Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Water Polo Awards End-of-Season Honors
1/28/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Jan. 28, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell men's water polo program recently voted on its team awards and a total of seven squad members were recognized. Senior co-captain Johnny Stupp (St. Louis, Mo./Mary Institute) was awarded the prestigious Scott Schulte Award, the team's highest honor.
Also recognized were junior Richie Hyden (Melbourne, Australia/Greenwich (Conn.)) for Offensive MVP, senior Nick Donahue (Brooklyn, N.Y./Lawrenceville) with Defensive MVP accolades, Coach's Award winner junior Sean Coghlan (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice), sophomore Spencer Richley (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) and junior Paul Reamey (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto), who shared the Most Improved award, and Rookie of the Year Brian Barron (Oak Park, Ill./Fenwick).
The Scott Schulte Award was established to honor the two-time water polo All-American and is presented annually to "the individual who contributes the most to Bucknell water polo". This season, Stupp led the team with 40 steals, and recorded 23 goals and 12 assists. The St. Louis, Mo., native finished his four year career with the Bison with 66 goals and 64 assists. He ranks fifth in career sprints won with a total of 28. Last year, Stupp was honored as Defensive MVP.
Hyden, both the team and the conference Rookie of the Year in 2007, collected his second consecutive Offensive MVP award. The junior, who also earned first-team all-conference honors for a second straight year, tallied a team-high 158 shots and 42 assists this year while registering 53 goals, just three below team leader Howie Kalter (Durham, N.H./Phillips Academy Andover). With 95 points, he led the Bison for a second season in a row. His 69 ejections drawn, a new program record, places him third in the career record books with 129.
Hyden finished the season four goals, one assist, and eight points shy of joining Bucknell's career top-10 lists in those categories. He is on pace to join those lists in 2010, which no player has done since Kevin Permisohn, who was a senior on the 2000 Bison team.
Another repeat winner was goalkeeper and Defensive MVP Nick Donahue, who shared the honor with Stupp last year. Donahue, who also won the 2007 Coaches Award, started 28 of 30 games in goal and was named second-team all-conference by the CWPA. He made a career-high 214 saves and registered a .518 save percentage on the year. The senior finished his career with 474 total saves and a .520 save percentage.
Coach's Award winner Sean Coghlan was one of only two Bison to start in all 31 games this season. The junior also had 34 goals on 75 shots, while tallying 25 assists. In three years at Bucknell, he has accumulated 111 ejections drawn, good for fifth on the Bucknell career list. His 65 ejections drawn this past season were just four short of Hyden's record-breaking total. Coghlan was also named second-team all-conference, giving the Bison three all-conference honorees this year.
Richley saw action in 25 games as a rookie in 2008 and recorded just four goals and seven assists. This past year, he played in each of Bucknell's 31 games, during which he scored 27 goals and dished out 14 assists. Only Hyden, Coghlan, and Kalter had more goals and just four players had more than Richley's 41 points in 2009. The sophomore also registered 16 steals, five of which occurred in a season-high performance against Princeton.
In 2008, Reamey scored only nine goals and three assists in 19 games played. Like Richley, he played in all 31 games for the Bison this past year, notching 24 goals and 19 assists. A native of Palo Alto, Calif., the junior finished 2009 with the fourth-highest points total at 43, just ahead of his Most Improved award co-winner.
Barron shot into fourth place on the career top-10 list for sprints won this past season, securing 39 in 73 attempts. The freshman also saw action in every game and registered 19 goals and seven assists, including a four-goal game against Penn State Behrend. He tallied 13 ejections drawn and 14 steals.
Bucknell finished the season at 17-14, finishing above .500 for the fourth consecutive season. The Bison took fourth place at the Southern Championships this year, as well as third at the Eastern Championship, their best showing since a runner-up finish in 1993.
