It was a long weekend for St. Thomas Aquinas, but perhaps a valuable one, as the Kansas City-area school lost both games on their short trip to Colorado.
On Saturday, Regis Jesuit defeated the Saints 32-14, and on Sunday East HS did the same, 32-14.

“East and Regis were both very good hosts and I think it was a positive experience,” said STA Head Coach Tim Kluempers. “We had a nine-hour bus ride back home, got in at 2am Monday morning, the guys went to school, and we had practice after school and everyone showed up, so we must be doing something right.”

Of course, there’s a game to be played Tuesday, also.

“We learned a lot,” said Kluempers. “We played a structured game but we also need to learn to play against a structured opponent, and they were both good teams. We put Regis under a lot of pressure, and in the first half they crossed halfway just once, when we made a bad pass and they picked it up and scored. We just couldn’t punch it in.”

That, said the coach, is down to tactical awareness, which the players will figure out.

“Both teams kicked a lot against us, something we don’t see in the Kansas league anywhere near as much,” said Kluempers. That forced Aquinas to vary their game, too, which the coach was happy to see.

“What we also learned from was the refereeing,” said Kluempers. “We had Tim Luscombe on Sunday and having a national panel ref working the game was really beneficial to us. At the high-level high school games you have to have those high-level refs.”