We had a long end of the year
meeting on Tuesday and it was an extremely gratifying one for me as a coach as
well as our team. It is wonderful to hear the guys speak from the heart about
their teammates and to reaffirm all that is good in our program. It was
an opportunity for us to have some closure on this season and served as a great
jumping off point for next year. February 15th can’t come soon
enough!
Without further
adieu – the award winners….
The “Lou Munro Memorial Award” – MVP – Henry Riehl (Junior – St. Paul’s, MD) – Henry had a fantastic year for us and finished 2nd
on the team in points with 72 (53g, 19a). Henry played a ton his first
two years at attack and midfield but had a breakout season this spring. He is
an unselfish player and as the young guy on the offensive end the past few
years was more than willing to defer to our veterans on the team. We
definitely missed him during the playoffs last year after the injury he
suffered against Williams at the end of the regular season. This year we
planned to play Henry in the midfield along with Jack Gould as a great 1-2
punch and when Michael McCormack went down for the year (on our 2nd
possession of the season against Conn!!), plans changed. From that point
on Henry became our lefty attackman and thrived both in transition and in our
settled offense by playing up top. By the end of the year, due to both of
our other first line midfielders going down with season ending injuries (Jack
Gould and John Simms), Henry was essentially an attackman in transition and
then a midfielder once we subbed in our offensive personnel. His
versatility and talent played a huge role in us having success in the home
stretch including 3 goals and an assist in the 4th quarter at
Amherst in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. Henry was named 2nd Team
All NESCAC this year as well and hopefully will receive some additional
recognition as All New England and All American teams are announced.
Ric Rosbeck – MIP
– Chase Midgley (So. – Ossining, NY/The Hill School,
PA) – Chase was our 3rd
string goalie to start the year as we began the season splitting halves with
senior captain Will Ernst and first year Will Perry. Chase started the
first game of his career against Hamilton in the beginning of April and didn’t
look back. He was named NESCAC player of the week after his 24 save
performance against Amherst in the NESCAC Quarterfinals and was outstanding in
the goal this past weekend against Bates and Wesleyan. He finished a few saves
shy of the NESCAC tourney record.
Baggataway Award – Jack King (Sr. – Gilman, MD) – Jack’s energy, smile,
and work ethic all served to motivate our group over the past four years.
When he scored his first career goal against Hamilton this year, it was about
as wild a celebration as you’ll see on a sideline. Jack was also one of
the many guys who was asked to step up in a big moment when his number was
called and was up to the task. He made a few big plays defensively and on
the wing in both our Amherst and Bates playoff victories down the
stretch. He embodied the persistence of our group this year and how much
these guys cared about each other.
Looking ahead to next year we
return a good group and will get a number of key contributors back from
injury. We will also be adding some talented first years and it wouldn’t
surprise me if a few of them crack the lineup. Our league will be as deep
as ever so we are going to put in a ton of work to hopefully come out on the
right end of a bunch of one/two goal games along the way!
As always, thanks for the
continued support.