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!
May 19, 2008
SLUH 7 - Chaminade 3
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
May 14, 2008
Chaminade 9 - Ladue 4
Final Four here we come!
The Red Devils came to play on Wednesday night and completed the sweep of the Ladue Rams, who have been an increasingly tough opponent all year. The comments from our boys regarding the Rams have been nothing but positive and they were great competitors all season. I'm glad this was the last time we had to face them, because they might beat us if we had to meet again.
Right from the get-go, you could tell the CCP boys were fired up and played very aggressively on the offensive end. We countered hard, we made good passes and we attacked the goal. The goal output was a very consistent 3 goals per quarter until we pulled back the reigns in the 4th quarter.
Defense was a little shaky in the early going as a lack of communication gave the Rams a lot of opportunities in the first half. Senior goalie Blake Stabler bailed his teammates out often as we got caught watching and left the most dangerous shooter open (the idea is to let the guys hanging out at half be open and guard everyone who is 7M or closer to the goal...it's also not a good idea to make your teammate swim from 2M to 2M). Blake's 21 saves were a season high and is playing his best water polo at the end of the season, which is awesome. There were some passes in the second half that had me scratching my head, but he still played a great game.
Things that went right:
- Goaltending
- Defensive recovery - we made mistakes, but we recovered well and usually didn't repeat the mistake
- Offensive aggressiveness - we attacked, attacked and then attacked some more. A great offensive effort
- Communication - how many times has this appeared in this section? Too many. It got better in the second half, but we still need to talk to each other in the water more
- 6-on-5 - I made the mistake of calling a timeout when the goalie got kicked out, but we still should have scored on the time out. Also we took a lob on 6-on-5...a big no-no.
- 5M shot - I think Jack was too tired, I should have had Kubik take it.
Assists: Kubik - 3, Stabler - 2, Benage - 1, Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1
Steals: Kubik - 4, Meara - 4, Entwistle - 1, Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Schwartz - 1, Stabler - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Stabler - 21
Player of the Game: Stabler - 21 Saves on 24 shots, 2 assists and 1 steal
Up Next: 8:00PM on Friday May 16th v. DeSmet at St. Peters Rec-Plex.
Tonight v. Ladue
Tonight, the 3rd ranked Boys in Red will begin their post-season quest against the 6th ranked Ladue Rams. The game will start at 6:15PM at the St. Peter's Rec-Plex and I would like the boys to try and arrive at 5:00PM.
This will be the 4th meeting of these two teams with the last meeting ending 5-3 just 10 days ago. Ladue is a very good team with two excellent 2M's Zach Varwig and Hayden Yancey. Their goalie is unheralded, but has played very well against us this year. We need to do a good job of getting cross-goal shots and using fakes to keep him off-balance.
It's "make or break" time as this could be our last game of the season. I have been saying all along, we are a great team, maybe the best team, if we are all focused and we execute. We cannot win this game on athleticism alone, we need to be ready and focused. I'm pumped. See you there.
Starters:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Jack Benage (c)
#3 Michael Kubik
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#6 Jake Entwistle
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette
May 12, 2008
Summer Water Polo
I highly encourage everyone who wants to play water polo next year for Chaminade to play for a club this summer. There are a handful of clubs in the area and all have different advantages and disadvantages, but all are doing a good job at developing their players. The clubs that participate in the Strike Zone summer league are the ones I would recommend, and they are Daisy, Jungle Cats, Mad Dog and SLAP. Flyers is a good club as well, but I believe they don't have a club this summer because Lindbergh pool is under repair.
As for me, this summer will be my 5th summer coaching for Jungle Cat Water Polo. Jungle Cats was started when I was in high school by SLUH's varsity coach Paul Baudendistel and we just celebrated our tenth season. The last few years have been very successful as we have won the Strike Zone league three times straight and have gone out to California twice to participate in Junior Olympics. This summer, we will again be travelling to play in the Junior Olympics in Irvine, CA.
I would very much like everyone to play for a club, any club, as playing for a team and being coached year round exponentially increases a high school player's experience and ability. As I've said many times before, water polo in this city is not like soccer where everyone has been playing since they were 6 years old and by the time you reach high school you only get incrementally better each year. Since most kids START playing in high school, water polo is a sport in which you can increase your experience EXPONENTIALLY by playing during the offseason.
So again, PLAY this summer, for any club. There are different clubs with different practice times at different locations, so pick the one that is right for you. I will not play favorites to those who play for me at Jungle Cats.
FYI: Jungle Cats will be practicing at Chaminade this summer. Sign-ups have begun and more information can be found at http://junglecatpolo.com/
Senior Bio: Dan Fernandez
Name: Dan Fernandez
Age: 18
Height: 6'2''
Weight: 220
Grade Started at Chaminade: 6th
Going to College: SMU
Best Water Polo Skill: Passing and breaking for offense
Favorite Water Polo Moment: Last year, after I subbed in the middle of a game at the Rec-Plex vs DeSmet, I got the ball on our 7m from blake, and drove it all the way down to DeSmet's right post and skipped it past the goalie.
Quote: "ATTACK!" -Jack Benage
