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The Michigan Water Polo Association has named eight players of the week in what is the second to last player of the week of the 2022 campaign.
On the girl's side, Hudsonville's Taylor Wilson, East Kentwood's Ella Stroster, Birmingham Groves' Ellie Deighan, and Ann Arbor Skyline's Alia Tracy earned honors, while Hudsonville's Micah Bayle, East Grand Rapids' Logan McCahill, Walled Lake's Ben Swanson, and Ann Arbor Pioneer's Mathieu Ruelle won the awards.
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Below is a breakdown of the week that was for each of our players of the week.
District 1, Girls | Taylor Wilson - #1 ranked Hudsonville Eagles
Not your typical physical brawler, Wilson is one of the state's top players this year and does most things well. She possesses polo quickness, a great outside shot, and player strong on-the-ball defense. Her productivity, to the tune of 15 goals, 14 steals, 5 drawn exclusions and seven helpers earns her player of the week honors in a week she helped unseat state #1 Ann Arbor Huron. Ian Hewett has completeness in Wilson who burst onto the scene during the 2021 postseason to aid the Eagles in another state title.
District 1, Boys | Micah Bayle - #1 ranked Hudsonville Eagles
I've seen some really incredible men's players going back to 2003 (having played with or against a few of them). Aleksandar Petrovic, David Hasegan, Brent Augustine, Anthony Spoto come to mind (Stop me if I'm name dropping people you've never heard of). Bayle is without doubt, the most creative player I have ever seen. He has what I like to call a "Non-Negotiable." Josh Ahrendt put that inventiveness to work, and it scored him 29 goals in six games against both state #2's, one of Ohio's best teams, and others on the week. He can reportedly shoot with both arms at the same velocity and accuracy, and I watched him score while underwater, with his back to the goal, four meters out and to the left of the cage while getting buried by not one, but TWO players.
District 2, Girls | Ella Stroster - #8 ranked East Kentwood Falcons
The Falcons largely flew under the radar going into the season but have been pretty impressive on the whole. Ella Stroster is a big reason for it - how about 34 steals in a week! That's not very kind of you Ella! She also scored 25 goals and dropped off seven assists as the Falcons had a strong tournament after a hard week of games. The Falcons have an opportunity to right some of last week's (very narrow) wrongs with a District Seed weekend coming, and Jarod Lane will need to lean on his stars, Stroster included.
District 2, Boys | Logan McCahill - #8 ranked East Grand Rapids Pioneers
McCahill has been a huge part of East Grand Rapids hanging up near where they were a year ago in the state polls despite losing some of the state's top players. 20 goals, 26 steals, 17 drawn exclusions, 14 assists tell that story emphatically. Thats a quadruple double week. Dude was crushing it for Raheem Brown's small but mighty Pioneers who won three times last week. No surprise - the Pioneers do put the ball in the net with well above average regularity, but McCahill himself was directly involved on 34 goals. That's sick.
District 3, Girls | Logan McCahill - Birmingham Groves Gators
The Gators have cleaned up in the weekly awards, here's another for one of the girls that makes their squad go in Ellie Deighan. The stats might not be totally eye-popping, but Deighan does a lot of things that don't show up on the score sheet. The Gators also got to see a top ten team on the weekend at the Saline/Milan Tournament as they aim to sharpen up before a date with rival Birmingham Seaholm this week in District Seed action. Claire LaSota's squad has every shot to be the one to come out on top of District 3 in a wide open upcoming tournament with kids like Deighan in the water.
District 3, Boys | Ben Swanson - Walled Lake Cobras
Two things stand out about Swanson being player of the week (other than the stats of course), 1. Cobras is a sick mascot. Always will be. 2. Swanson has a SICK polo shooting face. Power move Benny! He also had 20 goals, 14 drawn exclusions, nine steals and five helpers for Sean Collins' Cobras this week. The Cobras, under Collins, are on the come-up. They are 3-2 in District 3, locked into the third seed after the seed weekend at Birmingham Groves. They've played tough against a few solid teams this year, and you can visibly see a strong future on Collins with guys like Swanson on the attack.
District 4, Girls | Alia Tracy - #10 ranked Ann Arbor Skyline Eagles
It was only a matter of time for one of the east side's top keepers as Alia Tracy put on a strong week. She made 84 stops and snagged 13 steals to go with four blocked five meters in a week of stiff competition. Tracy also had to sit in the car for like, 2.5 hours after a district seed win over Chelsea (at Saline) and hop into the pool at Rockford the SAME NIGHT to take on a few good teams. Rebecca Godek has a gamer in Tracy who was at a very solid 68% on the weekend as well.
District 4, Boys | Mathieu Ruelle - #3 ranked Ann Arbor Pioneer Pioneers
Definitely a member of the All-MWPA Name Team, Mathieu Ruelle put on a good week for Don Packard's Pioneers who saw #1, #2, #4, #7, #9 and one of Ohio's best teams....in a WEEK. We have officially dubbed Mathieu, "Le Cambrioleur" for his in-goal exploits. He robbed several shooters in a good week - and despite a few losses on the week for Pioneer, a lot of the teams Pioneer (narrowly) lost to, they will likely have to see Pioneer again to advance in the weeks ahead and to be frank, with this kid at the controls in goal....that doesn't sound fun to me.
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.