MWPA Announces Week 6 District Players of the Week

After a week off, the Michigan Water Polo Association (MWPA) has announced the Week 6 District Players of the Week.

Breakdowns of each of their weeks are below.

District 1, Girls | Rachel Huyser - #9 ranked Jenison Wildcats

Huyser has been one the leaders for the Cats all year. In a District with four teams ranked in the top nine, strength of schedule is premium. Huyser had a balanced week with seven goals, 13 steals, four assists, two drawn exclusions and a field block. All but one team that the Wildcats played were ranked, and the other was receiving votes in this week's top ten rankings (whom Jenison defeated 11-3). Huyser helped Nicole Vos' Wildcat squad push #6 Hotel/Okemos to a tight game in the final minutes in their second game of the night. Watch out for Huyser and the Wildcats this postseason who took #3 Rockford to overtime last night (May 10) at home.

District 1, Boys | Aidan VanSoest, Zeeland Dux and Chix

Despite starting the season late as a team, Zeeland has gotten extraordinary performances out of VanSoest who ripped off 15 goals to go with 13 steals on the week. He also drew five exclusions and added in seven assists for the coach who has the best hair in the state (we think at least, not sure anyone comes close to Zac Geschwendt). Zeeland draws the Portage Muskies in the District Quarterfinal this week and they'll need everything VanSoest has if they get beyond that: they'd get the second seeded Grand Haven Buccaneers in the semi's.

District 2, Girls | Mary Langosch - East Kentwood Falcons

While the Falcons didn't have an overly busy week, Langosch was plenty busy on her own. Langosch made 20 and 23 stops in separate games, blocked a pair of five meters and had seven steals. Jarod Lane's Falcons will need that kind of performance headed into the District 2 Tournament as they attempt to make a run at the State Tournament in back-to-back seasons. As a sophomore Langosch helped lead the Falcons there two years ago. Oh, and Langosch scored a goal last week, nbd.

District 2, Boys | Nathan Cohee - East Kentwood Falcons

The long center defender for Josh Jackson's small but mighty Falcon squad had a quadruple double of a week, and the lowest number of anything he did was his goal scoring (11). The Falcons have managed to put up a good number of goals this season, and Cohee did just about everything else imaginable for them this week too. He had 19 steals, blocked a frankly silly 15 shots and dished 14 assists this past week as the Falcons had tight battles with Zeeland and Hotel Polo on May 7-8.

District 3, Girls | Elli Leonard - Walled Lake Cobras

Can we all agree that the Cobra is one of the cooler logos and mascots out there? Imagine a Cobra playing polo. That'd be pretty sweet. Also pretty sweet, Elli Leonard's performance this week. She had 10 steals and four field blocks on the defensive end for Claire Bartosic's Cobras. Leonard also spotted Walled Lake six goals. The Cobras will need another big performance out of their leader in Leonard as they draw one of the other great mascots in MWPA this week in the Lake Orion Dragons (come on, so cool, right?!) with a trip to the Regional Tournament on the line Thursday.

District 3, Boys | Ryan French - #5 Ranked Birmingham Groves Gators

Anyone know how long a varsity water polo game is? 28 minutes. Look at those numbers. Head Coach Bob Sala said this about how much time French played this week, "He went off for 12 goals in our four games in about 28 minutes of actual play." So what you're telling me, Bob, is he scored 12 goals, had 12 steals, five drawn exclusions and three field blocks in what amounts to a single varsity game? Is that a joke? Is that legal? Hoax, right? Has to be. That's ridiculous. Bob also said "This kid is an absolute beast." Yeah we know Bob. Anyways Ryan French is good at water polo and we figured you all should know.

District 4, Girls | Alia Tracy - #8 Ranked Ann Arbor Skyline Eagles

Give Alia Tracy a lot of credit, she saw a lot of yellow blurs this week, and knocked away 76 of them for an average of 12.6 per game. Much of that came against three teams in the top five in the course of a few short hours, during which she comported herself well for Rebecca Godek's Eagles. Tracy also used her excellent range to make 11 steals on the week. All this considering the Eagles made a trek across the state, played three games vs. top five teams, turned around and came home, that's not easy, believe me, I remember. Tracy elevates well and has great reach, and figures to be a big-time factor in the postseason tournament landscape building in the East.

District 4, Boys | Sam Sterlitz - #3 Ranked Dexter Dreadnaughts

Sam Sterlitz is player of the week alone because his name sounds like it belongs on a team whose mascot is a literal battleship. Also the Dreadnaught is a sick mascot too (shoutout Cobras and Dragons from earlier). But real talk (as the kids say) Sam's week was really good on it's own, independent of his cool name or cool team name. He had 17 goals, 17 assists, drew eight exclusions, dished out eight assists and blocked six shots (look a the length of his arm, of course he blocked six shots). Brian Semple's Dreadnaughts are aiming their cannons at the East Region as we speak as they set for the District Tournament this weekend.

About District Players of the Week: District Players of the Week are nominated by head coaches weekly through a form including statistical and circumstantial information. The District Players of the Week are chosen by an impartial group if there are multiple entrants within each District.