Chaminade Water Polo

End of the Year Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:42:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:59:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:26:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:59:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:53:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:33:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:51:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:10:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:27:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Check the right. I think I figured it out.

Chaminade 11 - Parkway Central 6

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:21:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:07:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:58:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:22:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:15:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:50:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:46:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:43:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:39:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:25:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Coach Tom) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:12:00 +0000

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!