As you might imagine, there are a plethora of pages in the water polo rule book that explain all of the different ways that a player can commit an act which constitutes a foul, kick out, or roll. For those of you who were able attended the Kittens’ game on Saturday, you were able to witness one of the most comprehensive demonstrations of how to do some of these things that I have seen in a while.
In the end, the Kittens defeated the Storm 20 – 8. In a game that in the end deteriorated into more of a rugby game than a water polo game, the Kittens were able to stay strong and still battle even while stuff was happening to them.
At the beginning of the game, the Kittens once again hopped out to a nice lead. Although they were up by a handful of goals after the first quarter, the Kittens could have had more goals had they only shot near-side low rather than shooting elsewhere on the goal. The Kittens did have a few nice goals, including a nice cross-goal goal on a pass from Todd Losby to Michael Mcward.
The Kittens did a pretty good job of drawing kick outs, including a few drawn by Ryan F. and Joey Buelter. Joey Buelter also made some nice defensive plays, including at 2m guard, where he kept battling despite being held and prevented from getting the ball.
The offense looked a little less organized this week. That is not to say that the offense was poor, but there are a few things we still need to work on. Frequently, we would have people in the wrong location on offense. Although we might have the 2m set to one side, we had the flat and wing on that side sitting right next to each other so that they could not effectively release to get the ball. Despite this, Player of the Game Todd Losby did an awesome job playing 2m, especially given the amount of time he was playing that position and the physical play by the defensive. Losby buried a number of goals into the net throughout the course of the game.
Defensively, the Kittens played pretty well. I would have liked to have seen us in the passing lanes earlier than we were. On one play right off of Storm’s timeout, we got in the passing lanes and Matt Marcouiller made a great steal. If we would just get in the passing lanes more often, we would be even more successful and completely shut down the other team’s offense.
So in the end, it was a pretty good game for the Kittens. I really want to thank the team for playing through all of the stuff that was going on in the game. As a coach, you can only ask them to keep playing hard and try and get the refs to call something. Despite the latter not occurring, the team continued to play hard and have the mental toughness to get past the aggressive play of the opposing team. Philip L. and others many times were dragged under water, and they continued to push dribble, even though many times to no avail. As a coach, it is great to see this mental toughness. It is from my end to promise that in water polo, even though you will inevitably have to deal with this kind of play, the refereeing (at least I hope) will eventually recognize it, and you will be rewarded for your mental toughness. Although maybe this did not happen today, I hope that as you continue playing, you will eventually get the calls you should.
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