On the morning after a questionable infield fly call effectively doomed the Atlanta Braves season and ended hopes of a storybook ending for Atlanta icon Chipper Jones, the APS Knights experienced some controversy of their own in the pool.
With the Knights down 8-6 with under two minutes left in the game that would determine first place in Division II, North Springs coach Scott Martin called a timeout and headed aggressively toward the center of the pool to challenge a call made by the referees. It was just one of many demonstrative complaints the coaches — Martin and Knights’ coaches Stuart Sheldon and Robin Smith — directed at the referees. After the Knights called timeout, Martin took the game ball from the pool and walked around the pool to argue. This final confrontation between Martin and the refs, however, particularly peeved coach Smith.
“He charged down outside of the pool, so I took a little offense to that,” Smith said. “It was his body language and the way he came down, screaming at the referee. I wasn’t going to back down. He was being a hot head from a couple of plays back in the game, so I was already annoyed.”
Smith met Martin at center pool, and the situation intensified. The two coaches got within inches of each other and exchanged words, but were quickly separated by the referees.
Coach Smith asserted there was no chance of the confrontation escalating to a physical altercation.
“It wouldn’t have gone to that, it didn’t need to,” Smith said. “You know, emotions are running high; it is what it is.”
As the incident took place, fourteen teenagers stood watching from the pool as their hard-fought game for first place had twisted into a different kind of fight.
“We were laughing actually,” Knights senior Kate de Give said. “I was joking with the other players about how there are much more important things than high school water polo.”
The game went on. North Springs (10-0) scored one more goal to make the final score 9-6 and end the Knights’ (8-2) chances of finishing the regular season in first place. Despite the end result, the game was never out of reach for the Knights, in part because of a strong start. It began as a defensive battle, and there were double zeros on the scoreboard after one period.
The Knights changed their offensive strategy in the second period, however, by moving junior Ryan Switzer to “the hole”, the area right outside the 5-meter mark in the middle of the pool. Switzer took advantage of the change a minute into the second quarter when he received a clean pass and buried a shot into the net to put the Knights up 1-0. Throughout the game he found success creating space between him and his defender.
“I would just bump them with my butt or kick them where it hurt to get that separation, and while they were dazed, I would take the shot, and I made a few,” Switzer said.
For Switzer, “a few” is six goals, his team’s total. It became obvious even to the casual fans that Switzer was the Knights’ main weapon. At one point in the fourth quarter, prior to Switzer’s fifth goal, a frustrated North Springs fan urged the Spartan players to “Get on that guy! Foul Him!”
It was not enough to hold back the Spartans, however, who began to double and triple team Switzer on defense and went on a 3-0 run to end the first half. They stayed ahead for the rest of the game with timely goals to combat the Knights’ rallies. Coach Smith described how the Spartans responded following his team’s strong start.
“I think they were a little surprised we were tied up after the first quarter,” Smith said. “We started making those little mistakes, and they started beating us down the pool a little bit. Maybe physically they were a little bit fitter than us.”
APS came within one goal for the first time in the second half when Switzer scored his final goal with two minutes left in the game. North Springs scored soon after on a 5-meter call (a defender other than the goalie blocked a shot with two hands within the 5-meter mark) to put the Spartans up two goals with under two minutes left. The coaches’ confrontation occurred soon after, which seemed to completely deaden any chance the Knights had at coming back. Coach Smith said the incident also made the loss more painful.
“This was the game of the season basically,” Smith said. “The kids fought hard. When everyone gets heated, you want to win.”
After the game, Coach Martin showed his happiness with the win and was drenched with water by his players in celebration.
Coach Julie Ferris, who teaches at North Springs and started the Spartans’ water polo team, expressed her overall gratitude for Martin and all that he has done for the Spartans’ program. After watching the incident unfold from her team’s bench, however, Ferris seemed disappointed in him and repeatedly told him that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“I think that both coaches were out of line, and they both needed to take a step back,” she said.
