Navy's Mike Schofield Previews the 2010 Midshipmen's Season

Mike Schofield

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After a 2009 season in which the Navy water polo team won 22 games and advanced to the CWPA Eastern Championship game for the fifth straight year, head coach Mike Schofield is looking for more, specifically a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. But a challenging schedule filled with what could be the most-balanced CWPA season in recent memory awaits the Midshipmen. If Navy's young players continue their improvement and the upperclassmen take control with their leadership, Navy will be in the hunt for its 10th Eastern title once again.

NavySports.com: You have been here for 25 seasons, going on your 26th campaign. What has changed in the game of water polo over that timeframe?
Schofield: I think like a lot of sports, the athleticism and physical capabilities of the players have changed the most, just like football and basketball and really any sport. With twenty-five years of athletic progress in any sport, you are going to end up with bigger, faster and stronger people playing the game. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if they have made the same sort of advancements from the neck up. Sometimes, I think our guys fall back too much on athletic ability and don't understand the nuances of the game and the situational stuff that is sometimes more important than how much weight you can lift or how hard you can shoot the ball.

NavySports.com: It seems like the sport has become more national, with your recruiting. Its not as heavy in California as it was in the past.
Schofield: Actually, we have always been about half California, half everyone else since day one. In terms of where we try to go for players, that is not a whole lot different. We got into some areas in the last six-to-eight years that maybe we didn't get some guys from, like Texas or Florida. We have always had good players from the Midwest and some areas on the East Coast. Usually, we have about a 50-50 ratio.

I do think our sport and the leadership of our sport has done a terrible job utilizing a model like lacrosse is using to nationalize its sport. It just needs to be better.

NavySports.com: Your thoughts on the CWPA entering this fall.
Schofield: I'd say its as wide open as it has been in a while. I think we are certainly a contender. Everybody is annointing Bucknell as a team to beat. Princeton will obviously be pretty good. St. Francis is back and they have a little chip on their shoulder, I am sure. Johns Hopkins, Brown and Fordham are good. It's going to be a tough year. I think we will be pretty good too.

NavySports.com: How beneficial was the spring season, and then the preseason training trip to California? Any players that really showed improvement and stepped up their games?
Schofield: I thought the spring season was very good. We got a lot of games in. We got a lot of young guys the opportunity to show what they could do and they took advantage. I think they cherished the chance to show what they could do and they took advantage of the time.

The summer / preseason trip was not as good. There were 15 teams astU.S. Nationals, and our "B" team placed 14th and the "A" team finished 15th. I will leave it at that.

NavySports.com: Last year, you had a pair of sophomores in Kyle Wertz and Stevie Ray that stepped up and led the team in scoring. What do expect from them this year?
Schofield: I expect them to mature and show me that they can lead our team in other areas as well.

NavySports.com: You graduated a two-year starter in goal in Brett Rajchel. Chase Hansen has seen limited time in goal. What do you expect out of your goalies in general?
Schofield: For anybody who is previewing our conference, that is probably the first thing they are going to focus on with our team and what will happen there. We have had a pretty good run of goalies for the last few years and neither Chase (Hansen) or Anthony (Gutierrez) have proven themselves. It's going to be interesting to see how they work together. They are friends, get along great, they train well together, so we are going to start out by committee and hopefully, one or both of them step up. They are both really good kids and Mladen (Stanicic) feels good about each one of them.

NavySports.com: Last year you had a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year and ended with a 5-4 loss to Princeton. How disappointing was it to lose like that in the Eastern Championship game?
Schofield: It was probably the most disappointing game in my 25-year coaching career. I am not sure I am still over it.

NavySports.com: You graduated a lot of players that played a lot of games from last year. Who steps up and takes over a more significant role?
Schofield: Archie Warren (sophomore) had a really good summer. He probably invsted more time into training this summer than anyone else on the team. He really stepped up this summer and demonstrated some of the intangibles that I spoke about earlier. He is very analytical and understands situations and is very coachable. We are counting on him to step up.

Scott Cotton, a junior, has also stepped in and improved and shown that he trained pretty well this summer. Others are Tyler Thein (sophomore), Cort Jones (sophomore) and Jesse Walker (sophomore).

There are about a dozen guys that will have the opportunity to get into the rotation and it will all get sorted out during the first weekend and during the season.

NavySports.com: How have the seniors been during the offseason in the leadership department?
Schofield: They are following in the footsteps of the largest senior class and most-together senior class that we have ever had, so they have some big shoes to fill. Right now, the shoes aren't fitting too well.

NavySports.com: What would make the upcoming season a success? What would make it a disappointment?
Schofield: Athletically, winning the Easterns would make it a success. That is always our goal. With this group in particular, there is some maturity and commitment issues. If we can get those issues fixed from the guys that we have question marks about today, I think we will be able to count on them in November.

Release courtesy Navy Athletic Communications