HABS WATER POLO NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

On a day that began badly (Mr Stiff had forgotten the Bon Jovi CD), Little were we to know that it would end with HABS being crowned National Champions. Having a bus driver that used to work in the rock music industry as a roadie made up a little for the lack of 90s Rock music on the journey and as the boys departed the coach, his good luck endorsements put a smile onto our faces that Manchester would soon wipe off. Our side qualified for the national finals with ease, it is the best Under 14s side I have ever coached and the only reason why we were not confident going into the national finals was that we did not know how good the opposition were. We had heard rumours of a giant Bolton side that had destroyed the famous Manchester Grammar School. Manchester had won this trophy the last 6 years and so news that a side had beaten them quickly reverberates around the water polo world (it is bigger than you think). So we were ready – the boys ha d a clear bounce to their steps, they had faith, they were not livin on a prayer, they were ready to go. And as we had found out the previous week, Manchester were our first opponents. All the training, all the time spent working on man ups and man downs, all the set ups meant nothing when we missed several clear cut chances and Manchester went 4 nil up. Yes, that is 4 nil up. But, unlike with the senior side, when this lot went 4 goals down, I did not lose hope and , most importantly, neither did they!. These boys do not know how to lose (they have not lost all year) and I knew that they were not going to lose today. Luka needed to look for the shot from 5 more, Hamish needed to get the ball in the pit, Jonny needed to threaten in attack, Teddy needed to show just what a good player he could be, Steinert needed to drop and help Cammy more and Karan needed to get his passes more accurate from goal. And this is what they did. They did keep the faith, they may have been livin on a prayer but with as many Religious assemblies as HABS have every week, that prayer was soon answered (and I think even the Jain God was on our side!), Luka scored first (shooting from 5), Hamish was next (getting the ball in the pit) and soon it was clear that Hamish actually remembered just how good he is. Luka started to cover the whole pool and recover from a bit of lethargy in the fisrt 2 minutes and pretty soon the score was 4 -3. Manchester scored again but still the New Jersey tones of John echoed around the boys’ heads. They kept pushing and with 30 seconds to go the score was 6 all. What a comeback, what a fight, what a game! Myself and Mr Stiff had each had 5 years knocked off our life expectancy (note the key Geographical term) but then Manchester called a time out. The referees signaled the time out and the game was stopped. Hang on, the coaches had agreed no time outs, all the coaches had met at the start and a consensus had been stated that there would not be timeouts in the Under 14 competition. I thought that I better let them know and so I shouted and shouted and then shouted a bit more. A timeout would have allowed Manchester to restart on the half way with their arc already set up and no time knocked off the 30 seconds left. This was an argument I was not willing to lose. So, I kept on shouted. For the first time in my coaching career – I did not receive my token yellow card, instead I got an apology, HABS gained possession for an incorrect call and we had the ball on half way with no time gone. We failed to use this chance but the sheer excitement of the game meant the boys celebrated as if they had won the whole competition. The boys knew that a loss would give them a more difficult semi-final against the aforementioned Bolton and we only wanted to play them in the final. Like Karate Kid, you do not want to fight the baddie until the very end. So we had kept our unbeaten record, we just now had to beat Trinity School Croydon by more goals than Manchester beat them. We had one games rest and then we were back in the pool. On the way down Nashy fell down the stairs (slippery when wet) but soon in the pool, HABS were to prove that we were equally slippery and our defence was a wall that teams would have to work hard to break down (apart from the first 2 minutes against Manchester but I am happy to forget this and know that unlike, period 8 on a Friday, they had actually learnt something from this lesson). Trinity were not going to be an easy team to beat – teams from this school have previously won the Under 18 national competition- and they are always well drilled. Our defence meant that we did not have to worry. With Teddy and Steinert dropping and with Cammy as a true rock in the wall, we were never going to concede in that game (I know its early in the blog to mention this but Cammy was my player of the tournament – for his faultless defence and for the key goals he scored in the semi-final and the final ((sorry for that spoiler)). In the Trinity game with our defence sorted, we needed to think about goals. 3 penalties in the first half should have helped us but with the talents of Southgate, Pearce and Sweinsteiger combined all of them were missed. The Trinity goalkeeper was like a goalkeeping Jedi – using the force to deflect away shots whilst changing the numbers over on his mobile phones at the same time. Finally we scored and at half time it was 2 nil to us- this was not looking good for the goal difference, if we played Bolton on the semi this would never be made into a film- the mighty ducks do not play the best team before the final, the big fight in Rocky is at the end, we must play better! And that we did. Luka was taken out when we thought that we had not done enough. However, this only helped to reinforce just how strong the bench was ((not just because it could support the weight of myself and Mr Stiff at the same time)) but in terms of the strength of our players. Josh Silverbeck showed how unlucky he was to not make the starting 7, Gilby showed that his droping and tracking back is equal to anybody else in the team, Nashy, Lockwood and Lawrence (the younger, more talented and better looking versions of their older brothers) showed a clear determination in attack (Lockwood was also in the pool for the first match for only about 10 seconds without complaining at all). This is also to the benches’ credit – never did any of the boys complain, They got much less match time than we would have hoped but they never even grumbled for a second. This group of boys made up for the damage certain HABS senior boys made to the schools’ reputation two weeks ago. Never did this side complain about a refs decision, never did they splash the water and moan when they missed a shot, they always just got on with it, tracked back and realized that hard work is what creates glory for the team. We were the only team to not have our goals scored by just two people (although Luka and Hamish would have been joint top scorers in the competition if they had not had the Jedi Goalkeeper in goal), the goals came from everywhere. Every member of our starting outfield players scored goals and this is what meant that our 2 nil half time lead against Trinity finished at 7 nil to HABS. We showed that we were not just a full side of 7, we were a full squad of 13. What’s more, there were boys left at home that would have walked into many other school starting 7s. We had an embarrassment of riches and it was now time to use that to embarrass the opposition. Who that opposition were, depended on how many Manchester could score against Trinity (Bolton were easily winning their group in the other half of the draw- they had 2 players that looked unbeatable but they had yet to meet the human wall of Cammy Baker). Manchester went 2 nil up, 3 nil up (time to worry) but then Trinity scored and they scored again. Manchester had a good attack but where our defence was made of bricks and mortar, theirs was made of rich tea biscuits and only occasionally did their biscuit based defence get even close to a hob nob level of turgidity, these boys were not slippery when wet, they were just soggy, floppy and with a tendency to collapse to the bottom of a tea cup or swimming pool. The game finished with a goal difference of only 4 and the stage was set for HABS to play Ripley school in the semifinal. Ripley had better be prepared because these HABS boys had written a date into their calendar with destiny and as Ripley well knows – in the swimming pool, no one can hear you scream (and as Dr Craig knows, nobody messes with a HABS calendar date!). Ripley school were made up of Lancaster Team players and they had 2 coaches that shouted more than me! They were not a team to take lightly and their defence was better than we thought it would be. As the game progressed, we realized that this was going to be a fight. This was like Ripley in Alien 2 and it seemed that they had turned up already wearing that strange yellow crane robot. Ripley were stubborn, they had a huge amount of self-belief and they had two very strong players – we however had 7 very strong players and our extra talent soon stood out. The first half was far too close with HABS yet again starting badly but in the second half Jonny remembered that he is allowed to shoot and from that point onwards the game was under our control. It also helped that our talismanic captain Baker started to take control of the man up situations and also take his shots. We eventually won 5 goals to 2 and the show down with Bolton was set. Before our final there were playoffs with a memorable penalty shoot-out win for Alleyns in the 5th 6th play off – they somehow managed to score past the Trinity Jedi keeper who must have used up all of his force allowance for one day. Congratulations Alleyns (and particularly to their coach who stayed behind to cheer us on in the final). 3rd place play-off saw Ripley beat The Great Manchester as their first 5 minutes of stand out play against us was just about all the standing out they did (on this occasion ((write Manchester off at your peril)). Well done Ripley. The introductions were made with even Trevor managing to get all the names correct (a rare first) but there was a clear difference between the two teams; Bolton were bigger but they were also relaxed (a bit too relaxed). Just before the introductions, I overheard 4 of their players singing Champeones Champeones. Their coach also said to me that this would be the first time Bolton have won this cup for 8 years. They actually thought that their names were already written on the silverwear, they were sure that they would win and it was now just up to HABS to spoil the party. We had a game plan, we knew that our standard pit play would not work and so movement was needed, Teddy shifted to right wing, Jonny was reminded to shoot and the blueprint was in place. Mr Stiff and myself had studied the tapes, we had sent scouts out to check on progress and fitness and we were sure that we could not be more prepared for this final. The boys had a focus in their eyes, they wanted this, they had forgotten all about the tiredness after the Ripley game and they were ready to go. As the Great Rafiki once said ´it is time!´. The players lined up and just as I said ´this Bolton swimmer has not lost a swim off all day´ Luka swam in to beat him. We passed back to half way…. Luka continued his swim…. Cammy fed the ball over the top…. Luka drove in on goal …… he fumbled….. regained possession and shot the ball hard into the back of the net. ONE NIL HABS. They attacked, we defended perfectly with a full drop, by the time the crowd realized we had turned the ball we had broken away and all they could do was concede a major (sin binning for one of their players). We set up for a slow man up attack, Jonny went out wide left and shot – TWO NIL HABS! ´You told him not to shoot like that´ Said Gilbey helpfully as Jonny did his trademark loop into the opposite side of the goal. I was just happy that Jonny had again remembered to shoot and especially after we had picked out Bolton’s weaknesses on the wings. A second man up – a second slow set up. Just as the seniors had done last year, HABS saved all their training for the final and actually played as they have been trained to do. A good call from Teddy on the left, a good clean dry pass to Cammy on the top of the arc and a shot from 4m. 3 NIL HABS!!!! We wasted several chances, we looked unbeatable. We went 4 nil up with an amazing scooped shot from Hamish. Morgan Hirsch used to score these when I coached at KES and after this game 2 of the coaches asked why I coach that shot but I must say that this was all Hamish. From the first time I coached Hamish at Bedford 14 months ago – I cannot believe the mature (and slim) boy that has grown over that time. Hamish made a big statement in this tournament and should be really proud of what he has done this year. His maturity in moving around the pit in the final is something that even Tom Dean finds it hard to adapt to. Plus I have since received an email from the Head coach of Manchester saying that Hamish’s goal was good enough to win any final of any age group. Hugh praise indeed Hamish! But this final was all about Luka – he had played well in the tournament but this final (the first half anyway) showed just how good he can be. We swam and swam and swam – it looked as though every time he swam forward, he found space and there was a goal scoring chance. We should have been 4 goals ahead but 4-1 at half time was better than we could have hoped before the game. The second half saw us get a bit lazy in defence (many boys were understandably shattered) but we kept on ticking over the score sheet and a final score of 8-5 was well deserved. Every player can be proud of how they performed in that final. When Jonny got a bit tired Josh Silverbeck got in and he continued the dominance out wide. Without the pit play, Bolton were lost and we knew how to exploit it. The final minute saw the entrance of Ben Shucker (Shucker would be first choice pit defence for any of the other sides but we need him as replacement for Cammy and I must thank him for his patience yesterday) he got in to replace Cammy and if there had been a large enough crowd, Mr Baker would have received a standing ovation for his play but also his control of the team. This control was also massively down to Karan in goal. Never have I heard a goalkeeper shout louder to control his defence and make sure they had the correct arm up. This maturity again was way beyond the expectations of a normal Under 14s championship.

Before the final, people were asked to fulfill duties and they all did this perfectly. Teddy threatened more, Josh Steinert dropped as asked but also managed to pop up in attack on many occasions. This just shows how this team is already playing the kind of water polo needed at Under 16s and Under 18s level. Anyway I digress. The point is that we won!!! HABS are national champions and from a selfish point of view, this is my first Under 14s title (to go with the 2 Under 18s and 1 and a half Under 16s) and I have never been more proud of a team for winning. Plus from a HABS points of view, this completes the set of trophies for the School. Under 18s championships (1999), Under 16s (2011) and now, the Under 16s 2012 Champions. This is an Olympic year and this was a performance of which any Olympian would be proud. Well done boys and hopefully you got your Bon Jovi CD for on the way home. A rule for life is to always ‘Keep The Faith’. HABS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!