Ricky Kuehn Athlete Profile

It was the fourth quarter of the Varsity Water Polo team’s annual game against Ladue. Clayton was down by five points. With only two minutes remaining, CHS water polo coach Judd Brooks had put in the third string knowing that there was no possibility of a win. However, Ricky Kuehn—the only starter left in the game—rushed down the pool, going in for a goal. After an attempted shot, which was saved by Ladue’s goalie, he was already down on the other end of the pool playing defense before any of his teammates had made it there.

Kuehn, a senior at CHS, has been a four year varsity starter on the water polo team.

Kuehn has played for seven years, starting in fifth grade after moving to Saint Louis. He has a lot of experience with the sport.

Having been a swimmer for much of his life, Kuehn was looking for a change.

“The rigorous training and boring practices [of swimming] pushed me to water polo,” he said.

He was able to transfer his strong swimming abilities to the new game and water polo quickly became his main sport.

Water polo is a physically demanding sport, and the transition from the monotony swimming to the physicality of water polo was a large jump. As Kuehn said, “It’s constant treading and swimming, but you have to fight with other players in the water at the same time. I’ve had to toughen up a lot since I started playing.”

Within the last two years in particular, skills as a state swimmer, high game awarenessand playmaking experience have propelled Kuehn to take on a leadership position on the team.

“Ricky is inspiring to younger members of the team. A big part of that inspiration is his level of play,” Brooks said.

These skills were evident in what Kuehn considers his best game ever, a game against MICDS his junior year. Kuehn had to play half the game as a goalie and half the game on the field due to CHS goalie Jaime Befeler being out. But this did not deter him from the task at hand.
“It was fun playing in the field and in the goal because I felt incredibly responsible for offense and defense. I scored the game-tying and, in OT, the game-winning goal. It was the first time CHS had beaten MICDS in 10 years and was a defining moment for me as a player,” Kuehn said.

With Kuehn as a captain this year, the Varsity Water Polo team has done much better than previous years as they currently sit at eighth place in Missouri. As the most valuable player on the team, Kuehn controls the pool, leading the team to wins. Through his leadership and the team’s hard work, the team recently won the John Burroughs invitational.

“Ricky is versatile, he gets back on defense and runs our offense,” Befeler said.

Brooks enjoyed seeing Kuehn after such significant success.

“Seeing his face, seeing his excitement that we had come so far as a team, that we had won that tournament, he was pretty pumped,” Brooks said.

Kuehn already has plans for the future of both water polo and his schooling.

“Next year I’m going to Wash U. I’ll be playing on their club team that has won the DIII Club National Championship the past three years in a row,” Kuehn said. “I’m really excited to play against other schools in the division.”

“Ricky is dedicated,” Coach Brooks said. “Whatever he does, his schooling, his studies, in the sport. He’s not one to tinker with things, he’s going to give it all he’s got.”