While men’s water polo freshman Ben Zepfel may reign victorious as The Crimson's Athlete of the Week, three other standouts deserve recognition for their excellence this week:

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Harvard men’s water polo coach Ted Minnis is enjoying the recent successes of his team. Through 18 games, the Crimson (12-6, 4-0 CWPA) has amassed a 12-6 overall record and had orchestrated a nine-game winning streak, its first since 2002, before falling at the Bison Invitational to host team Bucknell this past weekend.

But when he’s not focused on helping Harvard to get to its second straight CWPA Eastern Championship, Minnis is busy preparing for the beginning of the Crimson Water Polo Club team season.

The Crimson Water Polo Club team, which starts its season in two weeks, is a United States Water Polo-affiliated club with an enrollment of about 10-14 local youth between the age of 11 and 16. Practices are run Wednesday and Thursday evenings after Harvard varsity practices at either the Blodgett or MAC pools.

This isn’t the first time Minnis has been involved with USWP affiliated club water polo programs.

During his time as an assistant coach for the Stanford women’s club water polo team, Minnis gained valuable insights while working with Stanford women’s water polo head coach John Tanner.

“I came up as a coach through the development side,” Minnis said. “ I very much consider myself a development guy.”

Many of the players on the team come from local prep schools that have interscholastic water polo leagues some coming from as far Acton, Mass., a 40-minute drive away from the Harvard campus.

“We are the only age group water polo team in Boston,” Minnis said. “We’ve been around for about one and a half years now.

The team works on many basic strategies and tactics that Minnis has amassed over his years coaching and playing the sport, and the coach stresses the importance of good role models and solid fundamentals in developing youth.

Although his time commitment to the Harvard varsity water polo programs is significant, the Menlo Park, Calif. native wants to continue to spread his love and passion for water polo to the East Coast.

Minnis commented that he is looking forward to extending the team to accommodate a Masters team that would host college-age and adult-age play.

After weeks of the uncharacteristically warm and beautiful weather, Cambridge skies are back to normal.  The sun is gone, storm clouds loom overhead, and cold winds have led to long days for the brave souls who thought they could wear shorts.  We all knew it couldn’t last forever.  Surprise, freshmen!

If it’s time to bundle up for the winter, that means hockey season is around the corner. Last year, the Harvard men’s hockey team exceeded expectations when it reached the ECAC championship game. They also surprised us with their strong tweets.

We decided to browse Twitter and see how some Crimson skaters are biding their time until the season opener against Bentley University on Oct. 27. These are the tweets that stood out:

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In the second installment of a new weekly series, we break down the ins and out of the Harvard football team. This week, we dissect how Crimson receivers have been getting open against opposing defenses.

Through three weeks of play, senior quarterback Colton Chapple has averaged nearly 10 yards per passing attempt en route to seven touchdowns through the air compared to just one interception. Five receivers have eight catches and over 140 yards thanks to their ability to spread opposing defenders out and find the open space that is sure to come as a result. Even Brown's preseason All-American cornerback A.J. Cruz could not stop the potent Harvard attack.

With his in-depth report of Barack Obama ballin' on the FBI basketball courts, Michael Lewis, who shadowed the President for six months, inspired us to do some digging into Obama’s past pick-up career. Described as “the trash-talker with a left-handed jump shot” by NPR, Obama has now transformed his ‘trash-talk’ into some of the most eloquent speeches given in American history. Will Obama’s loud mouth come out in his upcoming debates against Mitt Romney? What other parts of his game has the Commander in Chief incorporated into his presidency?

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