In 2022, the Mount couldn’t have played better for their situation. A team only three years in the making going 15-14 across all their games should be celebrated. With their offense scoring 434 and their goalkeeping corps making 299 saves, the team was showing growing potential. But with the loss of key players such as Tommaso Baldineti and Kiahi Horan, the team lost two talented keys to their offense. But even with those losses and a tough 2023 season, head coach Justin Vink’s team will be rebuffed by the development of six new freshman players.
The first of Vink’s future key players is Nate Valentine of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. In 18 games played so far for the Mount this year, Valentine has scored ten goals in 26 attempts on net for a shooting percentage of 38%. With 12 assists and 4 steals across the games he has played, Valentine looks to be a key offensive asset for the future of the team. This will only come with experience, and as he becomes more of a key part in games due to players graduating, Valentine will be another great asset in front of goal.
Another key freshman within the team’s young, freshman ranks is defenseman, Jack Fox of Jupiter Florida. Fox’s style of play is much more reserved as a defensive player, instead of going to goal on offense, Fox is a go between from the Mount’s side of the pool into the opponents’ end, getting the ball to the attackers. His stats are not the best in this way, only three assists in 21 games played. But if Fox can gain more experience within the next couple of years, he can be a key asset to the transfer of the ball from defense to the offense.
Two freshmen from Illinois in in Ivan Morales and Jacob German highlight a much more developmental, long-term project for Vink and his coaching staff. Morales, a defenseman, has only played in nine games so far for the team in 2023 and could be seen as a future player for a team who is jampacked with defensive styled players. This is the same for German, who is listed as a utility player. His lack of playing time may come down to this, as he is one of seven players on the team of the same position. These two have a great future at the Mount, they simply must wait for their time to come and to be patient in Vink’s plan for the team.
Gabe Cieplik of Lachine, Quebec is the next key to the future of the team. The younger brother of senior Kasper Cieplik is a much more active player in the team. Yet, he is again, a long-term project for the team as his playing time is like that of Morales and German. And his predicament in this is again his position. A dedicated winger, he often must share his offensive duties with utility players to fit a more defense style of play, potentially holding him back on offense. This is the story of the team, while they are not scoring as many goals on defense as in earlier years, they often must defend more and hence, pull their more aggressive, attacking players out of the pool.
But the player that will surely impact the team the most over his future at the Mount is Aaron Tarr of Johannesburg, South Africa. Tarr is one of the Mount’s best players in front of goal, with him scoring 42 times out of 102 attempts in front of the net in 22 games played this year. He has also assisted player in scoring 86 times, leading the team in that category by a substantial margin. The closest player to him in assists is sophomore Alexandros Bellesis with 31 assists. Tarr is the attacker of the future for this team; he is as deadly in front of goal as he is in the lead up. He will be the most important player to Vink in the years to come to try and build a powerhouse within the MAWP conference.
But with all this said about new talent coming into the ranks of the team, there is still a great deal of experienced talent in the upperclassmen. The aforementioned Bellesis leads the team in goals with 61, followed by his fellow Greek and sophomore Chrysostomos Valavanis with 45 goals. These two will continue to play a key role on the opposition side for the next two years, perhaps in partnership with Tarr. The team also has an experienced goalkeeping corps in Joseph Maxson and Sherif Hosni, a senior and a sophomore respectively. Between the two of them, they have made 214 saves, this is because of the structure of the Mount’s pool. Hosni typically playing in the deeper end while Maxson plays in the shallow end goal every other quarter. They are often swapped out with the senior alternate goalkeeper Frederick Brown who has made 15 saves across the season.
The senior season for the Mount’s men’s water polo team may have not gone as planned for the members of the team or coach Vink’s staff, but it will go down as the formative year that will building the success of the program for years to come. With the graduating of experienced players who have helped formulate this team over the last four years, and with the potential that this new freshman class has for the future, the program shows potential of dominating their conference in the coming years. All the Keys are there, now it is down to the team itself to build on their talent and to formulate how the team will go forward in the ever-present chase for a spot in the NCAA Men’s Water Polo National Championship.
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