Craft weighing his options following OCHS loss
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers GAME FACE- Oaks Christian's Aric Avedissian looks for an open teammate during Saturday's loss to Royal in the CIF-SS playoffs.

A successful season came to an end for the Oaks Christian boys' water polo team last Saturday. Whether or not it was the final game for the team's coach remains a question.

The Lions couldn't erase a 51 halftime deficit and ended up losing to Royal High, 9-6, in the second round of the CIFSouthern Section Division II playoffs at Cal Lutheran University.

It was the final match for seven OCHS seniors, and it might have been the last game for head coach Stuart Craft on the Oaks Christian bench.

Craft, who guided the team to a TriValley League title this season, initially hinted at stepping down after the season in an Acorn article last month. After the game Saturday, Craft spoke again about the possibility of leaving.

"I'll have to sit down with my wife and the rest of the family and discuss it with them this week," Craft said. "Originally, I was only going to do this (coaching) for four years, but it would be hard to leave now because you become so attached to the players and the school. It's kind of addicting. As long as I feel positive about it, I'll keep coaching."

Down by four goals at the half, Oaks Christian climbed back into the game behind scores from seniors Daniel Nelson and Tyler Reardon. When sophomore Jet Reich scored a goal with 32 seconds remaining in the third period, Royal's lead was cut to 7-4.

The Lions drew closer three minutes into the final quarter when Reardon scored again to make it a 7-5 contest. Collin Baratte added another goal later in the quarter to bring the score to 8-6 with four minutes remaining, but that's as close as OCHS would get.

"This is a tough loss, especially after we beat them earlier in the year," Craft said. "We had a lot of opportunities we couldn't convert on, and Royal did a good job scoring on a lot of rebounds. They always seemed to be in the right place at the right time."

After the game, senior Aric Avedissian talked about his final game for OCHS.

"We just came out a little slower than usual," Avedissian said. "We still put it all out there in the second half and gave it our best.

"This is probably the last game of water polo I'll ever play. It's kind of sad, but I don't have any regrets. I've been playing with these guys for a long time, and it's been fun."

The game was also the last for goalkeeper Doug Chespak, who came back strong in '07 after an injury sidelined him his junior year.

"It was great playing with all these guys," Chespak said. "I'll always remember winning at Malibu to win the league championship my sophomore year.

"We were a better overall team this season, and because we played with each other for so long it seemed like we were one mind out there in the pool. We all knew that we had each other's backs."

The seven seniors who played their last game for OCHS were Connor Hall, Samuel Duimovich, Michael Craft, Reardon, Avedissian, Chespak and Nelson.