"Don't Stop Believing" - Carmel High Boys Water Polo TCAL Champions 2010

"Don't Stop Believing" was the theme to the magical San Francisco Giants miraculous world series run and victory last week. My childhood dream came true when the Giants won last week. A more important dream came true last night for me. Our boys won the title...they won. They never stopped believing that the championship was within their reach and attainable due to all the hard work and dedication they put in. You could see it in their eyes before the game began, they knew they were ready, they knew they were going to be victorious. It was never in doubt.

I quote this regularly to the boys, Coach John Wooden's famous definition of "Success" "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." These boys lived that definition of success. Last night all the preparation, all the hard work, all the drills, all the swimming, conditioning, hell weeks, lessons learned, all came to fruition...they put all the pieces together at the most opportune time...under pressure...under adversity.

I have now "thawed" after being pushed in the pool during our post game celebration. What a sweet feeling that I will never forget. I told the Herald last night after the game that this was a total "community" effort. The magic of last night could not have happened without the tireless effort of all these wonderful coaches, helpful parents, past players, past parent helpers. This should feel so sweet for all involved this year and in the past.

Back to the game...I am anxious to watch it on video (Augie hopefully you didn't get too excited and your camera stayed on the action, haha) because I had a hard time even recalling the events in the game that transpired. In brief though...We opened up a 2 goal lead to start the game. Ben Evered got a beautiful goal from set that got the ball rolling and was solid in 2 meters all night long. Salinas fired back to tie it and then took a 1 goal lead on a tip in shot at the 1st quarter buzzer. We evened the game midway through the second quarter with timely goals by Brady Hopkins, Jay Louis and Ben Evered. The first half ended with Carmel 6 and Salinas 5. Our game plan going into the game was to hold Salinas to under 10 goals for the game. By half time we were exactly on our goal. I had confidence that if we could hold them to under 10, we could outscore them and win. What happened in the second half showed the "desire" and "focus" this team has developed in the last few weeks. We came out guns blazing and took a commanding 4 goal lead in the third quarter and never looked back. You could see it in Jay Louis, leadership and passion manifested. They weren't going to give in. Salinas only scored once in the second half as our zone defense continued to confuse them on offense and Ben Price's superb play in the goal shut them down for good. Ben was a HUGE factor as our strategy was shut down the middle and encourage Salinas to take outside shots. Ben rarely let an outside shot go by him all game as he finished with 16 saves. I don't have the official stats in hand, but I believe Brady Hopkins and Ben Evered both had 3 goals, Jay Louis and Emilio Eizner had 2, and Ben Regan had 1. The defensive effort of Ben Regan, Ryan Marden on the perimeter were instrumental as well.

The game finished, Carmel 11 - Salinas 6. The party and coaches dip in the pool began.

I can't tell you how great it was to see so many alumni at the game, family members of past players, etc. It was so sweet to share that with all of you. The emails, texts and phone calls from past players and player familes that have been pouring in have been overwhelming. Our past teams and players have so much to do with what culminated last night. It is so cool to see how proud past players are of our current achievement. Each year, our teams have continued to "set the bar" a little bit higher for the next year's team to try and match. This was again a "community effort". It's not just a team anymore, it is now becoming a "program".

The hurdle has been cleared! 30 years had elapsed since our last league title. 4 of the 5 Carmel High past head coaches were in attendance last night, including Mr. Jim Agan who began the program in the early 70's and of course the one and only Ed Sigourney who carried this program for so many years. It was so cool to see the look in their eyes. What a treat it was to share that with those fine men.

Now we get back to work. CCS playoffs await these boys this week. I will know today as I attend the CCS seeding meeting in San Jose, who/when/where we will play. I will keep you all posted.

For now, we are champions, and it feels pretty dang good to this tired and content coach.

Coach Aaron Gaily

P.S. Please click on photos on the upper left of the blog to see the slideshow photos by Ken Doo. Purchase photos on his site from any of our games, proceeds go directly to the program. Thanks Ken! Amazing pictures once again!!!