Kittens handle SLAP 19-3

For me, one of the most gratifying parts of coaching is teaching your team something in practice and then seeing them carry it out successfully in a game situation. And on the first play of the game against SLAP on Saturday, that is just what the Kittens did. Michael Mcward won the swim-off and after passing it to Joey Buelter, who was at the three position, continued swimming unabated toward the goal, where he received a beautiful pass from Joey Buelter and put in the first goal of the game (Michael Mcward and Joey Buelter were co-POTG for this play). It was a hot start for the Kittens, who ended the first quarter with an 8-1 lead.

For the remainder of the game, the Kittens focused on trying to set-up the offense before shooting. After having a few problems early on setting up the offense, the team continued to improve, and by the fourth quarter, they were doing a very nice job of getting set-up and getting the ball in to the 2-meter. Throughout the course of the game, the Kittens scored multiple times off of drives from the point and other positions on offense.

One of the great strengths for the Kittens on Saturday was their passing lane defense. The Kittens were able to make countless steals, just by being in the passing lanes and knowing where the ball and their man were.

I also really loved the Kittens awareness in the pool. Once we started slowing the offense down, we started to use a majority of the shot clock. Multiple times, I heard people start yelling “yellow” and “red” when the shot clock started winding down. It started at the end of the first quarter, when Ryan Finkelstein, who was playing goal, started the tread. I was very impressed by Ryan’s leadership in starting this, and I was glad to see it continue throughout the game.

One thing that SLAP did very well was counter-attack toward offense. A few times we were caught off guard by this. However, most of the time we were able to re-cooperate because we were a little faster than SLAP, and our goaltending was very good today. However, in the future, we need to go to defense harder once it looks like we are about to take a shot or that we might lose the ball.

Overall, however, it was another good game for the Kittens. I told them after the game that I was extremely proud of their progress thus far this winter. A few weeks ago, the Kittens narrowly edged SLAP 15-12. However, today, it was not remotely close. The Kittens looked like a whole different team, and they didn’t even have the whole team there (we only had one sub). I think this is a very good indicator of how much these guys have improved this winter, and they should be commended for their great work.

Also, I was talking to the refs after the game, and they were very impressed with the team’s communication in the water. They specifically cited 2M Todd Losby as being an excellent leader in the water.

We hope to see you all at practice this week. With only two weeks left, we want to try and teach you guys as much as we can. And next weekend, the middle school championship will be on the line in our last weekend of games as we have a rematch against both CCP and Storm.

We’ll see you around the pool.

Coach Ray