It's 8:30am as I write this. It was tough to sleep last night as I had quite a hard time getting last nights game out of my head. The one good thing about water polo being near its end is my sleep habits will improve, haha.
What a battle last night! Unfortunately we came up a bit short. Salinas won the league championship by defeating Carmel 11-8. The boys fought hard until the final buzzer. They were focused and prepared for that game. We simply got beat by a team that was slightly better than us at the time. We had opportunities and chances, but we just couldn't capitalize on enough of them. Good teams force you into that position. We made a few and I really mean only a few mistakes, Salinas capitalized on those few mistakes. That's what good teams do. We came in with a game plan to hold down Brian Morton who is Salinas's powerhouse of a hole set. Most would say that Brian Morton is one of the top 5 talents in all of CCS and is only a junior. Our plan was to limit his damage and force the role players for Salinas to rise to the occasion to beat us. Brady Hopkins and Ben Evered combined to hold the league's leading scorer to only 2 goals. You have to tip your cap to Spencer Thompson and Chris Hunsdorfer for Salinas who rose to the occasion and made some shots that could make a "highlight reel". The amount of "bar in" goals for Salinas last night was remarkable. I think it is safe to say Salinas played one of their best games of the season. They needed that "best game" to beat us. Carmel went down 6-1 early in the 1st half, there was fear that the game would be a blow out, but our boys never gave up, showed some real character and fought back to make the game a close and exciting one till the end. A few small things, a few calls go our way instead of the other and the game is easily tied or won by Carmel. It was that marginal of a difference. Jakub Kristl was fantastic in the cage, making a "highlight reel" himself by making some huge blocks and a few beautiful assists. The only goals Salinas scored were on a few mental/defensive breakdowns on our part and/or a number of just absolutely perfect shots that were virtually unblockable. Jay Louis played a great game and our season leading scorer continued his scoring barrage by adding 4 goals and 3 steals. Nate Cohen, the teams' second leading scorer played another outstanding game on both sides of the ball and tallied two goals. Ben Evered, Ben Regan, Romi Kristl, Zach Olpin each had one goal apiece. Ben Evered who was deathly ill on Friday and not able to play against RLS showed some great courage by mustering enough strength to give us some big minutes last night. Brady Hopkins continued to be our defensive mainstay in the middle by defending Salinas' best player. Kai Harper continued his great defensive play and leading the counterattack. It was a great team effort!
I'd like to share a little perspective to those fans/parents/players that follow this blog...
I'd also like to preface that I am not one for making excuses. We face a large obstacle each and every polo season it is our reality that we as a program have faced for many years. This reality will make it even sweeter when we finally win that league championship. In all sports Carmel High competes in the Mission Trail Athletic League. This league is determined by size of school. Our football, baseball, basketball teams, etc. all compete against schools like PG, RLS, King City, etc. that are similar in size or smaller, for their prospective teams league title. Water Polo is the only sport where Carmel competes in a league other than the Mission Trail Athletic League. The next largest league is the Monterey Bay League which contains schools of moderate size like Monterey, Seaside, North County, etc. In water polo Carmel competes in the Tri-County Athletic League. This league in all sports is designated for the "large" schools in this area. Those schools include Salinas, Hollister, Gilroy, Watsonville, Palma, etc. Each of these schools in the TCAL boasts 2500-3000 students. Carmel is approx. 650-700 give or take. Imagine our football and basketball teams facing San Benito, Salinas, and Palma each year. There might be a year here and there that Carmel would have enough talent to compete with a few of those schools, but it is pretty safe to say that regardless of what sport we are talking about we would be outdueled regularly and by LARGE margins. Our boys, in water polo have faced this task since the creation of this sport at Carmel High. For years and years it was competing with the jugernaut Live Oak, now it is Salinas, Hollister, etc. We have continued to make great strides towards the top as this is the second time in just the last 4 years that we have reached the championship game. We have qualified the CCS playoffs in 3 of the last 5 years. Before reaching the finals in 2006 Carmel had not been in a league championship game since 1995. We are improving each year and are overcoming that obstacle of playing schools that quadruple us in size. Our numbers and skill as a program continue to improve. Our facility is fantastic. Our parent support is overwhelming at times. Our coaches dedication on all levels is unmatched. Our boys determination and commitment continues to impress us and is beginning to pay big dividends.
We are so very proud of these boys. This is the hardest working group we've had on all levels. That includes the freshman, JV and Varsity teams. The amount of kids that played water polo at Legacy, lifted weights, and swam in the offseason was impressive.
I'd like to thank the countless fans that came out to support us this week. The atmosphere was electric. You would think we were at a rivalry football game with the amount of fans and noise that was there last night. I cannot even count the amount of alumni, alumni parents and family that were in attendance! Amazing. It is inspiring and motivating. Thank you.
I'd like to also thank the volunteers this week. We hosted 12 games at Carmel just this week alone. Most of these volunteers gave their time to the two tournaments we hosted in the two previous weekends as well. That is a ton of volunteering! Thank you so much to those working the scoring table and shot clock, snack bar, clean up, etc. The freshman and JV players that volunteered was so impressive! Thank you boys. The parental support is wonderful and helps make this program what it is.
Final Note...The season is not over! We have qualified for the CCS playoffs and we will be playing our first round game on Tuesday or Wednesday. I will know the schedule beforehand. We can only hope for the same support for this next big endeavor.
Sincerely,
Coach Gaily
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