OP_041918

opprairie.com Sports
the orland park prairie | April 19, 2018 | 45
BOYS WATER POLO
Eagles are flying high after initial loss to Lyons
JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor
For the first time since the
Illinois High School Association
recognized boys water
polo in 2002, a guy named
Jim Caliendo was not the
head coach at Sandburg.
New coach Matthew
Niemeier, who played the
sports at Sandburg and was
coached by the legend, was
eager to make a great first
impression when the Eagles
went to visit Lyons Township
on March 12. Lyons
qualified for the state tournament
three times in the past
three seasons and won two
state titles this decade and
is ranked third in the Illpolo.
com state rankings.
Well, the Eagles were beaten
by the Lions, 13-10, But
despite the loss, it was a good
first impression and something
to build on for a season
in which they went on a
13-game winning streak and
won tournaments at Maine
East and Naperville North
and its own invitational over
the weekend.
The Eagles headed into
this week’s action with a
15-2 mark, which included
the championship in its own
invitational over the weekend
and a 17-4 victory over
Stagg on Thursday, April 12.
“In the Lyons game, it
was their third game and our
first game and we came out
a little slow,” Niemeier said.
“We let them get up on us
early. But we chipped away.
Compared to how other
teams have played them, a
13-10 loss was pretty good.”
“Of course we never want
to lose but losing by that little
to that caliber of a team
made us feel good,” said senior
Joey Jenkot, who had
seven goals against Stagg
including five in the second
period. It gave us momentum
for our winning streak.
The bus ride home was not
very somber. We weren’t
disappointed with the way
we played.”
At the Sandburg Invitational,
the Eagles opened
with a 24-4 victory on Friday,
April 13 and beat St.
Charles North, 6-3, and
Prospect, 12-4, before stopping
Lockport, 7-6 in the
title match.
Jenkot added four goals
in the title game and entered
this week leading with team
with 67 to go with 42 assists
and 44 steals.
Josh Grella had a goal and
two steals against the Porters
while Kyle Fox, Rich
Sokolowski, Cooper Reiher,
Carter Thoss and J.J. Mitra
contributed to the victory.
Caliendo won more than
500 games as the Eagles
boss from 1994, when it was
a club sport, through last
season. He retired from the
boys program but took over
the girls team this year for
what he said is a one-year
commitment.
The coaching change on
the boys side hasn’t been too
tough on the Eagles.
“There have been strategies
on offense and defense that
have changed,” Jenkot said.
“But with the foundation that
we had last year, it hasn’t been
hard to adjust. (Niemeier) is a
great water polo coach and
what he’s been doing is awesome
for our team. The system
really works well for our
group of guys.
“I came in with an approach
knowing we have
an extremely fast group and
capitalizing on that,” Niemeier
said. “We are forcing
the other teams to have to
stay with us. We are senior
heavy this year and they
are experienced. We really
New Sandburg coach Matt Niemeier and his troops have been red-hot since an opening season loss to state-power Lyons.
PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
don’t have any seniors that
didn’t see playing time the
last two years. And we have
some very competitive guys.
They want to compete and
they want to win and play in
tight games. It’s a lot of fun
coaching these guys.”
The Eagles were slated
to visit Andrew in a South-
West Suburban Conference
matchup on Tuesday, April
17 and host Lockport again
on Thursday, April 19 before
participating in the St. Ignatius
Tournament the following
two days.
RIGHT: Joey Jenkot gets
ready to score one of his
five second-period goals for
Sandburg against Stagg on
Thursday, April 12.