The winter club season is rapidly approaching and I would like to encourage everyone to play this winter. A big reason SLUH has been so dominant in recent years is because the last three classes have collectively decided to play year round and play together. Playing year round used to be the exception, but now it is the norm. Not playing puts you at a strong disadvantage in this sport.
In recent years, Chaminade water polo players have played for Daisy Water Polo Club and Jungle Cat Water Polo. There are a handful of other clubs out there, such as SLAP, Mad Dog and Flyers. It doesn't matter to me which club you play for, as long as you play. I coach for Jungle Cat Water Polo, but I want to be clear that I want you to just play and everyone will be given a fair shot during the high school season regardless of whether you played for me or a different club.
Most information can be found on mowaterpolo.com, and the Jungle Cat sign up sheet can be found here: http://junglecatpolo.com/
If you need information on a different club, let me know and I'll try and find it for you.
October 20, 2008
Winter Water Polo
Zone Tryouts
Quick announcement, there will be tryouts for the zone team on November 22nd. Information can be found here: http://www.mowaterpolo.com/calendar.html
A lot of the top players from the St. Louis area played on these teams in addition to playing for their high school and their club. It's good to get exposure to different styles of play and different coaches. The team is very beneficial if you want to try and play in college.
June 2, 2008
This Summer
Just a couple last minute announcements:
1) EVERYONE needs to play this summer. Even if it's part time, that's okay as I don't know of any club that requires 100% attendance. Most clubs are still having sign-ups and most start next Monday. PLEASE sign up to play for a club, ANY club. It's a simple fact that the more guys we have playing year round, the stronger our program will be. If you are having trouble or don't know where to start, send me an email or go to http://mowaterpolo.com and click on the "club teams" page. Personally, I coach for Jungle Cats and we will be practicing at Chaminade this summer.
2) There is a camp THIS WEEKEND at SLU that I think would be good for everyone. I don't know the coaching staff and this is their first camp in St. Louis, but they have really good credentials and it will be good for anyone to receive more coaching. I was promised that "the kids that are signed up will have an experience like none other." I will try and go on Sunday to meet the staff and check out what they are doing. Currently there are 20 spots available. This is their website: http://www.elitepolo.com/st_louis.html and I emailed all the CCP boys the brochure.
All-District Teams Named
Congratulations to Michael Kubik, Blake Stabler and Jack Benage for being recognized as "All-District" players, which is essentially "All-State". Michael and Blake were named to the 1st team and Jack was named to the 3rd team.
You can see the full results here: http://www.mowaterpolo.com/District%20Teams/2008District.html.
SLUH lead the way with six players being named, followed by Chaminade, DeSmet and Marquette with three a piece. I think it's fitting that SLUH doubled the number of All-District players as they nearly doubled everyone's scoring this year. It's also fitting that the other three final four teams have more honorees than the other schools. To be honest, I am satisfied with the results and unlike most years, it's hard to make a convincing argument that so-and-so is too high or too low. Congrats to all the selections, especially Michael, Blake and Jack. Good season guys!
May 19, 2008
SLUH 7 - Chaminade 3
You can read about the game and see a picture of Kevin Arnold yodeling here: http://prepsports.stltoday.com/ssi/prep/stories2008.nsf/waterpolo/story/76E2F79ACB1C6DFF8625744D001F4532?OpenDocument
About an hour before the State championship against SLUH, I could tell that the boys were acting a little funny. The conversation was light-hearted and everyone was very excited, but there wasn't any anxiety about the upcoming game. Which I thought was a good sign. But, there were a lot of sentences that began with "It would be great if we won, but..."so I decided to call a team meeting at halftime of the 3rd place game. I told the guys that they had an hour to mentally prepare to win the state title. The attitude of "we're just happy to be here" wasn't acceptable because in order to win a game, you first have to believe you can win it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the attitudes shifted at that moment and you could see in the eyes of the Red Devils that they wanted to win and they believed they could. The conversation shifted from "it would be great if" to "it will be great when" which is a big difference.
Our boys we came out in the 1st quarter likes bats out of hell. Our goal going into the game was to have no regrets. We wanted to do everything we could to do the impossible and for a while, it seemed like the impossible was possible. Usually the ones on the delivering end of quick goals and counter-attack breakaways, SLUH found themselves playing from behind early on two counter-attack goals by Jack Benage and Danny Faust.
The CCP defense was amazing in the first half. We forced many bad passes by pressing on the perimeter without fouling. The bad passes resulted in a lot of steals and quick counter attacks. After the first two goals, SLUH had their best defender, Michael O'Neill, stay on their defensive side of half the rest of the game to thwart the CCP counter. And it worked as the Red Devils couldn't get anything going out of the half-court...but neither could SLUH.
SLUH opened up their scoring on a 5M from Tim Dale. It would be the first of three 5M's called on the Red Devils in this game (Tim scored on two of them), and I could never get a satisfactory explanation from either referee on any of them. The first was apparently on Blake who had both of his hands up, the second was on Arnold who was even with his man when the foul was committed (if he was fouling from behind I would have agreed) and the third was called on Kubik with the ball two or three strokes away from the SLUH player (how can it be a probable goal if he doesn't even have the ball?)
SLUH's second goal was again scored by Tim Dale who took Kevin Arnold into the hole and still rifled off a shot Kevin hanging all over him. Their third goal was the aforementioned Kubik 5M in the third quarter, again scored by Tim who had SLUH's first three goals. I have been coaching Tim since he was a freshman, and it was a dominant performance by him. It was one of the best games he has probably ever played and he received my vote for Player of the Year.
Despite the fluke 5M's, CCP's defense was great and we went into the second half tied 2-2. Another rendition of "Living on a Prayer" contributed to our good moods and I thought we were ready to take it to them again. Unfortunately, that 5M on Kubik was called early in the 3rd quarter and then the wheels started coming off. I'm not sure if we were tired and drained from the emotional roller-coaster the night before, or if SLUH was that much better than us, or the fact that we prepared so much for DeSmet that we ignored preparing for SLUH...whatever it was, after our first 2 goals, we gave up 6 unanswered goals until Chris Watkins stopped the bleeding in the 4th.
Although the result was not ideal, we still played a great game. It was the toughest anyone had played SLUH all year (it was the only game all season where SLUH didn’t at least double the opponents goal total) and we should be very proud of our accomplishments this season. At the beginning of the year, our goal was to make it to the state final and I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we have no regrets. We defied expectations and our season was a success.
Coaches Awards:
Most Valuable Player – Michael Kubik
Offensive Player of the Year – Michael Kubik
Defensive Player of the Year – Jake Entwistle
Most Improved – Chris Duncan
Rookie of the Year (1st Year on Varsity) – Chris Watkins
Most POTGs – Blake Stabler and Jake Entwistle
On behalf of the team, I would like to thank all of the parents for all of their support throughout the year. You have no idea how much you have carried us this season. From the cowbells, to the cheering, to the blinking Devils, to the dyslexic signs, to the Gatorade, water bottles and after-game snacks, it was a phenomenal performance by the parents this year. And at no point in the season could we say “nobody believes in us” because our parents always did (even my parents!). There was also a fantastic showing by alumni and even the parents of alumni. We truly have a great water polo community at Chaminade.
A very special thanks is owed to Bill Stabler and Kin Watkins for all of their hard work on the stats this year. The boys were very happy to have accurate stats and having the stats creates a good historical record of the season. If this were a banquet, I would ask for a round of applause. Thanks Bill and Kin!
Personally, I need to thank my parents and my girlfriend Mandy for all for their support this year. Thanks also to Coach Larry Stream who did a fantastic job with the JV and whose assistance was invaluable this season. Thank you to Patrick St. Cin for being our third coach when he was in town and helped us prepare for DeSmet. Thanks to Tom Fiala and Kevin Brennan for taking care of all of the details.
Lastly, I need to thank the senior class. Going in, I wanted to form a partnership with the seniors and try to do the best I could to achieve their goals. After all, it was their team and the season was going to be what they made of it. Well, they made it a season that none of us will ever forget. As the saying goes, you never forget your first time, and I’m glad I had such a great group of guys to lead me through my first time. I’ll miss you guys next year. Good luck in college, and make sure you come back to see us next year, Grassi’s will be on me!
Chaminade 5 - DeSmet 4
In the most exciting game I have ever been a part of, the Chaminade Red Devils upset the DeSmet Spartans 5-4.
CCP's Senior Michael Kubik started the scoring and really put the heat on DeSmet from the beginning. DeSmet's sophomore Andrew Schonhoff responded for the Spartans with 24 second remaining in the first to tie the game at 1-1. The second quarter was all CCP as Jake Entwistle, Jack Benage (on a 5M!) and Jack Meara all knotted goals. In typical Jake fashion, he got pissed off and decided to go into set and make something happen. Danny Faust set the ball and Jake tried a couple moves but wasn't awarded a foul. He looked around to see if anyone was driving, but they were all telling him to shoot, so Jake shrugged off his defender and barred in a lob to the far corner. We were celebrating the goal and rolling on the ground laughing at the same time. Another DeSmet sophomore, Matt Stiponovich, ended the Red Devil scoring streak with a unstoppable bullet to the near corner (un-savable in my mind) and we went into the second half up 4-2.
Halftime was not all smiles as the Red Devils were clearly still intense and focused and were disappointed by the DeSmet goals and some missed opportunities of our own. There was also a certain junior I told to cheer up who then told me he was "scared to death". I think sophomore Kevin Glauber felt the tension and started one of the most memorable moments of the night. The back story is that we created a team CD, where everyone chose a song and everyone on the team had a copy of the CD, including me. Senior Blake Stabler chose Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" for his song. I found it odd that Blake chose a song that is older than he is and is the anthem for every girl I ever met in college, but it was perfect. During a treading drill in practice, at the halfway point, the boys would sing the chorus..."whoa, we're halfway there, whoa-oh living on a prayer"...and I thought it was hilarious. Well as we were huddling up to get ready for the second half, Kevin sang the first couple notes..."whoa, we're halfway there"...and the rest of us, whether out of habit or sheer spontaneity or as a stress release finished off the chorus..."Whoa-oh! Living on a prayer! Take my hand, we'll make it I swear! Whoa-oh! Living on a prayer!" It was the ultimate team moment and I will never forget it.
Well, the second half wasn't as productive offensively as the first, with only one goal coming from Jack Benage two minutes into the third, but it didn't need to be as our defense was stifling and Blake's goaltending was amazing. The game plan was to play a drop-zone to prevent weak side passes and keep the ball out of the middle of the goal so the Spartans would be forced to take outside shots and beat Blake from the perimeter. Every time we played DeSmet up to this point, they would get the ball down on the left wing and drive someone hard to the right (usually Junior Danny Holtgrewe) and make cross-goal passes and score back-door. The plan hinged on Blake playing a great game, and he rose to the challenge making 14 saves. A couple of coaches who came to watch put it, "He stopped everything."
The zone worked all day except for a one minute span where Danny Holtgrewe got free for two goals. In principle, Danny scored the type of goals our defense was designed to prevent, but DeSmet took a play our of our playbook and ran flat-wing picks to get Danny open weak-side and he capitalized on two goals in the third to bring the score to 5-4. But we adjusted, and for the first time all season, we learned from a mistake and shut that play down. The defense was perfect from that point forward and despite some scares, including a 5M shot, 4 man-advantages, and some point-blank opportunities, the defense held and we pulled out a last second victory.
Overall, it was the one of the best games we had played all season and it was by far the most gratifying. We beat a team that we had played close all season and we executed the game plan when it counted. Our offense was aggressive early and our defense was near-perfect. I am very proud of the way we played and we accomplished our goal of making it to the state finals.
Goals: Benage - 2, Entwistle - 1, Kubik - 1, Meara - 1
Assists: Benage - 2, Faust - 1, Kubik - 1
Steals: Faust - 3, Kubik - 3, Benage - 2, Watkins - 2, Arnold - 1, Entwistle -1, Fernandez -1, Stabler - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 3 (first time all season anyone has gotten red-flagged), Kubik -1, and one unrecorded for the 5M
Player of the Game: Stabler - 14 saves on 18 shots, 1 steal and "stopping everything".
May 17, 2008
Prepcasts Live Broadcast of Districts
Hey everyone, it's Jack Benage here. I wanted to pop in to double check to see if everyone was aware of the live broadcasts being done by Prepcasts. Prepcasts has been doing audio broadcasts of the district tournament games. I wanted to make sure you all had the link for tonight's game so that if you are unable to make it to the finals tonight but you are around a computer and wanted to, you could listen to the game.
May 16, 2008
Tonight v. DeSmet
Tonight the Chaminade Red Devils play in the district (state) semi-final against the rival DeSmet Spartans. The game starts at 8:00 PM out at St. Peter's Rec-Plex.
There isn't really anything to say about this game that hasn't been said many times already. We have seen them three times and all three times they played hard the whole game and we did not. The 4th quarter has been our downfall...we were down 5-4 after three in the first game only to lose 9-6...we were up 4-2 after three in the second game, only to give up two 4th quarter goals and end up losing in overtime...we were tied 3-3 after three in the third game, only to give up five 4th quarter goals for our third loss.
If you have a dangerous enemy down, you can't let up, you can't relax or they can come back on you.
I'm fired up for tonight. It's going to be exciting and a lot of fun. I hope we can fill the stands with a sea of red.
Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust
