Boys water polo / scouting Lake County
Five boys water polo teams gathered for a tournament at Vernon Hills last weekend and a Mundelein High School reunion broke out.
Ivan Munoz (MHS, Class of ’95) coaches Libertyville’s Wildcats.
Kurt Schuessler (MHS, ’98) guides Lake Forest’s Scouts.
Adam Washburn (MHS, ’99) helms Highland Park’s Giants.
“We’re all over the place,” Washburn said.
Mundelein’s Mustangs, meanwhile, have to practice all over the place this spring because their pool is being reconfigured. Mundelein, coached by Fremd product Rahul Sethna, practices at Warren, Stevenson and Vernon Hills.
“We don’t rest much at practices, because we’re limited in time, and our practices are more intense than in years past,” said Sethna. “It’s been tough. We’re still identifying some roles.
“We need to come together.”
The top team in Lake County, Sethna believes, is Stevenson. The Patriots’ coach, Sean Wimer, has a Mundelein connection. His father, Stevenson girls coach Jeff Wimer, coached standout MHS girls water polo teams in the 1990s.
“Stevenson is definitely the class of the teams in our conference (North Suburban),” Sethna said. “It’s a team with experience, and Sean, a very good coach, grew up in the sport.”
Seam Wimer starred at Stevenson and played on three Final Four teams for Division I Loyola Marymount. His Pats split four games at last weekend’s highly competitive Fenwick Invite, including a 13-8 defeat of Brother Rice after racing to a 7-0 lead.
“When we come out with energy, we’re a very dangerous team,” Wimer said. “Our win against Brother Rice was one of our best games in a couple of years.”
Five captains dot Stevenson’s roster. Junior goalkeeper Rob O’Brien, also a captain last year, collected 18 saves in a shutout victory over Wheeling earlier this month.
“His work ethic is unbelievable,” said Wimer. “He’s an angle goalie who plays all the angles great. Rob is also very technically sound. But a goalie’s best friend is a short memory, and Rob has that friend.”
Stevenson’s other captains are seniors Evan Woodward (two-meter defense), Hasan Kahn (hole set), Alex Shkiler (utility) and Kyle Plotsky (attack). Woodward is a relentless player, Wimer noted. Few get in a hole-set position as well as Kahn does.
Sophomore Mitchell Sokolsky ranks among the Pats’ top three scorers.
“We’re very versatile with a lot of interchangeable players,” Wimer said. “I also like our depth. We play eight to 10 kids and we don’t lose anything when our starters come out.”
Libertyville, a sectional semifinalist in 2011, won three of four round-robin games to finish runner-up to Lake Forest at last weekend’s Cougar Classic at Vernon Hills. Wildcats senior hole set Tommy Keefe poured in 25 goals at the two-day tournament, including 7 in a season-opening 17-5 defeat of the host school and 7 more in a 14-7 win over Highland Park.
“Our coach’s (Munoz’s) system is defense, defense, defense,” said Keefe. “All of us have bought into the system. If the system were a person, we would do everything in our power to protect it.”
Munoz also will rely on junior attack and defensive standout Eric Boynton and a pair of Kings: senior Matt King (attack) and sophomore Adam King (hole set), who had a 6-goal game at VH. Junior Alex Wang starts at attack, and senior Clayton Kullander is Libertyville’s goalkeeper. Senior Noah Marcus (hole defense) and junior Justin Ronne also played well for runner-up Libertyville at the Cougar Classic.
“Maturity is huge and we have that,” said Munoz, whose 2011 squad finished 16-16. “If my players make a mistake, they clean it up. This group wants to be successful. I see it when they listen to me and I see it when they practice.”
Sethna’s group of 2012 Mustangs looks very little like it did in 2011. Thirteen of last year’s 16 Mundelein varsity members either graduated or chose not to play this year. Junior Connor Black, a starter on Mundelein’s sectional semifinalist in ’11, won’t score a goal in ’12. His goal this spring is to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials as a swimmer.
Mundelein junior Jason Rehor scored three goals and teammate Mark Betti had three assists in a 9-8 loss to Hoffman Estates earlier this month. Goalie Jakub Sierzputowski stopped eight shots.
“Jake will keep us in games,” Sethna said. “He’s one of the best goalies around.”
Other Mustangs to watch include seniors Matt Marcotte and Max Goin, junior Jason Begrowicz and sophomore Art Kasemets. All are utility players. Senior Luke Speer, a backup keeper last spring, now swims and treads water as a field player.
Vernon Hills senior co-captain David Zepeda scored the goals in his team’s 7-2 Cougar Classic loss to Lake Forest in the home water last weekend. He and classmate/co-captain Alen Meskic, as well as junior Kevin Knapp, each netted a pair of goals in a loss to Highland Park.
“(Zepeda) is a good all-around player,” said Cougars sixth-year coach Patrick Costello, a 2000 Buffalo Grove graduate who played polo at Indiana University. “He has the best game awareness on our team and he fights to maintain position in the water. He’s also a very good leader.”
Skip shots: Three Kings made Libertyville’s varsity: Matt, Adam and Pat. … Vernon Hills senior Bryan Friday also suited up on Saturday at the Cougar Classic. … Mundelein’s pool won’t be fully reconfigured until late October. … Vernon Hills’ Zepeda made all-state honors in choir.
Quote-worthy: “Sean and I are like brothers. We share ideas. We have similar philosophies when it comes to water polo, but we have different coaching styles.” – Libertyville coach Ivan Munoz, on Stevenson coach Sean Wimer.