MBL championship/CCS/Monday practice

Here's an article from Santa Cruz Sentinel I thought you might like: MBL-G Boys Water Polo: Carmel strikes first in sudden-death, claims tournament title over Soquel.

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CCS games Wed are at 4.5:30 and 7:00. We will need to do the official book and team stats for our game and need to do the clock and scoreboard for all games.

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Monday practice for varsity is at 5:15. Please be at the pool at 5:00 because we need to have a team meeting to approve expenditures for next year.

From Coach Sigourney

Congratulations to the Boy's JV water polo team for winning their final three games of the season by defeating Valley Christian 12-5, Willow Glen 21-6, and Leland 15-6. They finished their season with a 20-4 record and were undefeated in league play for the fourth year running. Two of the season losses came at the hands of Bellarmine CP who had a 23-1 record this year. They lost to a very physical Menlo Atherton by a score of 4-8 and had to play Bellarmine immediately afterward with no rest. The loss to Archbishop Mitty was an 6-7 score, so we have been competitive at a high level this season. I believe we peaked at the end of the season and the Leland game was an outstanding example of solid defense, teamwork, and counterattacking skills. Way to go Padres!!!


Leading Stats. for JV's:
Ethan Crane: 83 saves, 6 assists, 11 steals
Alon Yoeli 77 goals; 19 assists; 27 steals
Ethan Atkins 53 goals; 4 assists; 24 steals
Brett Luch 45 goals, 23 assists, 68 steals

"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!!!

JV / Frosh

Fr. team is showing improvement with each game. Lost to Bell. Fr. 1-13, lost to St. Ignatius 5-9, beat Monte Vista Fr. 14-3. We used Jordan Miller in goal because Ethan Crane has been sick all week and did not attend. We need another Fr. goalie to train, for this reason. Leading scorer for Fr. was Alon Yoeli with 14 goals. Scott Weismann had 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 goal, and is learning quickly. Colin Empy, Dylan Larson, and Jordan Miller also scored. Jake Rainy scored three in helping stabilize the Fr. group.


JV again cruised through the competition: Beat Valley Christian 19-0, Archbishop Mitty 19-4, and a weak Soquel 19-3.
The best game was with a normally much tougher Mitty, who we lost to 5-6 last year. We scored on the opening sprint and never looked back. Mitty was in shock at the end of the first period, trailing 8-0. Six players assisted, seven had steals, seven scored, and all teammates played. Soquel saw seven assisters, stealers, and scorer for a balanced attack. We are requesting more challenging team competition for next weeks Bellermine #2.


Leading scorers for JV:
Zack Olivas: 16 goals, 7 steals, 1 assists
"Scooter" Robleski: 9 goals, 1 steal, 1 assist
Grant Thornburg: 8 goals, 2 steals, 4 assists
Trey Coppinger: 5 goals, 6 steals, 3 assists
Chimay Skinner: 5 goals, 3 steals, 4 assists
Matt Gibson: 4 goals, 4 steals, 4 assists


Coach Ed is very impressed with the unselfish play of the team, as many players contributed to the wins; scoring, assisting, and steals, were balanced among several players. The referees commented that our game against Mitty was the best they had seen all day! I believe in this team and know that we can get much better when we improve our man up/down play and cut down on turnovers. Way to go, boys!

Varsity Results - Homestead Tourney

The Varsity had a good weekend all in all. We're still working the kinks out, but continue to make progress in certain areas. The Padres Beat Fremont High School 14-6. Then lost to the eventual tournament champion and host Homestead High School 16-9, Carmel was forced to play without captain Jay Louis due to knee injury. We then won the third place game by beating Burlingame 13-8.

Leading Scorers:
Ben Evered: 7 goals, 7 assists, 3 steals
Jay Louis: 6 goals, 3 assists, 4 steals
Joe Hamwey: 6 goals,
Brady Hopkins: 5 goals, 5 steals
Ben Price: 22 Saves

Ben Evered was selected to the All Tournament team.

We saw great all around play on both sides by Romi Kristl and Ben Regan who both contributed numerous steals, assists and led the counterattack the entire weekend. It was a team effort this weekend with everyone playing and contributing.

We have a break this week with no games. We will get back to work on things to make us a more complete team. The upside is, there are parts of our game that we haven't even worked on yet this early in the season. The boys are coming together and we're having a lot of fun.

Coach Gaily

P.S. We conducted our first "grade check" last week. We were astounded by the excellent grades and degree of difficulty class schedules these boys are taking. It is so cool to see 6 or 7 guys doing homework and quizzing each other between games at tournaments. The work in the pool should translate to the classroom and vice versa. Put as much effort into your studies as you do in practice and you are bound to succeed in the classroom!! Keep it up boys. You are creating a "culture" of hardwork and outstanding academics for future classes to follow.

Carmel vs. Salinas

The Varsity played a great game last night and beat Salinas (3 Time defending League Champion), 13-9 last night. I will provide the link to the article written by John Devine in the Monterey Herald. He summed up the night beautifully. http://www.montereyherald.com/sports/ci_16019405?nclick_check=1

There were many positives to this game that we take away. The main thing I am most pleased with was the boys mental resolve. We took an early lead in the 1st quarter by 3 goals and basically kept that lead the entire game. Salinas took the lead down the 2 a few times, but each time they did the boys answered back with another big goal or big steal. Due to a clerical error at the desk (sorry to single you guys out at the desk, haha, but please don't make that mistake again, haha) we were forced to play the entire 4th quarter without Jay Louis. A little adversity was overcome by the boys as the 2 goal lead we had to begin the 4th quarter was extended to 4 goals by the end of the game. The boys kept their cool and kept playing good water polo. It truly was a great team effort.

Leading scorers were:
Ben Evered had the best game of his career for Carmel. He had 6 big goals and along with Brady Hopkins covered Salinas' big threat Brian Morton all game. Ben Price was fantastic in his first big game as a varsity goalie, tallying 8 saves and 1 assist. Brady Hopkins had 4 goals and 5 steals. Jay Louis drew much of the defensive attention early from Salinas and was limited to 1 goal. He adapted his game nicely and lead the team with 3 assists. Romi Kristl provided 2 huge 4 quarter goals that were pivotal in us retaining our lead. Ben Regan, Joe Hamwey, Ryan Marden and Emilio Eisner rounded out a great defensive effort.

It was great to see so many alumni and alumni family present. This was a big win for us, but we have a long ways to go. No rest for the weary. We get back to hardwork today. We still have much work to do.

The JV's continue to handle their recent opponents some dominance. They prevailed 21-5. We are pleased with what we see from them so far. They will be challenged big time this weekend as they play some very tough opponents at the Hollister tournament. Good job JV's.

P.S. We have fewer game for the freshman team, but it is so important for the freshman to see the game played. Please make it possible for the freshmen boys to come watch the Varsity and JV play even if they do not have a game that day. We need more support and it helps them learn the game better.

Coach Gaily

Note from Coach Sigourney

First and foremost, I want to thank all the parents for doing so much these past two weeks. We put on two great tournaments and they would not have run so smoothly or been as much fun without all of your efforts. You have made our job as coaches much easier and have raised the bar further than I could imagine! It has been so great to have all the support, food, scoring, and transportation help at all of our away games as well. You ROCK!!! Coach Rodger Langland has been a tireless help in so many areas and the other coaches all know how much you do and appreciate every minute you put into this program to make things run smoothly! Thank you.

O.K., It has been awhile since we've posted a blog for the "polywogs" & aspiring "frogs". The JV boys finished the season with a 17-3 record. The losses coming at the hands of a much faster, stronger, and more knowledgeable Bellarmine Fr./So. (1-16), a physical but clean contest with Acalanes (3-6), and a close contest with Archbishop Mitty (4-5). We were grateful for these challenges. We were undefeated for the second straight year in league play, despite the close game with San Benito. This year mirrored last seasons in many respects.

The JV played great games at home for the final tournament of the season; Padre JV Boy's Invitational. We beat Aptos 8-6 on Friday night, despite being scored on first and being tied 3-3 at halftime. The second game was against Leland on Saturday afternoon. We had watched and scouted Leland as they routed San Benito 12-0; while using their bench. The boys responded by placing a good deal of emphasis on defense and ended up winning the contest 7-5. Great defensive efforts were had by Ben Price in goal, Mike Airola at 2M Def., Sam Stoffers, BIG "D" in field, and a general and pervasive effort by all others as well. Help defense and steals were evident throughout the contest. The final game was with San Benito and we won 10-5 and both squads used their benches by prior agreement. Ben Price and Sam Sunde got some field exposure, while Jordan Miller played the entire game. Jordan blocked a 5M penalty shot, had several fine blocks, and excellent release passes to initiate the counter attack. Way to go, Jordan! Coach Ed was very pleased with the play of the boys, their generally unselfish play throughout the tournament and season alike, and the efforts they have made to improve their swimming and polo skills. The boys were pleased to toss their coach in the pool after winning the final tournament game! Their enthusiasm for this endeavor felt like a championship win!

The new Freshmen Team has improved greatly during the season and finished with two close wins. They defeated the Salinas JV 6-8 and Monterey 9-8 (OT). They played well in both contests despite lacking some size and speed compared to the larger opponents. They were a little sloppy in the final games with Monterey and let them back into the game after leading the score. They lost the sprint to a very spirited Monterey in "sudden victory" overtime but held their defense together and scored on the very next offensive opportunity. There is a core of hard working Fr. to move on to JV next season. Keep up the effort and work on your swimming speed and polo skills in the off season and you too will have a bright future!

Some JV Statistics: Some Fr. Statistics:
261 team goals to 145 opponent goals (48% shooting efficiency) 113 goals to 86 opponent goals (60% shooting efficiency)
145 steals vs. 135 turnovers 110 steals vs. 82 TO's
88 assists, 136 saves, 54 ejections 95 assists, 86 saves, 16 ejections

Ben Price: 114 saves, 12 steals Sam Sunde: 40 saves, 3 steals
Sam Sunde: 15 saves, 2 steals Jordan Miller: 37 saves, 3 assists, 2 steals
Ryan Marden 31 goals,13 asst., 12 steals Zack Olivas 35 goals, 9 asst., 16 steals
Sam Stoffers 24 goals, 11 asst., 17 steals Trey Coppinger 27 goals, 14 asst., 19 steals
Mike Airola 23 goals, 7 asst., 28 steals Chimay Skinner 20 goals, 15 asst., 8 steals
Declan Harris 20 goals, 7 asst., 12 steals River Hain 17 goals, 12 asst., 9 steals
Austin Robertson 17 goals, 17 asst., 15 steals Matt Gibson 15 goals, 18 asst., 18 steals
Alejandro Gonzales 15 goals, 7 asst., 5 steals (did not play after Bell. T.) Billy Rudinger 7goals, 1 ast, 10 steals (moved to Palo Alto before final 4 games)
Emilion Eisner 13 goals, 5 asst., 13 steals Scott Robleski 6goals, 5 assts, 1 steal

Carmel vs. Monterey - Regular Season Finale

Carmel defeated Monterey in its regular season finale. The boys have successfully finished the regular season tied for first place with Salinas who also touts a 7-1 record. Unfortunately, Salinas beat Carmel so technically we will be the #2 seed going into the TCAL championship tournament and Salinas will be the #1 seed. It was "Senior Night" and the boys played well. Final score was 9-4 with Ben Evered scoring 3 goals, Brady Hopkins, Nate Cohen and Jay Louis scoring 2 each. Jakub Kristl was solid with 10 saves. I do not know the JV final score, but do know they won handily.

The varsity travels to Los Gatos for our final tournament of the season. 3 tough games await, Los Altos (hands down one of the best teams in all of CCS), Tokay (a powerhouse from the Central Valley) and Santa Cruz. It will be a good primer for next weeks league championship tournament. The schedule for next week will be determined in the next day or two as the season finishes. We will likely have to host a few games during the week at Carmel and then of course we are hosting the championship day on Saturday, Nov. 7th.

Focus and staying healthy will be key this week. Lots of rest for your boys please. This is right where we wanted to be when this season started. It's one of those "Dare to be great opportunities". We've worked very hard. I like our chances...

Coach Gaily

Padre Invitational update from Coach Gaily

We successfully completed our second ever Varsity tournament at CHS yesterday. It was a beautiful weekend of weather and great water polo. The level of play of the teams we have attracted to our tournament has continued to be impressive.

A brief recap of the varsity's weekend is a bit mixed. We played a very tough Aptos High on Friday. Aptos improved dramatically from last year as they bulk of their team played with the Santa Cruz area club team in the off-season. They were clearly the best team in the tournament as they won all 3 of their games. We began the game in full control and were ahead 2-0 by the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately a mental lapse occurred in the 2nd quarter and we gave up 8 goals while only chipping one. The game ended up rather lopsided at the end. It was a disappointment in effort and mental focus, but the were excited to see how the boys would respond to our "flat" performance. Saturday came and we played a very tough Live Oak. The game was neck and neck with the lead see-sawing back and forth a number of times. In the end we lost 12-10, but our effort, focus, and level of play improved dramatically from Friday. We played Willow Glen in our final game on Saturday. We continued to play very well and with the determination we were hoping for. We came up short and lost 14-12, but we were pleased with the growth and competitiveness we saw in our boys. Those were both excellent teams that we fought hard to the end. We are a work in progress. Each day we try and get a bit better than the last. We're getting there.

Thanks...
A big thank you is in order for the number of parents that gave up much of their weekend to attend and contribute in the effort. Thanks to all that donated food to sell as well.

Scorekeepers: Coach Rodger, Greg Pickert, Bill Stoffers, Cynthia Hertlein (alumni parent), Seth and Theresa Goldberg, Larry Hamwey, Dave Cohen, Tom Coppinger.

Snackbar: Kim Stemler, Cara Cohen, and Marilene Bruno put on a full spread at the snack bar. It was impressive to say the least. We made $300 too!

JV Boys: Tre Coppinger, Jamie Davis, and Kenny Doo, Chimay Skinner were there from 7:30am until 6pm helping with gate entrance, snack bar sales, etc. There were other JV players there too helping at times (Scott Robleski, Lucas Zilliox) throughout the day, but those 3 really dedicated their entire day.

A special thanks to Coach Ed who set up the tournament schedule for us and helped create the very cool tournament t-shirts (that are still available for $12).

Coach Rodger and all his setup and preparation is invaluable! We could not do many of these things without his undying help and support. Please thank him when you see him.

I know there are some parents that helped that I may have forgotten. Please accept my apology if I did not mention you here. We appreciate all of you and how you support these boys, our coaches, and this program. A beautiful day of water polo on that amazing pool deck is the culmination of so much we have all strived for.

We have the JV Invitational next weekend and I'm sure it will be a great weekend as well.

Final league game on Wednesday! Monterey High comes to CHS on Wed. This is a big game for the varsity as a win will tie for 1st place in league as we enter the league championship tournament. Monterey is a much improved team and will pose a significant challenge. Wednesday is also "Senior Night" as we will honor our seniors in their final home league game. Parents make sure you clear your schedule for Wed. night about 6:15pm and game time at 6:30.

Carmel vs. Gilroy

The Varsity defeated Gilroy yesterday afternoon 8-2. Jay Louis led all scorers with 4 goals. Nate Cohen, Zach Olpin, Sean Pickert, and Romi Kristl had one goal each. Jakub Kristl had 14 saves in goal and was dominant. All players got to play in the game which was a nice change since we've been in so many "nail biter" games lately.

Gilroy's JV team was decimated from illness so unfortunately they did not have enough players to field a team. The JV and Frosh scrimmaged each and got to have some fun in the sun.

Tourney synopsis from previous JV tourney

The CHS Fr./Soph. team handled last weekends games with ease. We beat St. Ignatius 10-4 with five players scoring and three assisting; beat Aptos 15-2 with seven scorers and eight assisting; and beat Bellarmine Fr. 10-3 with five scorers and four assisters. Ben Price was outstanding in goal with seventeen saves and led the team in assists with seven. His release passes have made many counter attack goals happen. The team was paced by Mike Airola and Ryan Marden with six goals and three steals each, along with Ryan's two assists. Declan Harris had five goals, three steals, and an assist. He got poked in the eye in the first game and was sidelined for awhile. Sure is nice to have Dr. Niel Harris there to oversee injuries! Sam Stoffers had four goals, four steals, and two assists and earned some nice ejections. Austin is solid and contributed three goals, two steals, and four assists; the most beautiful assist coming against Bellarmine with a picture perfect "halo pass" between the arms of Ryan Marden, who proceeded to take a couple of strokes and power in a "T-shot" past the goalie before he knew what happened. I think it was one of the most satisfying shots of the season to date! Way to go, boys!!! All in all we had twelve players score goals in this tournament. Zack Olivas had five steals, two goals, and an assist for the tournament; in spite of missing his first 5m penalty shot, that Declan earned against Bellarmine. Chimay Skinner had three goals and a steal. Grant T. had a goal and two steals and will continue to improve his shot selection with tiime.

Don't get complacent about improving, working hard in practice, and learning as much as possible, while honing your ball handling skills. We have HUGE challenges this weekend at Bellarmine with both Soph./Fr. & Fr. squads competing against the likes of Acalanes, Bellarmine Fr./Soph., and Monte Vista Fr./Soph. These are the games we have been hoping to compete in. We need better 2m passing, motion offense, balance, and help defense to be competative.

Parents, THANK YOU for all you are doing to support this team! We could not be doing so well without your continuing efforts! It is greatly appreciated. This is a busy month of tournaments and the culmination of much effort for all involved. I personally am very greatful for the many things you do to help us on so many levels. Ken Doo, your pictures are a joy to look at and our end of season banquet will have many great shots to share with everyone!

P.S. "Nuclear Padre" T-shirts are being shipped today and should be here in a couple of days. If you wish to purchase one they will be for sale for $12/each and the proceeds will be used to help defray the cost of the Fr. Tourament entry costs and general Club expenses. It is a great way to show your love of this great sport and support the teams of the future! We ordered specific sizes for the Fr./Soph. group and will have about twenty extra shirts for varsity and parents.

Carmel vs. Stevenson

Well it was a fun Thursday night at the pool. The Padres battled RLS in what has become a very competitive but friendly rivalry. The amount of people on the pool deck to watch the varsity boys game was impressive. The start of the 4th quarter began with incredibly loud cheering from the stands and pounding on the bleachers. I have never seen that many people on that pool deck. Good job parents, friends, and supporters. It was so great so see so many alumni and alumni families there to watch and support.

Well the Varsity boys had an exciting game. The game ended with a victory for Carmel 14-9. We came out of the gates with guns blazing. The boys scored 8 goals in the first quarter and had an 8-2 lead by the end of the quarter. We got in bad foul trouble early even though we had such a nice cushion. That allowed RLS to creep back in the game with the halftime score 11-7. I was very proud of our young team of how they kept their composure throughout. It is difficult to go up with a big lead and have a team rallying against them for the next 3 quarters. The boys never cracked. Every time Stevenson made a push and decreased our lead, we would put in a goal or make a nice defensive stop to quell the rally. We very well could face RLS again in league championships so we will be working hard to get better each and every day. We still have so much room for improvement which is exciting. We really feel like we're still just scratching the surface of what this team is capable of.

Leading Scorers:
Jakub Kristl came up big in the cage once again and had 12 blocks and a number of steals. Many of his blocks led to killing a RLS surge.

Nate "Big Game" Cohen continued his prowess in stepping up in big league games. This started his junior year with a winning goal against Palma. He pumped in 4 goals and had 5 steals.

Jay Louis played one of his better all around games of the season notching 3 goals, 4 assists, and drew many ejections.

Ben Evered had 3 big goals early and was much of the early strike. He unfortunately got into foul trouble early in the game which limited his play throughout the game, but he was a big reason for our early success.

Brady Hopkins turned in one of his best overall performances. His 2M defense was pivotal. He also tallied 3 goals.

Ben Regan, Kai Harper continued to be key in their start and orchestration of the counterattack. Both played excellent defense.

Sean Pickert played some quality minutes off the bench and put in a big goal in the 3rd quarter to stifle and RLS rally.


The JV game was dominated by Carmel and finished 11-2. The JV continues to "roll over and through" opponents. Led by Ben Price in the cage, Ryan Marden, Sam Stoffers, and Declan Harris in field. Tre Coppinger got his first JV start in league action as a freshman. They are an extremely tough team to beat. Don't get comfortable boys! Keep striving to improve each day, each game, each practice. Stay humble...work hard...

The JV travels to Monte Vista tournament this weekend. The Varsity has the weekend off. The next 5-6 weeks are going to be nothing but water polo so get ready. This is where the fun really starts. Thanks again to all the parent volunteers that makes those home games come off so smoothly.

Coach Gaily

Carmel vs. Salinas

Well it was a good day and a bad day at the same time. The Varsity lost a heartbreaker to the Salinas Cowboys at Hartnell College yesterday. Boy was it an intense and close game throughout. Game started out with a tie 1-1 at the end of the first quarter. At half Salinas was up 4-3. At the start of the 4th quarter we were up 6-5. The boys fought hard, overcame some bad calls, and garnered a 2 goal lead with about 4 and a half minutes left. Salinas mustered a few goals when it counted and went up 8-7. We had a breakaway and two "man up" shots at the cage to tie and go ahead in the final 2 minutes, but we just couldn't convert. The game ended with Salinas 8 and Carmel 7. It was a tough one to lose for sure. The good news about that game was it showed how far we've come as a program. Salinas is the 3x defending league champion and have become a powerhouse over the last few years in CCS. They have been the "benchmark" for us. We're getting very close to that level, very close. The coaches were pleased. The JV's dominance against Salinas, with Carmel winning 16-1. The tide is definitely turning. Keep it up boys.

Varsity Leading scorers and notable performances:

Nate Cohen (playing a badly strained groin muscle) came up with 2 big goals and 3 key assists. His solid defense made an impact throughout.

Jay Louis, 2 big goals and a couple of steals.

Zach Olpin, Sean Pickert, and Ben Regan added one goal apiece.

Jakub Kristl was big in the goal making some big blocks including a 5M penalty shot in the second half!

Brady Hopkins guarded one of the best players in all of CCS, Brian Morton most of the game and really made things difficult for him. He was great defensively and drew a key ejection late in the 4th quarter giving us a golden opportunity to tie up the game.

Ryan Marden had 5 goals and 3 assists for the JV's. Ben Price continued his dominance in the cage with 10 blocks. Mike Airola shut down 2M defensively and added a goal. Sam Stoffers continued his propensity to score a lot of goals with 4 tallies of his own. Dan Slade, 2 goals. Freshman Scott Robleski in his first JV action offered a beautiful assist towards the end of the game. Austin Robertson had 4 steals and 1 assist. Declan Harris had two first quarter goals and a steal. Way to go boys.

Big Game against Stevenson on Thursday. JV will play at 4:30, Varsity will play at 6:30 under the lights. It is important that we have parent and fan support. I'd have to say that last year, there were almost equal numbers of RLS fans/parents as Carmel. That shouldn't happen. Come on parents, make a night of it. Stay for the varsity game, eat a late dinner after. It will be worth it. This friendly rivalry is a lot of fun to watch and be a part of.

Coach Gaily

JV re-cap from Bellarmine Tourney

Here is the re-cap from Coach to me after this weekend's tournament. Sounds like they did pretty darn well.

Good outing for the Fr./Soph. at Bellarmine. We played a Fr. squad from Valley Christian and won 17-2 with 12 players scoring and nine having assists. The competition could not mount any real offensive threat. The second game was supposed to have been against St. Ingatius but the Mountain View coach jumped our game and the St. Ingatius coach did not understand that we were supposed to play as the visitor. St. Ingatius beat Mountain View by a goal or two in a tight game. I believe we would have prevailed against St. Ingatius because of our depth of squad. They had two good offensive players but we could have focused on those and worked the counters with fresh subs. Their goalie was descent but not up to Ben Price's abilities. We played the next game with the Monte Vista Fr. Squad and used all our Fr. in the game, winning 17-5 with ten players scoring and five having recorded assists. Ben Price had six saves in the first period and Sam Sunde had four for the remainder of the game. Seven players recorded steals in that game along with seven players having T/O's---kinda normal for Fr. play. The last game was played back to back and pitted us against the always physical Mitty. It was at times a swim meet with ten T/O's and seven steals for our squad. It was mostly played by our stronger Sophomore group. Ben Price was outstanding in g oal and recorded eight saves and two steals in goal. He stopped a number of man up break away shots and had one fantastic block that required traversing the full goal for a GREAT block of a cross cage pass! Mike Airola did an awesome job of 2m defense and recorded three steals in the game and played the entire contest. What a difference a year makes on endurance. Ryan Marden generated most of the offense with three goals and a couple of bar in shots on Mitty's solid goalie. Austin tallied once on a nice counter break away lob shot. We lost the game 4-5 but Mitty now knows that we are not a pushover team and that we have a very good starting goalie. I would say that Ben Price "got in their heads" and made them hesitant to shoot because they did not want to turn over the ball; to their credit they controlled the ball better than we did.

Twenty players scored at least one goal for the tournament and fourteen had assists. We have played many games in the early season a nd have gained endurance and understanding but still need to improve our ball side driving and balance as well as reduce T/O's. Defensive weak side help is starting to appear but we still need tighter pressure w/o fouling.

Coach Ed

Central Valley Championships Re-cap

(go to website for pics)The varsity traveled to beautiful Turlock this weekend to competed in the Central Valley Championships. Hope you got a sense of the sarcasm. It was hot and stinky! This 5 game overnight tournament we have been attending since the early 90's. It's become tradition. We brave the heat, long drive, 5 games in 2 days, but have a ton of fun. We learned a great deal about ourselves this weekend. Improvement was seen in a lot of different areas as the weekend progressed. Game 1 began with an eye opening game for us. We faced Sonora, the eventual champion of the 18 team tournament. They came at us quick and were very aggressive. We suffered the loss 12-4. We then faced another top finisher in the tournament, Golden Valley. Boy we had a tough bracket draw. These boys were big, but we matched their intensity and physicality once we settled down. Unfortunately it was not enough to come out victorious, but we were pleased with the desire and passion we saw from our boys. Final score was 12-5 (but we were in the game down only 8-5 at the beginning of the 4th). The boys rebounded the next day with a nice win against Grace Davis 15-4. We then faced and defeated Los Banos 10-5. That win moved us back up into the winner's bracket where we faced the host team Atwater. We defeated Atwater 8-5. So after dropping the first two games we bounced back and won the next 3 finishing 3-2 on the weekend.

Leading Scorers:
Jay Louis - 10 goals
Ben Evered - 9 goals
Nate Cohen and Kai Harper - 5 goals each
Sean Pickert - 4 goals
Jakub Kristl - 13 saves

Brady Hopkins played excellent 2M defense the entire weekend. Ben Regan was a solid contributor on the counterattack and defensively.

In other news. Due to the outstanding leadership, team focus, hardwork, and valuable play in the pool the coaches and I decided to make an addition to the captain list. We named Kai Harper co-captain. He has done more than prove himself this past month and a half. We're proud of you Kai. Keep it up!

We face a very tough league opponent in Salinas this Wednesday at Hartnell college. The JV will play at 3:30 and the Varsity will start at 4:30. Salinas is by everyone's account, the front runner once again for the league title. It will be a tough match and a great test to determine where we are as a team and a program at this point in time.

Coach Gaily

Carmel vs. Palma

Just wanted to get out a quick update before the weekend. I do not have the JV stats, but will post those once they are compiled.

Carmel won a hard fought battle with Palma, 6-4. It was a very low scoring affair with Jakub Kristl and Michael Cahalan (Palma goalie) both playing exceptional games in the cage. Carmel dominated the game as far as creating scoring opportunities from the first quarter on. We simply failed to convert those chances very well.

Jakub Kristl had 8 saves in the cage.

Nate Cohen had 3 big goals for us while Jay Louis, Brady Hopkins, and Joe Hamwey each had one apiece.

Kai Harper made a game changing assist to Joe Hamwey that helped us put the game out of reach in the second half.

Ben Evered was solid in 2 meters and earned a number of ejections on Palma's defense in which 2 of our goals came on the power play.

Ben Regan played a solid game in his first "start" on the varsity. Great defense and lead the counterattack most of the night.

We are still making "young" mistakes, but they are fixable. The process of improvement never stops. We're just at the beginning with this young group.

The JV's dominated the earlier game. The score ended up being around 15-5 but I don't know for exactly.

The Varsity heads off to a big tournament in the Central Valley. We have been attending this tournament since 1994 I believe. It's a lot of fun and we will play in 5 games. Lots of tough competition. Check the blog for updates.

The JV will be heading to Bellarmine where they will face some outstanding competition from some of the top programs in CCS. Good luck boys!!

Coach Gaily

P.S. Thank you to all the parents that helped scorekeep, pool setup and breakdown, and food. We couldn't do this without your help.

Hollister JV Tournament Update

Here is the update from Coach Ed. Sounded like a lot of fun and a lot of success.

"Beat Pioneer in the opener 13-3 with five players scoring. Beat San Benito 14-4 with eight players scoring. Beat RLS 16-6 with nine players scoring.
Ben Price outstanding in goal with several blocks against Pioneer and less with other games because of better defense (check out stats for exact numbers of saves/steals) Chris Bueno played well in goal against RLS during the last period. Alejandro Gonzales (AJ) has made huge stride in the past week! He lead the JV with 12 goals, seven assists, and 5 steals. Mike Arrola did a great job of 2m defense with fronting the offense and had six goals. Austin Robertson was consistently counter attacking off missed shots and scored 8 goals and had five assists. Austin did a great job of flair releasing on counter attacks. Everyone played and had a good time. Much improvement noted with Garret Kurteff. Players beginning to understand help defense at the Freshmen level. River noted that it was fun to play with other players who know more about the game and have higher skill levels. Coach Ed had a blast with the whole group and sees a promising future for the program in general! Next weeks Bellarmine tournament will raise the competition level significantly. Need to work on pool balance, drive shots, and man up/down situations among other things."

Labor Day Weekend Update

Varsity Summary
It was a great weekend for both the Varsity and Freshman teams. The Varsity boys competed in a tournament in Hollister where we won 2 of 3 games. We initially faced a fast and tough Pioneer team that bested us 11-5. We gave up 3 quick goals in the first quarter as we began the game a bit “flat footed”. The boys settled down from that point on and played the rest of that game pretty even. Our second game was interesting as we faced one of our league rivals, San Benito (Hollister). The Balers have always been tough and a championship contender in the TCAL each year. The boys jumped off quick and never let up. Final score, Carmel 17 - Hollister 6. We then faced Mt. Pleasant in our final game. We beat them soundly 14 - 3.

We saw some excellent play from a large number of players. Statistical achievements were as follows:

Jay Louis - 9 goals, 4 assists
Ben Evered - 7 goals
Nate Cohen - 5 goals and 5 steals
Romie Kristl, Sean Pickert, Joe Hamwey, and Ben Regan - 3 goals each
Ryan Pickert - 2 goals
Kai Harper - 1 goal
Jakub Kristl - 15 saves
Ben Price - 9 saves

Excellent 2 meter defense was displayed by Brady Hopkins as he finished the weekend with 8 steals and 3 assists.
Both goalies Jakub and Ben were stellar in the cage.

It was a nice start to the season for the Varsity. We will have a very good test with Live Oak coming to Carmel for a scrimmage on Wed. evening. They are a perennial CCS powerhouse. 5:15 game time.

Freshman Summary
Well, the freshman sure stepped up. Aptos head coach called me on Friday in a panic as one team had dropped from the tournament. He asked if our large freshman team would be willing to fill the void and play extra games. We gladly accepted and the freshman team completed a program record I believe, playing 7-8 games in one day!!! I know it was exhausting, but this is exactly what we have wanted with the formation of the freshman team, EXPERIENCE! Remember, this game is not just about being in good shape. It is a game that must be learned from scratch for most incoming freshmen. The more games and practice equals the more you learn, and the better player/team you become! I heard outstanding play was demonstrated by Tre Coppinger who scored a boatload of goals (many with his left hand as Coach Ed excitedly reported). Coach Ed was very pleased with play from all the boys. Way to go Freshmen! You guys are the FUTURE! Way to step up.

Remember: Sept. 9th (Wed.) - Scrimmage with Live Oak (With Pizza afterwards!!
VARSITY- 5:15
JV - 6:15

Season Re-Cap - FINALLY!!!

Hello everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. I had good intentions of posting the end of the year video soon after our banquet, but had trouble with it due to its length. (REMEMBER, VIDEOS AND PICTURE SLIDE SHOWS DO NOT SHOW UP ON THE BLOG EMAILS YOU RECEIVE. CLICK ON THE SITE ADDRESS TO VIEW VIDEO)
I got it figured out and should be easy to enjoy and forward the link on to friends and family. Sean Marden and Zach Olpin did an amazing job on the video this year. I was very impressed.

The banquet was a major success as far as I could tell. Too many heartfelt thank you's to even count. There is a palpable sense of excitement that can be felt with the program. The involvement so far this winter at Legacy has been impressive and the amount of players testifying that they will be swimming for Coach Conrad in the spring is impressive. We've routinely had 80% of the polo program swimming each year, but I think this season may set a record. We've had a few kids, traditionally baseball players make some impressive commitments to help their teams succeed by deciding to swim rather than play baseball. My philosophy on that decision is simple. If you truly enjoy the sport you play in the offseason, KEEP PLAYING IT!. If you love water polo and want to improve and help your team the best you can then SWIMMING is a MAJOR factor. Speed and stamina in the sport of water polo is crucial in reaching the UPPER LEVELS of success.

We were extremely proud of everyone involved in this program this year. Hardwork, class, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, skill,commitment, were all displayed regularly. We were especially proud of our seniors. In what most called a "rebuilding year", they stepped up and played the game right and with heart. It was one of my most enjoyable seasons as a coach. I know many of our other coaches would echo that. Our seniors will be missed and remembered. They truly showed what true commitment to this program leads to. The fun and excitement they experienced will hopefully be something they will never forget.

I hope the holidays were full of joy and rest for each of you. I will be seeing most of you on the pool deck in the spring at every swim meet I am able to attend.

Coach Gaily's Keys to a successful offseason (in this order):

1)Swim for CHS swim team

2)Play Legacy every day possible (continue to fall in love with the sport and learn the game)(Not, once or maybe twice/week. Commit to it fully to receive it's full benefit)

3)Weight train (the first two should come before lifting weights and are far more important)

Season Finale...

I sit here this morning, watching the rain fall outside and feeling pretty happy but also a little bummed that our season has come to an end. This is the first free weekend I've had in 3.5 months and I'm loving it, but there is a bittersweet taste to the end of each season. What takes so much time and energy is also so enjoyable.

We finished the season up by beating a tough Monterey team and completing our seaosn in 5th place. As many of you know Monterey had an offseason transfer student from Oregon. He is quite an impressive player in size and skill. He was athletically ineligible until this past week, but was able to play in the league tournament. Dane Maughan had the assignment of guarding him all game and absolutely shut him down. Dane and the team held him to just 3 goals. We ended winning the game 15-11 as we pulled away finally in the 4th quarter. Leading scorers were Dane Maughan with 5 goals, Zach Weston had 3 goals, Ryan Ehlke and Jay Louis each had 2 goals, and Fred Hertlein and Brady Hopkins had one goal each. It was a great team effort. We had brought up 5 JV players for the League Championships. Joe Hamwey, Brady Hopkins, Sean and Ryan Pickert (Ryan was sick all week unfortunately), and freshman Romie Kristl, and Mike Airola. We held a 3 goal lead with about 3 minutes left in the game. I decided to give the future of our program a shot at playing in their first varsity game so we pulled the starters and seniors that had played so great all game and were able to get Joe Hamwey and Brady Hopkins in their first varsity game. Wouldn't you know it Brady gets a steal, hustles up the pool and scores a beautiful goal! There is such a bright a future in our freshman and sophomore group. We are excited.

What a great year we had this year. Although we sure would have liked to have won a bit more this year, I think most would say that the improvement displayed by the varsity from August 6th to Nov.7th was dramatic and quite impressive. We knew it was going to be a tough year, some would call it a rebuilding year after a quarter-final showing in CCS last year and losing 11 seniors. Our boys rose to the occasion. We worked diligently all season on the fundamentals of the sport and by mid October it really began to show. As the season concludes we have witnessed a team (Palma) who Carmel beat in the regular season beat us on Wed. night and then go on to beat Hollister in the consolation game finishing in 3rd place and advance to the CCS playoffs. We've also watched an RLS team who we lost to by only 1 goal in the regular season, then beat quite easily in a tournament just a few short weeks ago, go on to beat Hollister in the semi-finals of the TCAL tournament and advance to the championship game. They will be going to CCS as well. I say all that to prove the point that our Padres were right there. If a few small things, and I mean small things went our way we would be advancing to CCS for the third straight year. Carmel High had not qualified for CCS since 1998. We broke that downward trend by qualifying the last two seasons. The level of play is rising each year as again we proved to be highly competitive in what some what could consider a "rebuilding year". I have a really good feeling that we will be back in the post season playoffs very soon and quite frequently these next couple of years.

We will see you all at the banquet.

Coach Gaily