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Miami Beach Boys High Win 2002 GMAC

Beach d. Columbus 9-8 in OT for Championships

Miami Beach High Boys won the 2002 GMAC Championship by defeating Columbus after two periods of overtime.  In a hot Hadley park pool, Beach never trailed throughout the championship.  Gabriel started Beach by scoring the first goal but was unable to finish the second quarter after collecting three fouls.  Without him on the perimeter, Columbus began dropping on Manga in the hole.  Columbus countered by preventing Rudolfo from defending their holeset, but paid the price by never having a dominant hole set.  In addition, Manga repeatedly dropped from the perimeter and stole the ball from Columbus.  Down the stretch, Beach found offense from Jeremiah Mapes and freshman Andrew Bescherhazy.  Timmy shagged many balls and kept beaches fast break going from the bench!  In the end, Paul was as proud of this team as of any that he has coached.

Beach d. Hialeah in semis

Plantation 18 and under Tournament, December 1-2, 2001

Men 2nd Place, Women 3rd Place

The 18 under tourney at plantation was a lot of fun for everyone and a successful start of that age group season.

Everyone including the rookie freshmen played and performed very well.

Our performance included an easy win over the Stingrays (Gulliver) by around 20 points and also a win over HS state champs Winter Park by as I recall 4 points: not a real measure of our dominance since we missed many easy opportunities.

The final game was a contest between the two undefeated teams in the round robin tournament.  The Seminole Serpents from Orlando area included Winter Springs players plus 3 Yugoslavian exchange students with obvious skills that surpassed the average Florida player.

The final game started badly for FIU with a 7-2 first half dominance by the Seminoles.  In the second half, our players demonstrated very strong desire to fight it out until the end and adjusted very well to the physical game by slowly and patiently chipping away goal by goal at the seemingly insurmountable lead by the Seminoles. the regulation time game ended in a tie 8-8.  Our entire team played extremely strong defense against a physically superior opponent and nearly shut down the opponents by only allowing one goal while scoring 6 in the second half!  Beach's new goalie Leandro was probably the star of the game repeatedly making great stops including one that exploded on his forehead avoiding a sure goal.  The defense stuck to the strategy of pressing hard and fronting the hole and then crashing when the hole set got front position.  Jiklis scored a long eight meter shot with approx ten seconds left on the clock to tie the game at eight.  Every one of our starters scored and played strong defense in the thrilling comeback.

The final game was decided by a shootout from the 6 meters giving the Seminole team an advantage considering the strong Yugoslavian shooting tradition.  Jiklis and our captain Dusko both made their goal each time tying the score.  The next shot by FIU's Manga was blocked by the Seminole goalie ending the game.

Manga was dropped on by at least one player and played a very good game as did Dusko, Jiklis (despite not being in the best shape), Gabriel, Rodolfo (played great guarding the tough Yugoslavian hole set), Joe, Froggy, and Leandro (in the goal).

The game was one of the best comebacks I seen in a long time and I was very thrilled and proud about our teams competitive spirit.

The young girls team did very well also and Charles will report on it later....

Patriot Aquatics

Orlando, Florida.  July 28-29, 2001.

Gulliver def. FIU

Raider def. FIU

FIU ties Orlando B

FIU def. Orlando A

Patriot def. FIU

Miami Springs Tournament

July 20-22, 2001

FIU men's champion.

FIU def. Miami Dade

FIU def. Miami Springs

FIU def. Miami Wolverine(?)

Miami High def. FIU (scrimmage)

FIU def. Miami High (champhionship)

Sunshine State Games 2001

Orlando Florida.  June 15-17.

Champions -- Men's 20 + under!!

3rd place -- FIU Gold -- Men's.

3rd place -- Women's 20 + under

University of Florida Spring in the Swamp 2001

Champions!! 1st place

Andrew Mueller Tournament MVP