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.