M, Sam Miller, was essentially shut down by Red Devil senior Jake Enwistle, which forced the Mustangs to take outside shots. Marquette senior Spencer Litzau had a fantastic game, netting three goals, all on skip shots from outside.

The Red Devil woes boil down to three things: shooting accuracy, passing accuracy and fouling on the perimeter. The first two are what I call "physical" mistakes, the kind of things you cannot control...sometimes you are on, sometimes you are off. The last woe (perimeter fouling) is a "mental" mistake that, when repeated as often as it has been lately, is not as easy to shrug off. It's a simple choice or keeping your hips up and left hand straight out of the water...or not. It's a matter of discipline to not reach to try and get a perimeter steal.

Still, we did a lot of good things tonight. Marquette knew what we were going to do offensively (setting picks to set up ball-side drives) and yet we still got a lot of open looks. A little less clogging of the middle, a little more accurate shooting and a little more accurate passing and we win that game by a decent margin. Our defense was stellar and when we execute offensively in addition to playing tremendous defense, we can beat anybody.

Goals: Meara - 3, Entwistle - 1, Rose - 1
Assists: Schott - 2, Entwistle - 1, Rose - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 7, Lauber - 7, Hoette - 5, Rose - 5, Meara - 3, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Hoette - 2, Entwistle - 1
Saves: Lauber - 12

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 1 goal, 1 assist, 7 steals and not allowing Sam Miller to have a single decent scoring opportunity

Up Next: Wednesday v. Parkway North at Parkway North

Spring Break Pics

Check the right. I think I figured it out.

Chaminade 11 - Parkway Central 6

Short senior defensive stalwart Jake Entwistle, the Red Devils defeated the Parkway Central Colts 11-6. Jake had a mandatory school event, so everyone had to step up the defensive efforts. Senior captain Danny Faust bore most of the load as he was charged with guarding Central's big scorer, Matt Brown. Matt is a big strong 2M and Danny,with some help from seniors Chris Duncan and Chris Watkins, was able to hold Matt to only 2 goals.

The game was a close 3-1 after 1 quarter, but in the second quarter shooting deep, the Red Devils rattled off 5 goals by 5 different players to the Colts one goal to end the half 8-2 which pretty much sealed up the game. Central was clearly focusing on stopping senior captain Jack Meara from scoring and Jack's teammates stepped up the scoring. Senior captain Chris Watkins and junior Kevin Glauber both had hat tricks, matching their season highs set against weaker competition in Florida. Glauber had a particularly memorable goal in the 3rd by converting a short hole pass (that was almost stolen) into a rapid sweep shot the ricocheted off the goalie into the side-netting. And for those who care, hitting the side-netting makes me jump up and go "Oooooo" almost as much as a bar-in does.

Chris Watkins was named player of the game at the pool for his 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 steal and pitching in at 2M guard. After looking at the stat sheet and reflecting on the game, Danny Faust deserves the award as well for his 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 steals and great defense. Both captains had great games and really stepped up with their fellow captain having an off night.

Goals: Glauber - 3, Watkins - 3, Faust - 2, Rose - 2, Spilling - 1
Assists: Faust - 2, Watkins - 2, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1, Schott - 1, Schwartz - 1
Steals: Faust - 4, Hoette - 3, Meara - 2, Rose - 2, Schott - 2, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Duncan - 1
Saves: Hoette - 10

Players of the Game: Danny Faust and Chris Watkins

Up Next: Monday, April 27th v. Marquette at Chaminade.

DeSmet Invite

FRIDAY
Chaminade 14 - Parkway West 1
Good start to the tournament. Glauber played very well in goal in the absence of regulars Hoette and Lauber. The 27 steals will be the highest total of the tournament, second highest total of the year.

Goals: Rose - 4, Meara - 3, Spilling - 2, Watkins - 2, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1, Gremp -1
Assists: Meara - 5, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1, Gremp - 1, Schott - 1, Schwartz - 1
Steals: Meara - 7, Entwistle - 5, Glauber - 4, Watkins - 4, Faust - 2, Gremp - 2, Rose - 2, Schwartz - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Schwartz - 1
Saves: Glauber - 7, Watkins - 2

POTG: Meara

Lindbergh 8 - Chaminade 4
Could not solve Lindbergh's senior Parker Finlinson who lit us up for 5 goals. 2MD Chris Duncan's absence was sorely missed. Undoubtedly the worst played game of the tournament.

Goals: Meara - 2, Rose - 2
Assists: Entwistle - 1, Lauber - 1, Schott - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 9, Faust - 4, Rose - 2, Watkins - 2, Lauber - 1, Meara - 1, Schott -1
Kickouts: Watkins - 2
Saves: Lauber - 9

POTG: Entwistle

SATURDAY
SLUH 11 - Chaminade 3
Despite the score, a pretty well-played game. The starters were really feeling the absence of a couple key players and fatigue set in a bit. Offense struggled, but SLUH had to keep the starters in for 3 quarters (unusual for them) as our tough defense kept the game within reach until then. Gremp-O makes an appearance on the scoresheet with a strong move in front of the cage.

Goals: Faust - 1, Gremp - 1, Meara - 1
Assists: Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Meara - 3, Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Faust - 1, Hoette - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Meara - 1, Rose - 1
Saves: Hoette - 8

POTG: Entwistle

Chaminade 6 - Lindbergh 5
Best played game of the tournament. We ran a "non-Parker and Kyle" drop, which meant that we pressed Lindbergh's big two seniors and dropped off their teammates up top. Entwistle had his usual steals from the hole, but Rose and Meara benefited greatly from being the "drop man" tallying a combined 9 steals. The score doesn't show how completely we were in control of the game. A last minute goal from Parker made things interesting, but the Boys in Black dominated the other 27 minutes. Kudos to Lindbergh's goalie, Matt Baumgartner who was a brick wall in both our games against them and earned my vote for goalie of the tournament.

Goals: Meara - 3, Faust - 1, Rose - 1, Schott - 1
Assists: Watkins - 3, Entwistle - 1, Lauber - 1, Meara - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 5, Rose - 5, Meara - 4, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1
Saves: Lauber - 5

POTG: Meara

MICDS 9 - Chaminade 8 (2OT)
The boys were upset about this loss, but this was a good game played by two exhausted teams at the end of a long tournament. We played a fantastic game under the circumstances and in only one area were we lacking: fouls outside 5M. I don't have a game tape, but I would guess that 6 of MICDS's goals, including the game winner, came off of shots after a foul outside 5M. I attribute to the fouling to fatigue, but the boys know that when a player is in front of the goal and outside 5M, I would prefer that they press-block and force the opponent to shoot with a hand in their face, rather than fouling and giving them space to shoot. MICDS played their usually tough physical game and they beat us by exploiting our tendency to foul.

Goals: Meara - 4, Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1, Faust - 1
Assists: Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1, Glauber - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 8, Rose - 5, Meara - 4, Duncan - 2, Faust - 2, Lauber - 2, Watkins - 2
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1
Saves: Lauber - 12

POTG: Meara

Tournament Highlights:
- Player of the tournament, Jack Meara, had 13 goals, 6 assists and 19 steals in 5 games
- Four different goalies used
- Nine different goal scorers
- Juniors Kevin Glauber and Jake Schott really started to assert themselves. Kevin made stronger and stronger moves in the hole as the tournament went on and Jake touched the ball more than anyone with great outlet cuts and made quite a few strong moves of his own on the perimeter and in front of the cage. Both were very reliable on the defensive end.
- Entwistle kicked out in three straight games
- Participated in double overtime game, the second of the tournament. First time I've ever seen 4 on 4 polo.
- Participated in Oakville coach Dan Schoenfeldt's favorite game of the tournament, the 6-5 win over Lindbergh. Coach Schoenfeldt mentioned that we "played great and were in control the whole game."
- SLUH's legendary winning streak ended in a loss to Miami's Belen Jesuit. It was a great game and I was very impressed by how SLUH played against such a tough and experienced opponent. My favorite non-CCP player of the tournament was SLUH's John Heafner who was playing on a bum knee (he could barely walk) and still stepped up with a big performance in the final game.
- What an exhausting weekend. Referee John O'Sullivan summed it up best: "Nothing like spending all day at the Rec-Plex".

Chaminade 14 - Parkway West 2

I was a little under the weather today, so the boys pretty much coached themselves and I liked what I saw. To the untrained eye, our offense looks a little chaotic, but the boys are executed the offense magnificently tonight. We would release for the goalie early, relieve pressure on the perimeter, get a good ball-side drive, know when to clear out of the middle, make the right pass, look weak side...it was quite a thing to watch and I'm very proud of the way the boys played at both ends.

West's two goals came on avoidable mental errors: not pressing an outside shooter and playing lazy defense by allowing a driver to get a goal-side drive. Those errors cannot be made against a very good Lindbergh team on Friday night. I'm fine with mistakes as long as the same ones aren't repeated over and over again.

Really good games from a lot of people: senior captain Jack Meara with 3 goals and 4 assists, junior Kevin Glauber had 3 assists (a career high) his best defensive effort of the year and I even caught him bridging a couple times (a VERY good thing), junior Jake Schott learned to fake and notched 2 goals, senior Andrew Spilling also had a great fake scoring his second goal of the season, senior Max Schwartz notched his first goal of the year on nice shrug move and far-side lob, but...

...the goaltending was awesome tonight. Senior Peter Hoette played the first half, passing better than I could hope for from our goalies, and he made 3 saves including one big save on a cross goal upper corner shot that prevented West from climbing back in the game in the first quarter. Junior Chris Lauber stepped in for the second half and shut-out West with 9 saves, the most we've had from a goalie in any two quarters all year. Chris' passing is also greatly improved from the start of the season. In case you haven't noticed, these two are battling for the full-time starting job, and I really like the way they are pushing each other to be better. Chris has put away his pride and has taken the challenge head-on. Peter has shown real leadership in going out of his comfort zone and pushing Chris by working with him instead of against him. I'm proud of both of them and clearly our team is responding to the improved goalie play.

Goals: Meara - 3, Rose - 3, Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1, Hoette - 1, Schwartz - 1, Spilling - 1
Assists: Meara - 4, GLauber - 3, Rose - 3, Entwistle - 1, Schott - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Hoette - 8, Rose - 5, Lauber - 5, Entwistle - 4, Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Meara - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 2, Schott - 2
Saves: Lauber - 9, Hoette - 3

Player of the Game: Hoette and Lauber (See above paragraph)

Up Next: DeSmet Tournament Friday and Saturday

Tonight v. Parkway West

Tonight, the Red Devils will be taking on the Parkway West Longhorns at Chaminade. The JV game will begin at 7PM, followed by the varsity game around 8PM.

The Longhorns varsity and JV both have some kids who played for me at Jungle Cats. On JV, we need to pay attention to sophomore Matt Stolwyk who was a coaching favorite last summer and over the winter. Matt came to nearly every practice, worked extremely hard and was very coachable...just like...our boys...

The varsity has a few guys to watch out for, such as senior and former Jungle Cat John Logan who leads the team in goals. Former Cats Adam Bixler and Alex Dwyer are also in their top 5 in scoring. Our boys who play Daisy will recognize freshman Steven Emde who is second in goals and assists. Their starters are solid and they have played well against Kirkwood, Parkway Central, Parkway North and Marquette (teams that have either beat us, played close to us, or may beat us in the future). They should not be overlooked as my JCWP colleague and friend Charlie Cutelli is a good coach who knows how to game plan for a team that plays like we do. Coach Cutelli is in his third year at West and this will be the first time we have gone head-to-head in our careers. I am excited for tonight.

Chaminade 9 - MICDS 2

Any team is going to have a hard time against us when we put together a complete game. In what was a fitting end to the first half of the season, just before Easter Break, the Red Devils imposed their will against the MICDS Rams en route to a 9-2 victory. Short two key players, senior captain Danny Faust and junior Ed Rose, the Boys in Black played solid game at both ends.

As always, there was aggressive drives, great 2MD (provided by seniors Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan) and an increasing amount of strong moves in front of the cage (highlighted by senior captains Jack Meara and Chris Watkins, as well as juniors Kevin Glauber and Jake Schott). A new strength has emerged the last two games as our goalie combo of senior Peter Hoette and junior Chris Lauber have stepped up the shot blocking, passing and stealing. We still need improvement in all those areas from these guys, but the last two games have been solid. In the field, we need improvement in the perimeter passing, especially under pressure, and patience in front of the cage. To often we will force shots inside, and we need to be able to take a foul and take advantage of the great drives we are getting.

Still, these last two games have been the most complete and mental-mistake free game we have played all season. Once we get matched up defensively, we are hard to score upon.

Goals: Meara - 4, Glauber - 2, Schott - 2, Watkins - 1
Assists: Watkins - 3, Hoette - 2, Lauber - 1, Meara - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 5, Duncan - 4, Meara - 4, Hoette - 3, Lauber - 3, Schott - 3, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Duncan - 1, Schott - 1
Saves: Lauber - 4, Hoette - 2

Player of the Game: Peter Hoette and Chris Lauber: combined 3 assists, 5 steals, 6 saves and a big improvement in the quality of passing and stealing aggressiveness.

CCP WP Development Program Continues Today

Due to tomorrow being Holy Thursday, the CCP WP Development Program will occur today (Wednesday) at 3:15PM. Last week featured just 8th grader Mark Corwin (future superstar goaltender). I hope we can make a concerted effort to get more guys out today. The future depends on it!

DeSmet 6 - Chaminade 4

DeSmet put up their lowest goal total of the year as the Red Devils played their best team game of the year. Player of the Year candidate, Junior Matt Stipanovich, was marked all game by our defensive MVP, senior Jake Entwistle, and Jake held the big lefty to only one goal. That is a major improvement from this past weekend where Matt put up 8 goals on the Red Devils.

Chaminade's defense was relentless the entire game as we pressed hard everywhere and didn't give DeSmet any easy passes. Every pass was contested which led to 21 steals, many of which came from in front of the cage. The 2M defense was excellent as DeSmet couldn't get a goal out of set. After the first quarter, the team was very happy with how well were were matching up against the explosive Spartans.

To DeSmet's credit, they capitalized on the few mistakes the Red Devils made. Two counter-attack goals by senior Danny Holtgrewe came from perimeter steals. Juniors Stipanovich and Schonhoff scored off fouls outside 5M (two of maybe four such opportunities). Senior Bob Morrisey unloaded on one of DeSmet's two 6-on-5 opportunities and senior goalie Kyle Dolan scored on a last second lob.

As I said after the game, DeSmet is a very good offensive team, and 6 mental mistakes led to 6 goals. We need to be perfect if we plan on beating them next time around.

Things that went right:

• Defense...everywhere
• Getting open on offense, through driving hard ball-side
• Mental toughness - the boys were focused coming into this game and there were very few moments of rest as we were short two starters.

Things that went not so right:

• Passing under pressure - still too many wayward passes to open guys, too many passing attempts with defender hanging on arm.
• Shooting - need improvement in accuracy and aggressiveness. We get open shots and hit the goalie in the hands.
• Aggressive moves with the ball - when I ask officials why we don't draw any kickouts when we have position to the goal, they all tell me we don't make a move, that we give up. While I think this has more to do with the defenders using our boys the way swimmers use lane ropes while the coach isn't looking, I do think we need to be more aggressive when trying to relieve pressure. There have been moments where we try and turn our defender (Junior Ed Rose made a nice one tonight), I think we should try to make aggressive moves more often, to either turn the guy and head to the goal, or force the defender to foul.

Goals: Faust - 2, Meara - 1, Watkins - 1

Assists: Hoette - 3, Meara - 1

Steals: Entwistle - 5, Hoette - 5, Faust - 4, Lauber - 2, Meara - 2, Watkins - 2, Rose - 1

Kickouts: Duncan - 1, Rose - 1

Saves: Lauber - 9

Player of the Game: Faust and Hoette. Faust had 2 goals and 4 steals and handled DeSmet's Michael Schonhoff very well. Hoette had 3 assists and 5 steals, doing all of the little things that we need to win; play tough perimeter D, force bad passes, make steals, guard hole well if taken in, wing out to get the ball from the goalie and make good passes. Great games by both seniors.

Up next: Thursday April 9th v. MICDS at Chaminade. JV will begin at 7PM, varsity follows at 8PM.

Tonight v. DeSmet

For the second time in 3 days, the Chaminade Red Devils will take on the DeSmet Spartans. We will be playing at DeSmet's home pool, which is Chaminade. The JV game will begin at 7:00pm and the varsity game will follow at 8:00PM. Varsity will be missing juniors Kevin Glauber and Jake Schott as they are on a retreat. Sophomore Aaron Gremp will be called up from JV to supplement the varsity team.

DeSmet is a tough matchup for us as they are physical and are good shooters. Beating the #2 team in the state will require relentless press defense, because we cannot afford to get into a shootout. A winning score for Chaminade will be 5-4, not 16-15. We need a defensive battle.

See you tonight.

Chaminade 12 - MICDS 8

Goals: Meara - 4, Rose - 3, Entwistle - 2, Glauber - 2, Duncan - 1
Assists: Glauber - 2, Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1, Faust - 1, Meara - 1, Rose - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Meara - 4, Faust - 3, Rose - 3, Watkins - 2, Glauber - 1, Hoette - 1, Lauber - 1, Schott - 1
Kickouts: Duncan - 1, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1
Saves: Hoette - 3, Lauber - 3

Player of the Game: Meara - 4 goals, 1 assist and 4 steals

SLUH 14 - Chaminade 4

Goals: Rose - 3, Meara - 1
Assists: Duncan - 1, Rose - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 4, Faust - 4, Hoette - 3, Meara - 2, Rose - 2, Schott - 2, Lauber - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Hoette - 3, Lauber - 1

Player of the Game: Duncan - 1 assist and great defense

DeSmet 16 - Chaminade 7

Goals: Meara - 3, Rose - 2, Watkins - 2
Assists: Duncan - 1, Entwistle - 1, Rose - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 4, Faust - 3, Schott - 3, Glauber - 2, Meara - 2, Rose - 2, Duncan - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 2, Faust - 1, Rose - 1
Saves: Hoette - 8

Player of the Game: Watkins - 2 goals, 1 assists and 1 steal

Chaminade 12 - Parkway Central 5

Goals: Meara - 6, Faust - 2, Glauber - 2, Watkins - 2
Assists: Hoette - 3, Glauber - 2, Duncan - 1, Entwistle - 1, Faust - 1, Rose - 1, Schott - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Rose - 3, Faust - 2, Hoette - 2, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Lauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts - NONE!
Saves: Hoette - 7, Lauber - 4

Player of the Game: Meara - 6 goals and 2 steals

Chaminade 13 - Parkway South 4

Goals: Rose - 6, Faust - 2, Glauber - 2, Meara - 2, Entwistle - 1
Assists: Hoette - 3, Lauber - 2, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1, Glauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Duncan - 6, Schott - 6, Faust - 5, Entwistle - 3, Hoette - 3, Rose - 3, Meara - 2, Watkins - 2
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Hoette - 5, Lauber - 2

Player of the Game: Duncan - 1 goal, 6 steals and great 2M defense on Pat Maloney.

CCP Water Polo Gets Some Press!

http://prepsports.stltoday.com/ssi/prep/stories2009.nsf/waterpolo/story/B6DE2AD464528B288625758D005537E6?OpenDocument

Paul Kopsky of STLToday.com called me yesterday evening (between periods of the awesome Blues-Red Wings game last night) and asked me some questions about the game against Ladue and this morning that article was on the website. I think I was more complimentary of Ladue in the interview than it shows, but I do think our confidence is back. I hope we can build upon that this weekend. Nice picture of Meara!

Conference Tournament Opens Up Tonight

Tonight begins the varsity Conference Tournament, and we have two games, 6PM v. Parkway South and 9PM v. Parkway Central. Both games will be at MICDS. JV does not have any games and will have practice at 3:15pm.

Having just played Parkway South this week, we should know what they try to do. We need to be prepared to take it to them early and often.

I haven't seen Parkway Central yet, but they beat South in the Parkway Quad Tournament, so they should be pretty tough. We need to bring our game to them and force them to play it our way. Defensive intensity will be required.

We will also have DeSmet tomorrow morning at 9AM at MICDS to close out the round-robin stage of the Conference Tournament. After that, we will have one or two games remaining Saturday afternoon, depending on how we far in the round-robin.

See you tonight.

CCWP Development Program Begins Today

Today at 3:15 PM, we will begin the second year of 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. We will have a session every Thursday for the next five Thursdays (May 7th being the last session). 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.

Chaminade 11 - Ladue 8

Check back Sunday evening for the write-up and stats. It takes longer than you would think to write these posts and I am just getting bombarded at work right now. I won't have time to write until the Conference Tournament is over (like anyone reads this drivel anyway!) Coach Stream is going through the same thing as layoffs at his company are forcing him to carry a heavier load. Even the water polo team isn't safe from the economic crisis!

Tonight v. Ladue

Tonight we have Ladue at home. JV at 7PM, Varsity at 8PM.

Sorry about my lack of posting of late, a lot of deadlines at work after missing three days last week. Being busy at work is a good thing, but I wish it were slightly less busy at the moment! Now I know how the boys feel, trying to get homework done while juggling water polo and everything else.

Chaminade 10 - Parkway South 7

The Red Devils picked up their first win in St. Louis as we beat Parkway South 10-7. The first game back from Orlando showed a lot of the things that the team picked up. We came out aggressively, playing for the steal on the defense. We jumped out to an early lead, something that the team last year seemed unable to do. However, one thing was reminiscent of the team last year, and that was the suffocating defense. Led by senior Jake Entwistle, who covered Pat Maloney (easily South’s best player), the defense created opportunities for the offense. Jake led the team with 9 steals, and never let Maloney get the ball for more than a half second if South even managed to get the ball into set. The defense pressed hard on the perimeter, and it took a couple of quarters to get used to the “new” referees and their calls, but we fixed our mistakes. Ed Rose led the counter attack, playing smart and leaving for offense when he should. His 5 goals led the team.

In goal, Chris Lauber dominated in the shallow end, playing aggressively and making a few steals, along with smart outlet passes. In the deep end Peter Hoette played his first game in St. Louis after a very promising showing in Florida, making good saves as well as a couple of steals.
The scoreboard doesn’t reflect the game, the Devils were in control the entire game. We were playing with great confidence and team defense, getting lots of shots and playing as if we could score whenever we needed to. The only problem was what would happen after a steal on defense, giving three of their goals to them by stealing the ball, and then getting it taken away and then South would have an advantage.

Players of the game were Ed Rose for his offense, and Jake Entwistle, for one of his best defensive efforts of the season.

-Senior Captain Jack Meara

Today v. Parkway South

Today the Red Devils take on the Parkway South Patriots at Parkway South. The JV game starts a 4PM and the varsity games starts at 5PM.

I know the Parkway South program fairly well as most of their kids have played for me at Jungle Cats at one point or another. I enjoy playing South because the are all good kids and don't play dirty. The varsity team is VERY fast and will be looking to counter all game. Senior Pat Maloney and Junior Jake Auinbaugh are big and fast kids, so Entwistle and Duncan will have their hands full. The JV team will probably be one of the best JV teams we play this year. South has a great sophomore and freshman class. I don't know how many of them are playing up on varsity, but I do know that freshmen Daniel Maloney and Michael Bowers are on JV and they will be tough.

This will be a good first test after a successful Florida trip.

Lingering Florida Thoughts

One of the officials pulled me aside after our last game and told me that he had a lot fun officiating our games because we "play water polo the right way". That's my second favorite comment I've heard from an outsider about our players. My favorite is still a John Burroughs player last year after we beat them 13-3: "I like playing them, they don't play dirty."

I thought we did a great job representing Chaminade and St. Louis water polo. We played hard every minute of every game. We didn't showboat or embarrass anyone. We played with class and did not give into to some of the dirty or cheap tactics used by other teams.

We got free t-shirts from Winter Park's tournament last year, as well as breakfast on Thursday. They also did not charge us for officials in the games we played against them. I think we should return their kindness by sending a letter along with a box of our red muscle shirts. The trip was expensive enough as it was, so if anyone has a good idea on how to raise money to pay for the shirts for the Winter Park boys, let me know.

Red Devils Wrap Up Wildcat Tourney With 4 Straight Wins

FRIDAY
After sleeping in, the Red Devils took on Olympia at 1PM. Senior Captain Jack Meara led the scoring with 6 goals as the Red Devils got off to a hot 5-0 start. Junior goalie Chris Lauber saved 9 shots en route to a 13-7 victory. Senior Captain Chris Watkins ended up with 1 goal, 2 assists and 1 steal, and was named player of the game for doing all of the little things right; driving hard, winging out for the outlet pass, going into set and holding his water, swimming end-to-end.

At 5PM, the "White" team took on Winter Park's JV team, which had two varsity players starting for them. This game proved to be the closest game of the tournament for CCP as Winter Park never let the Red Devils run away with the game by responding with big goals to keep the game close. But, three third period goals, two by Junior Kevin Glauber proved to be too much to overcome for the Wildcats. Senior Peter Hoette stopped 5 shots, and had 3 assists, earning player of the game as "White" took home a 9-6 victory.

At 6PM, the "Red" team played Boone, an Orlando area team. "Red" worked hard the whole game and never gave Boone anything easy. 9 second quarter goals, 6 from Senior Jack Meara, put this game out of reach early. Senior Jake Entwistle had 10 steals and chipped in a 4th quarter goal to earn player of the game honors. Junior Chris Lauber stopped 4 shots as "Red" wins 17-2.

SATURDAY
Growing in confidence each game, the Red Devils kept the heat on the local teams by bringing the intensity right from the initial swim-off. Local Orlando team Bishop Moore was up next at 10AM and fought hard with the Red Devils for the first quarter and a half. The Red Devil defense was intense and led to a flurry of counter-attack goals, 5 in the 2nd quarter and 7 in the 3rd quarter. Jack Meara and Junior Ed Rose each had four goals and accounted for 6 of those 7 3rd quarter goals. Jack also chipped in 4 assists. Junior Chris Lauber played his best game of the year, stopping 8 shots and having his best passing game of the year, leading to one assist. Chris earned player of the game as the Red Devils beat Bishop Moore 17-3.

The final game of the tournament was at 12pm against Palm Beach County school Suncoast. The intensity the Red Devils displayed in the previous three games did not diminish against Suncoast as the Red Devils imposed their defensive will upon the unsuspecting Suncoast players. Another game was out of reach early as Chaminade ended the first quarter up 7-0. The scoring was spread wide as all but three of the 13 players notched a goal, including Junior Chris Lauber who scored his first two goals after being relieved by Senior Peter Hoette. Sweeping the Saturday "player of the game" awards was Chris Lauber, who had 2 saves and an assist in the first half, and notched 2 goals on 2 shots in the second half, one of which came on a 5M shot.

Overall, the tournament was well played by Chaminade as we seemed to be growing in confidence with each game. The comfort level with the system is as good as it's ever been and the intensity on both ends of the pool is light years ahead of where it was against Kirkwood and SLUH. Every player agrees that it was definitely worth the trip. Coach Creighton apologized that he couldn't get some more top-level teams to come play us, but most of Florida was on Spring Break this week as well. I was pleased with the competition, and I wish we could have another shot at Winter Park (or played them last), because we've grown in the last two days. Player of the tournament goes to Chris Watkins, who did everything and more. His passing was great, especially on 6-on-5, his driving was relentless, his hole setting was physical and aggressive. He played tough defense and had a lot of steals. An all-around great performance, one you would expect from a captain. Jack Meara deserves some mention in the POTT conversation as he led the team with 22 goals, and did nearly everything I mentioned Chris doing. The difference was Chris' 13 assists.

Up Next: Monday March 30th v. Parkway South at Parkway South. JV starts at 4PM and Varsity follows at 5PM.

Winter Park 19 - Chaminade 9

Winter Park head coach Barry Creighton on his thoughts about the way Chaminade played (paraphrased from my memory): "First of all, that's one of the toughest games we'll play this year. You guys play hard the whole game. Your best ability is driving and getting open in the half-court. Your six-on-five was really good too. It just came down to turnovers. You would run a great counter-attack, get the ball down to the wing and the wing would rush the pass and turn the ball over. Part of it was that our guys are really good at pressuring and staying in the passing lanes. But, if the wing can just hold on to the ball and be patient, you are very good at getting open drives in the middle. You half-court defense was really tough to score against, you have the ability to stop people. But in the end, it came down to your turnovers."

My thoughts exactly. Just like against SLUH, we failed to take care of the ball. The lack of patience and lack of pride in passing is getting very frustrating. The boys really need to be aggressive when they are in possession of the ball, protecting their water with their shoulders and getting their shoulders out to pass. To para-phrase Coach Creighton; if it's the right pass to make, then you should make the effort to get your body out of the water to make the pass. I would guess that 14 of their 19 goals came on counter-attacks, either off of steals or missed shots. 4 came on man-advantages and 1 came from set offense. If the Red Devils can make the choice to be patient with the ball, make the proper pass, get their shoulders out and use the whole shot clock, the SLUH and Winter Park games become winnable.

Still, we played a very strong offensive game against a tough defensive team. Seniors Jack Meara, Chris Watkins and Junior Ed Rose had their best games of the year, driving hard to the goal and getting goals out of the hole set. Senior Jake Entwistle chipped in two goals as well. Our six-on-five was very effective, sparked by great passing from Watkins. Senior Peter Hoette jumped into goal in the third quarter and helped his teammates out with great passing and even a few steals. Junior Kevin Glauber netted his first varisty goal, on his birthday no less! Happy Birthday Kevin! Player of the game honers go to Jack Meara who had 4 of the 9 goals, including 2 from the hole, with a man on his side.

It was a good game and it was fun to go against the guys we had been practicing with the last couple of days. Coach Creighton and his boys were great hosts and we hope we can return the favor to them in the future. We look forward to trying to make this trip happen again next year. We need to bring them some Chaminade gear next year!

Tomorrow we have 3 games. The first will be against Olympia, in which the full team will play. The second game, the "White" team will play Winter Park's JV. In the third game, the "Red" team plays Boone.

Chaminade "White" wins against DeSmet Reserves

It was a successful first day as the Chaminade "White" team made up of Seniors Chris Duncan and Andrew Spilling, Juniors Kevin Glauber and Jake Schott, Sophomore Aaron Gremp and Freshman Tim Watkins didn't take a sub all game and defeated the DeSmet reserves 8-6. Senior backup goalie Peter Hoette played phenomenally in goal, making some key saves and starting off the counter-attack with accurate passes. Player of the game honors goes to Jake Schott who scored 4 goals and displayed the aggressiveness Chaminade fans are used to seeing from Jake.

Earlier in the day, host Winter Park High School let us share the pool with them during their regular Wednesday practice. Coach Barry Creighton was very gracious and allowed our boys to intermix with his during the drills. Coach Stream and I learned a lot from Coach Creighton, and I think the Chaminade players learned a lot from playing with the Winter Park boys. I was very impressed with how welcoming they all were, and how willing they were to share their water polo knowledge (bonus: they gave us free shirts from a tournament they held last year!). Coach Creighton showed me their team room, decorated with the schools trophies over the years, and it's safe to say that this is one of the top flight programs in Florida and this group looks to contend with the Miami teams for the state title yet again this year. We should be in for a tough game tomorrow night. We play Winter Park at 6:30PM.

Next up, we will have another practice session tomorrow morning. We will then head to Cocoa Beach to check out the Ron Jon surf shop, hang out on the boardwalk and engage in some beach volleyball. The weather is supposed to be beautiful.

Team Arrives Safely in Florida

With Andrew Spilling en route, the team has officially arrived in Florida. We are relaxing at the hotel (Coach Stream is watching cartoons) and we head out to Winter Park at 2:30 to go practice with the Winter Park High School team. Afterwards there will be a cookout with the Winter Park folks, and then our varsity bench (dubbed the "White" team) will take on DeSmet's varsity bench. Yeah, we travelled hundreds of miles just to play each other! It will be a good experience to get a warm-up game in against a familiar opponent in unfamiliar surroundings. The pool is outdoors and likely all-deep. We are looking forward to getting going. Check back later as I plan on updating daily.

Practice Today

Today's practice will start at 3PM. We will probably go until 4:30PM, because I will be attending the Parkway West-Marquette matchup at 5PM at Parkway West. All are welcome to join me.

SLUH 13 - Chaminade 1

Direct quote from a senior: "That was not a good game."

Usually losses are hard to deconstruct as many little things add up to the loss and it's hard to draw broad themes to reason why the loss occurred. This loss is not one of those losses. This loss can be pinned on one thing: passing.

The Red Devils played hard and were in the game for a half, but in the end, poor passing led to their demise. SLUH played excellent passing lane defense. They pressed hard and wouldn't give the Red Devils any easy passing lanes. Rather than working to create lanes, the Red Devils often forced passes which led to many steals and counter-attack goals. Conservative estimates put the turnover ratio at 3 turnovers for every 4 possessions. Personally, I think the ratio was higher. In order to beat good teams, you need to take care of the ball. Just like in football, the team with the fewest turnovers usually wins.

Things that went right:

• Half-Court defense - when we made SLUH set up, they did not score. We play great team defense in the half-court.
• The 2nd Quarter - 1-1 was the score in the second quarter. I believe everyone in the building believed the entire game was going to go like the second quarter went. I believe we can replicate that second quarter for an entire game against this team.

Things that went not so right:

• Passing - we need to take more pride in our passing; how it was delivered (was it too hard, too soft, did it skip, was it catchable), where it was delivered (was it too high, too low, too close or too far away) and if it was the right pass for what we are doing offensively (who was driving, who was open, did the pass lead to a positive play or did I just get rid of the ball)
• Counter-attack defense - we let the SLUH attackers leave early for offense and we were playing catch-up too much. We need to anticipate when our opponent is going to leave for offense.
• Movement on offense - we basically run a motion offense and there was not enough movement. Our goalie had to hold the ball too long on too many possessions and when the ball would come down the pool, we were content to watch the 2M work for position, rather than drive weak side or look for back door/pick opportunities.
• Shooting aggressiveness - it was improved from the Kirkwood game, but the boys need to pull the trigger when they are open

Goals: Watkins - 1
Assists: Meara - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 2, Watkins - 2, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Rose - 1
Saves: Lauber - 8

Player of the Game: Watkins - 1 goal, 2 steals

Next Game: FLORIDA!

Tonight v. SLUH

Tonight, the Red Devils face-off against the top-ranked SLUH Jr. Bills. JV will begin at 6PM and varsity will follow at 7PM. These are the correct times (I posted the wrong times initially) and if there is ever any confusion about game times, please check http://mowaterpolo.com/, as that site always has the most updated schedule.

SLUH has been a dominant force for the last three seasons, and their undefeated record stretches back to when water polo was still in the fall. The Red Devils encountered the Jr. Bills three times last year and I thought our performance against them improved each time. We also had the best success against SLUH of any team last year because of our abilities on the defensive end.

In the spirit of March Madness beginning today (a national holiday in my eyes) and to get under the skin of SLUH JV coach John Penilla, I called former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps to get his three keys to the game tonight for Chaminade. Here there are, without the matching tie and highlighter:

1. Accurate passing while under pressure: good passes will lead to open drives and 6-on-5 opportunities
2. Entwistle, Duncan and more Entwistle: Jake and Chris need to be perfect guarding the hole and can't get kicked out
3. Solid goaltending from Junior Chris Lauber: Chris has been working hard on long passing this week which will help stimulate the Red Devil counter-attack

Digger makes some good points, but I think the critical matchup tonight is how our defensive stalwarts, led by Jake Entwistle, Chris Duncan and Captain Danny Faust, handle the SLUH 2-meters John Heafner, Will Page and Steve Sigman. Jake and Chris, in particular, played brilliantly against Kirkwood and will have to again carry a large load tonight. If we can keep those three Jr. Bills off the board, we will find ourselves in this game to the very end.

Starters for varsity:
#1 Chris Lauber
#2 Chris Watkins (c)
#4 Jack Meara (c)
#5 Kevin Glauber
#6 Peter Hoette
#8 Danny Faust (c)
#9 Jake Entwistle

First Issue of "The Backhand" Distributed

The quasi-monthly publication by the Chaminade Water Polo team, dubbed "The Backhand", just had it's first issue published and it was distributed out to many students, parents and alumni. The two-page first edition has the upcoming schedule, an article about this blog, an article about the middle school program and a "Meet the Seniors" section featuring Captain Chris Watkins, Peter Hoette and Andrew Spilling.

I cannot upload PDFs to this site, so "The Backhand" will not be availble on the site. If you are a Chaminade parent or alumni (or parent of an alumni) and would like to have "The Backhand" sent to you. Please email me at tlmilford@gmail.com.

Kirkwood 6 - Chaminade 5

The first game of the year proved to be a rough one for the Red Devils. The Red Devils were missing scorer Jake Schott who missed school with a fever. Jake is one of our best offensive players and was sorely missed as Chaminade scored only 5 goals on 18 shots.

A very physical, very confident Kirkwood team played hard for four quarters and really took advantage of every opportunity. Kirkwood took 10 shots all game and scored on 6 of them. That shooting percentage is hard to beat.

The first quarter ended 1-1 as Senior Jack Meara scored for CCP on a counter attack and Kirkwood's Brian McVey scored on a free throw outside 5M. CCP added two more goals in the first half. One came on a 5M goal by Meara created by fellow Captain Chris Watkins' great drive. Ed Rose added the other on a rebound. The score would have been 4-1, if not for a great effort by a Kirkwood player to get back and knock down an Ed Rose breakaway. Down 3-1 at half, the Pioneers battled back to even the score 3-3 in the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter was intense as Kirkwood took an early two goal lead off of a Jake Entwistle kickout and a counter-attack goal on a missed Red Devil 6-on-5. The Red Devils answered with a Jack Meara laser from 7 meters out and another Ed Rose rebound goal. The death blow came with 24 seconds left as Kirkwood put the Red Devils away for good. A last second weak-side drive attempt failed and sealed Kirkwood's upset.

Overall, the game came down to opportunities. Kirkwood made the most out of theirs, the Red Devils did not. Our defense was solid and so was our effort on the offensive end. What was missing was the execution.

Things that went right:

• Hole Defense - Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan did a magnificent job stopping the Kirkwood 2M's when they went inside
• Perimeter Defense - I counted only one goal that came from set offense. The other 5 came from either broken plays or counter-attacks. The defensive pressure was great and lead to 22 steal.
• Offensive effort - the drives were executed very well and we had a LOT of open people on drives.

Things that went not so right:

• Passing - too many missed opportunities. When under pressure, our wings couldn't get separation to make a good pass, or it would take too long to get separation, resulting in a previously open losing his open water.
• Counter-attack passing - if we are going to be successful, the first pass off of a steal or from the goalie needs to be on target
• Closing teams out - Kirkwood scored 1 goal in the first half and 5 goals in the second half. A would-be 4-1 lead turned into a 3-1 lead which quickly became a tie game. We can't expect to win a game when we don't score for an entire quarter.

Goals: Meara - 3, Rose - 2
Assists: Entwistle - 1, Meara -1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Hoette - 5, Watkins - 3, Duncan - 2, Glauber - 2, Meara - 2, Faust - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1
Saves: Lauber - 4

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 1 assist and 6 steals

Up Next: 7:00PM on Thursday March 19th v. SLUH at Chaminade.

Tonight v. Kirkwood

Tonight the Red Devils open the 2009 season against the Kirkwood Pioneers at Chaminade. The JV game will begin at 7PM, with the varsity game to follow at 8PM.

Kirkwood has a strong group this year, five of which I am somewhat familiar with. Mitchell Bequette, Christian Bopp and Jim Tucker all played Jungle Cats and are all big strong kids who are good swimmers. Mitchell is Kirkwood's primary 2M guard and does a very good job. The two offensive players for the Pioneers are Christian Stanza and Brian McVey (Brian may or may not be injured according to the boys). Christian in particular is a handful as he is a tireless worker in the hole and has a real knack for scoring.

Kirkwood is a top 6 team that we cannot overlook. We need to come out hard at both ends and show the defensive prowess that everyone praises us for. I hope we can get a big crowd out for the home opener.

Starters for Varsity:
#1 Chris Lauber
#2 Chris Watkins (c)
#4 Jack Meara (c)
#5 Kevin Glauber
#8 Danny Faust (c)
#9 Jake Entwistle
#10 Jake Schott

Seniors & Freshmen Win Red-White Game 8-7

The Annual Red-White game was surprisingly evenly match as the Juniors and Sophomores (Blue) shocked the Seniors and Freshmen (White) by leading 4-1 at halftime. Junior Ed Rose led the Blue attack with 2 counter-attack goals in the second quarter.

Senior pride took over in the 3rd quarter as Senior Captain Jack Meara scored two early goals and Senior Captain Danny Faust tied up the game at 4-4 with just 29 second remaining in the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter was back and forth, and defense was non-existent as 7 goals were scored. Freshman Michael Tanner was the only freshman to get on the board, putting White up 5-4. Sophomore Chris Schneider tied up the game with the funniest goal of the game, by making an acrobatic catch while yelling "Ow!", suddenly realizing he made a great catch and was wide open in front of the cage, then subsequently rifling the ball in the back of the cage. Jack Meara tallied two more goals, giving him 5 for the game and earning Player of the Game honors for White. POTG honors for Blue goes to Kevin Glauber who scored two goals while having a fever.

Coach Stream and I were most impressed by the Flying Lauber Brothers who made all the saves they were supposed to and even some they weren't. I think the game was very impressive overall, considering most of these guys haven't played a competitive game in months. I am very excited for our season opener on Monday and I hope we can get a big crowd out to support the Red Devils against the Kirkwood Pioneers. JV starts at 7PM, varsity will start after at about 8PM.

Weekend Practice Schedule

Due to the basketball games in Columbia, varsity will have a unique practice schedule this weekend. Instead of practicing Friday afternoon, we will have practice from 7AM-9AM on Friday morning. Satruday practice will be moved to Sunday from 1PM-3PM.

JV practices will be cancelled on Friday and Saturday.

Red-White Game This Thursday

This Thursday, March 12th at 6:00PM, the Chaminade Red Devils will be playing their annual intra-squad scrimmage called the "Red-White Game". The Seniors and Freshman will be playing the Juniors and Sophomores. The game will be a full-speed scrimmage with all of the high school rules being enforced, including the shot clock. We will have two high school referees officiating the game, Bill Pohrer and Chris Klippel. Bill and Chris will also be giving a "rules presentation" to the parents stating at 5:30PM. Afterwards there will be food for the players and parents.

Monday's Practices

JV will not be practicing Monday March 9th.

Varsity will practice at 4:45PM as usual.

SLUH Game Rescheduled

Due to a Chaminade junior retreat, we have moved our 4/23 match against SLUH to Thursday 3/19. The game will still be held at Chaminade and it will be our last game before Spring Break.

Wednesday's Practice 3/4/09

Since the Chaminade basketball team has a Sectional game at 6PM on Wednesday, the water polo team will have a combined JV and Varsity practice at 3:15PM. The practice time will not be any different for JV as they will get out at 4:45PM. Varsity will still have a 2-hour practice and will get out at 5:15PM, giving the players 45 minutes to get to the game.

Varsity Elects Captains

Congratulations to seniors Danny Faust, Jack Meara and Chris Watkins who were all elected captain by their teammates!

First Day of Practice

Finally, the first day of practice for the 2009 season is upon us. Coach Stream and I are revved up and ready to go. JV starts at 3:15PM and Varsity starts at 4:45PM, BE ON TIME!

It's going to be a good year. Check back here for updates on the season. I plan on posting often.

Thanks for the support!

Go Devils!

CCP Middle School Team Finishes Season Strong

We played an experienced Daisy team for our last game of the season. Even thought we lost 6-3, I feel this was our most complete game to date. Offensively we managed to get the ball down the pool and take some great shots. Defensively, however, the team really shined. The defense played much better than last week. I saw teammates communicating with each other and helping each other out. Several times a Daisy player lost the ball to a swarm of Chaminade players. Player of the game honors goes to Mark Corwin. Mark played goalie for almost the entire game. His saves kept the game close.What stood out the most in this game was how much we have improved this year. I'm sure the parents that have come to the games have noticed just how far the team has come. Compared to our first game we are a totally different team. Not only have individual skills improved, but so has the teamwork. It makes me wish the MS season lasted a few more weeks.

I hope that everyone on the team stays involved with water polo. If everyone returns for next year I can see the team winning quite a few games. I encourage all of the players to join a club team for the spring. I'll try to have some sign up sheets at school next week. For the 8th graders planning to play for Chaminade HS next year, playing on a club team will be invaluable. If anyone has any questions on the club teams ask me or any of the other coaches. I have really enjoyed coaching the team this year and hope everyone has had fun playing water polo for the first time.

-Coach Danny

The Chaminade Middle School team notches first win in club history!

The Chaminade MS water polo club captured their first victory of the season and also the first victory ever for the program. Chaminade defeated Storm 12-4 for the win. This game was easily the best to date. On defense the players helped each other out, stealing passes and shutting down Storm. Storm never seemed to feel comfortable against our defense and often ran the clock out.

Offensively, the team countered hard and scored quite a few breakaway goals. Perhaps more impressively, the half court offense began to fall into place. The team worked the ball into Garret for several shots from 2-meter. Perimeter passing improved from the last game. This time around, I saw a lot less turnovers from bad passes. Perhaps the only blemish offensively was missing our 6-5 opportunity. As usual, Joe Tillman and Mark Corwin continued their solid goalie performances. While some of the saves were impressive, the passing was much improved.

Player of the game honors went to Dan. He set the tone for the game, scoring the first two goals for Chaminade. He was moving all of the pool making plays. Practice this week will be at the regular times. This weekend, Chaminade will face a tough Daisy team. Hopefully our recent success caries over to the next game.

-Coach Danny

SLAP 12, Chaminade 5

The Chaminade Middle School team played its second game in history, falling 12-5 to the hands of SLAP. Even though it was a loss, I was extremely happy with the way we played. We started off poorly, giving up three breakaway goals, and turning the ball over on offense. However, the team managed to turn it around midway through the second quarter. After a timeout, in which the priority became preventing the breakaway and setting up the offense, the team started to play much better. The defense, anchored by Jaime Haro, did not allow a breakaway goal after the timeout. Jaime made sure that he was the first person back on defense, and played excellent 2 meter defense. Shallow end goalie Joe Tillman made some important steals and outlet passes that were able to get our offense. In the deep end, Mark Corwin played some stellar goalie, making some big saves and steals. On the offensive end, Garret Knasel took over. Garret led the team with four goals, including one half court bomb that went in the upper corner. Also scoring was Graydon Konzen, who ripped a shot from about 6 meters out. Also on offense, Jaime Haro made some high school level passes, one to Garret Knasel that set him up for his fourth goal.

Practice at 3:00 on Thursday after school, game at 12:15 at Ladue on Saturday. Also, we will now be practicing two days a week, starting next week. More on this at practice on Thursday.

-Coach Jack