North Idaho Water Polo sweeps state titles in Boise

The North Idaho Water Polo Club (NIWP) boys’ and girls’ teams, with players from several local high schools, in addition to some home-schooled students, defended their state high school championship titles in Boise last weekend.

In the championship games, the NIWP Boys Varsity team resoundingly beat Treasure Valley 17-4 while the NIWP Girls Blue team beat the NIWP Girls Yellow team with a final score of 18-13 in a closely fought match.

Men’s Division

Varsity Team: The NIWP varsity boys came out strong with a convincing win over a young East Idaho team (15-0). The scoring in the game was well distributed, with senior Brock Raebel scoring 4 goals at the set position. Nolan Vogan also played at the set position and added 3 goals. Multiple other players also scored, including Taylor Holding and Brennan McCrea scoring 2 goals each and Mason Curry, Calvin Peterson, Jet Yang and Miles Rigg all adding a goal each.

The NIWP varsity team next had a game against Magic Valley from Twin Falls. Magic Valley was significantly stronger than East Idaho, but the Coeur d’Alene boys played well and quickly established a strong lead. With their starters running a fast counter-attack in the first quarter, they were able to build to a 9-1 score in the first quarter and the game never appeared in question. Mason Curry led the scoring with a burst of goals in the second quarter (3) and a later goal in the 3rd quarter. A trio of boys had 2 goals each, including Taylor Holding, Brock Raebel and Garrett Snyder. Other scorers included Tucker Rigg, Soren Swingrover and Liam Clark. The final was 13-3

Of all the other teams, Treasure Valley (Boise) looked the strongest and most experienced. However, NIWP’s starters proved to be exceptionally strong this year and were able to put together another 9-1 first quarter. North Idaho continued its offense throughout the game, steadily adding additional goals while shutting down any significant offense from Treasure Valley and finishing with a final score of 17-4. 

A key difference in the game was the number of exclusions and 5m calls the NIWP were able to draw through drives and movement across the field. This led to 10 6-on-5 man-up situations, many of which turned into goals. NIWP did much better at not getting excluded, with only four exclusions in the championship game. The club continued to develop its motion-oriented offense, creating multiple scoring opportunities on each possession. Most of their goals were from drives, man up opportunities and cross-cage passes, though Brock Raebel also dominated in the set position and led the team along with Taylor Holding in scoring with 9 goals each for the tournament. Mason Curry closely followed with 8 goals. Other scoring leaders included Brennan McCrea with 4 goals, Nolan Vogan, Tucker Rigg and Garrett Snyder scored 3 goals each. 

This wide dispersion of scoring is difficult to defend against as the defense can’t focus its attention on one or two players but must try to defend everywhere. Further helping NIWP’s dominance this year is the outstanding play of goalie David Schoeny. Though he has only been playing for less than two years, Schoeny has established himself as one of the top goalies in the Pacific Northwest and with his size and quickness, opposing teams have a very difficult time scoring against him.

Junior Varsity: The NIWP JV boys team played Magic Valley Varsity in their first game Friday. The Magic Valley squad included a number of varsity level players and was larger and a little faster than the NIWP JV boys. The Cd'A team gave them a good challenge however, finishing with a score of 22-9. 

The Magic Valley offense was led by senior Chas Attebury with 9 goals in the game. Chris Sheftic, a first-year player for NIWP, led the Narwhals with 4 goals. Other NIWP players who scored included Mason Olberding (1), Max Vogan (2) and Derek Parsons (1).

In their second game, the NIWP played the Portneuf Valley JV team, a new Idaho club from Pocatello this year. The Narwhal boys came out strong and outscored Portneuf 7-2 in the first quarter with multiple counter-attack opportunities. Mason Olberding has a breakout game and led the scoring with 5 goals. Several other players scored multiple goals, including Max Vogan (4) and Sammy Schoeny (3). Chris Sheftic, Joshua Atwood, Ethan Roberts scored 2 goals each. Gus Rigg and Jay Yang also added a goal each. Liam Clark had a strong game in goalie, helping the defense to limit Portneuf to 7 goals in the game while North Idaho finished with 22 goals.

In their third game, the NIWP JV played East Idaho JV. North Idaho was able to dominate this game, quickly running the score to 6-1 in the first quarter in working toward a final score of 17-2. Sammy Schoeny had a breakout game along with an excellent tournament performance by scoring 6 goals in the game. Several other boys had multiple goals included Mason Olberding (3), Max Vogan (2) and Derek Parsons (2). Other Cd'A players who scored included Harris Crow, Chris Sheftic, Joshua Atwood and Everett Small. Liam Clark again provided excellent work in goal, helping to shut down East Idaho and limit them to 2 goals in the game.

In beating Portneuf and East Idaho, the NIWP JV boys were able to advance to the JV division championship game. They were matched against a strong Treasure Valley team who were composed of an older group of players compared to NIWP. The Narwhals kept the game close in the first quarter, with Mason Olberding and Sammy Schoeny both scoring goals for a first quarter score of 4-2. The larger and stronger Treasure Valley team was able to consistently score throughout the game, including multiple counter-attacks and steadily built their lead, finishing with a final score of 16-6. Offense for NIWP was well distributed, with Harris Crow, Mason Olberding, Chris Sheftic, Max Vogan, Sammy Schoeny and Derek Parsons all scoring one goal each and finished second in the boys junior varsity division.

Women’s Division

Due to their strength across the board, this year the NIWP girls team decided to split their squad into two relatively even teams (NIWP Blue and NIWP Yellow).

NIWP Yellow: The NIWP Girls Yellow squad had their first game against the Treasure Valley team (Boise). The Cd'A girls were able to score consistently in their possessions and were able to limit Boise to just 4 goals across the game. The NIWP Yellow team, with senior Claire Thorpe leading the way, scored 6 goals in the first quarter and worked to a final score of 20-4. The Yellow team also dominated Magic Valley in their second game, again scoring 6 goals in the first quarter en route to a final score of 15-5. Claire Thorpe, Abbey Clark and Haven Owens scored 3 goals each. Other scorers in the game included Ava Parsons (2), Lana Saitta (1), Addy Karoblis (1) and Addie Wallace (2). In their next game against East Idaho, NIWP had another strong first quarter, outscoring the Rigby squad 6-1. They continued the scoring run throughout the game and ended with a final score of 18-3. Scorers included Emily Snyder (1), Lydia Nead (1), Hven Owens (2), Lana Saitta (4),

Addy Karoblis (1), Addie Wallace (3), Abby Clark (1) and Claire Thorpe (4). Stella Christianson continued her excellent work as the primary goalie, with multiple blocks and excellent passing. Abby Clark also did an exemplary job substituting in goal, limiting other teams to very few goals in all their games.

NIWP Blue: The NIWP Blue team also had an excellent run through the preliminary games. Gianna Gonzalez led the team in strategy and positioning. In their first game against East Idaho NIWP Blue quickly built their lead to 7-0 in the first quarter with a variety of fast breaks and quick goals. They continued their scoring throughout the game, finishing with a final score of 15-1. 

In their next game against Treasure Valley, they continued their extremely quick counter-attack, scoring on a majority of their possessions and finishing the first quarter with a 9-0 lead and a final score of 19-2. NIWP Blue had similar success in their game with Magic Valley, leading 5-0 after the first quarter, 9-2 at the half time break and a final score of 18-3. Gianna Gonzalez was the Blue team leader, helping to set up their plays and spread the scoring. Charlie Lindsay led the scoring, continuing her outstanding offensive output with an amazing 25 goals during the tournament. Grace Kenney stepped up her scoring this year with 14 goals while Gianna Gonzalez finished with 13 goals. 

Other goal contributors for Team Blue included Callie Christianson (5) (while also contributing considerable time in goal as NIWP’s primary goalie). Gwen Peterson (2), Kyra Ellsworth (1), Autumn Cysewski (1), Shelby Alderson (3), Jame Gardenia (1) and Bonnie Walton (2) also all scored. While a first year player, Bonnie Walton also provided much of Blue team’s set defense — hole set is the most difficult field defensive position to play. Despite taking a couple of bloody noses in the process she always came out of the water with a smile.

The NIWP Yellow and Blue teams were never challenged in their preliminary games but faced much tougher competition in the Championship game with each other. NIWP Yellow jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with two quick goals from Addy Karoblis and another from Emily Snyder. NIWP Blue came back to tie it up with goals from Grace Kenney, Gianna Gonzalez and two from Charlie Lindsay. The teams traded goals throughout the rest of the game with Team Blue slowly building a lead and finishing with a final 18-13 victory. 

Team Yellow was not able to stop the elusive Charlie Lindsay, who scored on multiple drives and outside shots for a total of 9 goals in the game. Claire Thorpe led the scoring for the Yellow team with 4. Callie Christianson and Gianna Gonzalez split time in goal for the Blue team while Stella Christianson and Abby Clark provided most of the Yellow team goalie work in a challenging game against some very strong offensive players.

The NIWP coaches were impressed not only by their seniors but by how much the younger players have stepped up this year. The team currently has a very strong senior boys’ group along with two very gifted senior girls (Gianna Gonzalez and Claire Thorpe). The rest of the team is fairly young in age but has a considerable number of excellent younger players who show considerable promise for future North Idaho club teams.

Following the Idaho high school season, the team plans to travel to Seattle, California and Florida to compete in other high level regional and national tournaments this spring and summer.

The NIWP club plays year-round at the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene. In addition to the high school team, the club also has a development program for players ages 11-14 and a junior program for players ages 7-10. 

Information: northidahowaterpolo.org

    Courtesy photo The North Idaho Water Polo club junior varsity boys team finished second at last weekend's state championships in Boise. In the front row from left are Gus Rigg, Max Vogan, Derek Parsons, Jay Yang, Coach Mark Collingham, Sammy Schoeny, coach Doug Keese and Owen Doty; second row from left, Everett Small, Josh Atwood, Colin Bradley, Ethan Roberts and Mason Olberding; and back row from left, coach Alec Stein, coach Israel Morrow, Chris Sheftic, Liam Clark and Harris Crow.
  

    Courtesy photo The North Idaho Water Polo club varsity girls split into two teams for last weekend's state championships in Boise, with the NIWP Blue team beating the NIWP Yellow team for the title. In the front row from left are Jane Gardunia, Autumn Cysewski, Addie Wallace, Charlie Lindsay, Abby Clark, Stella Christianson and coach Mark Collingham; second row from left, coach Makenna Ferguson, Ava Parsons, Emily Snyder, Gracelyn Kenney, Gianna Gonzalez, Claire Thorpe and Kyra Ellsworth; and back row from left, Haven Owens, Lydia Nead, Callie Christianson, Addy Karoblis, Gwen Peterson, Lana Saitta, Shelby Alderson and Bonnie Walton. Not pictured is Nancy Dawn.