Boys water polo: Preview for New Albany
We’ve announced our early season Super 6 boys and girls water polo teams.
Now for a look at the New Albany boys team:
NEW ALBANY
•Coach: Jordan Gundlach, eighth season
•Top athletes: Jack Gastineau, Kyle Gilchrist, Dylan Shoemaker and Wyatt Spalding
•Key losses: Billy Gastineau, Ellie Moellering and Darden Spychalski
•Last season: 6-10 overall
•2021 postseason: Lost to Upper Arlington 19-6 in first round of South Region tournament
•Outlook: Senior Jack Gastineau is one of a handful of returnees from last year, but a large class of sophomores should have a say in the Eagles’ fortunes. Most of last year’s 16-man freshman group is back, led by year-round field player Kyle Gilchrist and goalie Dylan Shoemaker. Shoemaker succeeds graduated goalie Billy Gastineau in net.
The Eagles went 1-3 in the opening Mason Invitational Aug. 18-19, with their win coming against Cincinnati St. Xavier’s Blue team next to losses to Dayton Oakwood and last year’s state finalists in champion Upper Arlington and runner-up St. Charles.
Coach Jordan Gundlach expects the starting lineup and his team’s strengths and weaknesses to become clearer by the Ohio Cup Sept. 10-11 at Thomas Worthington.
•Quotable: “You have to put in a lot of hard work around here if you want to get (your game) to a high level. … Right now, you never quite know who will do well or push us up to the next level. It’s exciting to see. It’s kind of the beauty of water polo. Everybody is playing for us right now and getting the chance to show what they can do and maybe get themselves more playing time.” — Gundlach
dpurpura@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekDave
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Boys water polo: Preview for New Albany
