THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, March 26, 2014 g
Page B-3
No offseason for Ripken League
ICE HOCKEY
College wood bat summer league requires a full-time commitment n
Player of the Year
BY
KENT ZAKOUR STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Landon School senior Jack Barton is The Gazette’s Player of the Year in ice hockey.
First Team
Jack Barton
Austin Schoenfeld
Sean O’Brien
Cole Taylor
Kyle Hooper
Jack Olson
Not only the best defenseman in IAC, but also showed offensive skills.
Stellar two-way player was key cog in Patriots’ title run.
Senior netminder was solid all season for the IAC champs.
Hard working player led Little Hoyas in scoring.
Led Stags in goals (20), assists (18) and points (38).
Solid two-way player has both size and speed.
Landon Senior Defender
Wootton Senior Defender
Coach of the Year Dave Evans Wootton
In his 20th season at the helm he led the Patriots to a perfect league mark, a 16-1 record overall and the team’s third Maryland Student Hockey League Championship.
Landon Senior Goalie
Geo. Prep Senior Forward
Second Team
Jordy Bretner, Wootton, senior, defense Ross Allen, Churchill, junior, forward Kevin Mackey, DeMatha, senior, goalie Ryan Holman, Georgetown Prep, senior, forward Brandon Hall, Wootton, senior, forward Lizar Zamurovic, Georgetown Prep, junior, defense
DeMatha Senior Forward
Geo. Prep Junior Forward
Honorable Mention
Luke Klecker, Wootton, junior, defense Junmo Kim, Churchill, senior, forward Jones Lindner, Landon, junior, forward John Mulera, Georgetown Prep, junior, defense Adam Kaplan, Wootton, junior, defense Colton Rupp, Landon, junior, forward
Landon reloads, Prep looks to defend Golf preview: Hoyas won 2013 IAC title, but Bears have a top freshman class
n
BY
TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER
It took Morgan Egloff roughly half a second to correct himself. “This year we have four freshmen,” the Landon School golfer said before pausing. “Well, four really good freshmen.” Possibly, even, the best quartet of rookies in Landon history. Coach Jack Duquette takes his team on an annual trip to Alabama — where they are scheduled to be through Saturday — to play 36 holes a day for four days. It’s not uncommon for him to bring along a few promising seventh or eighth graders who can step back to the varsity tees and not get soundly defeated by the older, more experienced players. What is uncommon, however, is, on this very same trip a year ago, then-eighth grader Jeff Samit carding a 6-under 66, Evan Katz a 4-under 68, Cole Gibson a 2-under 70 and John Kalavritinos an even-par 72. Even more startling, these scores came on a famed Robert Trent Jones-designed course called The Senator, a popular venue on the LPGA Tour. “There’s a lot of good players out there,” said Landon senior Brent Bubes, an All-IAC selection as a junior. “But, yeah, they all played really, really well. I defi-
Brent Bubes
Nick Rolle
nitely remember that day.” That day portends a promising season for the Bears, who were mired by depth issues last year, when Georgetown Prep won the conference title. Landon lacked a consistent five and six golfers in its lineup — teams start six and keep five scores — in 2013; with the addition of the four freshmen, the only depth issue is narrowing the starting lineup to six. “This year could be one of our best years,” Duquette said. “We have some veterans who are really strong but we have a nucleus of four freshmen who are very good ... we have a very good stable of golfers.” Of course, so does their rival, Georgetown Prep. The defending IAC champions return all six of their starters from last year, including four-year starter Brendan Peel. Also coming back for the title defense are seniors Jon Carr, Nick Rolle and Carter Connelly, and sophomores Mike Jones and Davis Lamb. “I’ve had six people leave on me,” Georgetown Prep coach Robert Barry said. “But I’ve never had a situation where it was all
six coming back. These guys, very clearly — they’re the starters. I’ve never really had too much experience with this kind of lineup.” Barry recognized that his IAC and Metros champion team will be the one with the target on its back, and that all schools will be itching to knock off the Little Hoyas. “Those six guys, I tell them, ‘We’re only as good a team as our four, five, and six guys play,’” the coach said. “Last year, when we won Metros, we had five guys shoot in the 70s. When we won the IAC, we had five guys in the 70s. In this format, it’s not the one horse you need, it’s the depth.” Both Landon and Georgetown Prep have plenty of that, so much so that both have voiced bittersweet complaints over that very blessing. Duquette could have a different starting combination every match. Barry said his biggest issue is who to pair with whom, finding the right balance of which players complement each others’ games the best. Regardless, these petty “problems,” have set up a top-heavy IAC. “[Landon] always has a good team,” Barry said. “But they’ve picked up a few kids and of course they have the war horses back so they’re going to be a team to reckon with and I think that that’s the great thing about this rivalry in that we’re going to go head-tohead and the winner is going to come out the IAC champs.” tmewhirter@gazette.net
KEEPING IT BRIEF Bethesda resident reaches milestone
RM volleyball sweeps Watkins Mill
Bethesda resident Garrett Brahms finished his junior wrestling season at st. John’s Catholic High School, with a 43-12 mark and has won more than 100 matches his career. Brahms, who competes at 132 pounds, finished second in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Championships, losing to Good Counsel’s Kevin Budock in the finals.
The Richard Montgomery High School boys’ volleyball team opened the season with a 25-4, 25-19, 25-8 sweep over Watkins Mill on Friday. The Rockets returned five starters from last year’s squad that reached the county championship match. — TED BLACK
There is no such thing as an offseason for baseball connoisseur Jeff Rabberman as the coach of the Gaithersburg Giants. “It’s absolutely a 12-month, 365-day job,” said Rabberman, who guided the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League franchise to a successful inaugural season last summer. He is also the coach at Gaithersburg High School during the spring. “There’s not a day that goes by I’m not doing something for the Giants.” In 2013, the Giants entered the CRCBL, a hyper-competitive amateur summer wooden bat league founded in 2005 comprised of 12 franchises in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. And through the years, as the league has expanded, the time commitment has not only increased on the field, but off the field as well for all of the league’s representatives, including Montgomery County’s four teams (Gaithersburg, Silver Spring-Takoma Park Thunderbolts, Bethesda Big Train and Rockville Express). Rabberman and representatives from Silver Spring and the Big Train all agreed that running their organization extends to much more than just the annual schedule of games from late May to early August. They all compared it to running a college program or minor league affiliate, complete with annual winter league meetings. Planning a budget, interviewing potential interns, improving stadium and field amenities, lining up host families, hiring play-by-play and public address announcers and increasing community involvement are just a few of the tasks at hand for each franchise. “For [Big Train President and General Manager] Adam Dantus now and me back in the day, it never stopped,” said Bethesda co-founder Bruce Adams, who has admittedly become less involved in the organization’s day-to-day operations over the past couple of years. “As soon as the sum-
FILE PHOTO
Flagler College student-athlete Jake Taylor is expected to return to play for the Silver Spring-Takoma Park Thunderbolts this summer. mer youth camps and season are over, we are working on our annual fundraising, ordering uniforms and equipment and setting up offseason events for fans. Now, especially with the Web and social media, it’s a completely non-stop process.” But recruiting college players and developing relationships is the most important key to success. Teams said they have their roster set for the most part by the late fall or early winter. “Recruiting players for the next summer’s team is a huge part,” said Thunderbolts Vice President Joe Gerbasi, whose organization is entering its 15th year of operation. “It takes a lot of dedicated work and research to find, target and develop relationships with college programs and players. “We are always looking to increase the number of Division I players on our roster, but at the same time, we are always looking for Division II, III and junior college players flying under the radar. We want to have a big league dream with a small-town charm.”
Added Adams: “Sal Colangelo, our manager, he literally goes from championship series game to vacation and dials recruits on the phone. There can’t be any gap in downtime because if you aren’t recruiting early and often, you won’t get the best players.” Rabberman, who traveled to the University of Texas last month to visit three of his summer players, said he is amazed at how far-reaching the CRCBL has become. In fact, he said he received a random email from a potential play-by-play radio guy from Washington state. “A couple of parents have asked me, ‘Do you want to coach in college?’ and I just laughed because I don’t coach at a university, but it is like we — I’m sure the other teams will agree — all do. It is as much work and we keep getting more and more involved and rewarded. I have the Trojans and the Giants. I get the college kids during the summer and high school kids in the spring.” kzakour@gazette.net