Week 2 is done, but Covid issues still wreck havoc with a few top schools . . . as has FHSAA Winter Sport Final Four runs. Down my way, we now have Jupiter, Oxbridge, SJP II and Boca Raton on the sidelines with contact tracing issues.  I hate to bring politics into it but funny how they all have one thing in common, they reside in the County that made the hanging chad famous . . . We had some fabulous games around the state last week and we already are starting to see some separation between legit title contenders and those lacking a little. We’ve seen some crazy last minute schedule changes too. Top program St. Thomas Aquinas, having lost four games already, made a last minute decision to travel to Naples yesterday to play Community School of Naples.  It was their FIRST game of the year.  They came away with the win but traveling nearly 2 hours each way to find a game is not something most lacrosse hotbeds deal with.  It was an early birthday present for STA Head Coach Terry Crowley, who is one of those rare leap year February 29th birthdays, making him about 14.5 years old officially.  So in another 28 years he will finally be old enough to vote and sip an adult beverage! Another thing that the Palm Beach County clusterbleep has done is allow me to continue my practice of getting to more local schools this season, as the better teams will be backloading schedules, but even that is kind of up in the air.  As I wrote the Benjamin-King’s game a thought came to me about the ‘Unintended Consequences’ that might occur with the FHSAA’s decision to include all schools in their District Playoffs:

If there is no limit on number of games required to make the Districts, why kill yourself the last two weeks with games?  Will Class 1A, District 13, with Saint Andrew’s, SJP II, Oxbridge and King’s Academy, benefit from not playing all their District games?  Right now, only the SA-Oxbridge game has been played, and if tracing issues continue will they decide to dial it back and just prepare for the District, since only one of them goes on? Stay tuned . . . it’s still a fluid situation.

Meanwhile, after going through the scheduled games on MaxPreps I’m left with this week’s likely schedule: Monday – Calvary Christian hosting West Broward at 5pm Tuesday – Benjamin hosting St. Edwards at 7pm in a clash of Top 1A teams Wednesday – Park Vista hosts Spanish River at 7pm Thursday – American Heritage-Delray hosts Western at 6pm Friday – St. Thomas hosts Stoneman Douglas at 7pm Assuming this holds, that will be 21 schools already seen and I’ve yet to see Jupiter or Saint Andrew’s.  Throw in watching games on the NFHS website and I might already will have covered more schools than 2019.  That’s great for me AND the site.  Please let me know if your school streams on NFHS (and otherwise) so when I have a free night I can watch some replays around the state to get a better feel for rankings.   Okay, some good and bad now. First the good . . .  

Null and Void

Those who read the Benjamin-King’s recap or listened to Benjamin HC Peter Cordrey’s post-game interview know that something very special happened Friday night. I witnessed the best goaltending exhibition I’ve seen in my 8 years of watching games.  We’ve had some terrific goalies come through this state who went on to starter status at Division 1 NCAA schools.  None of them pulled off one like Friday and here’s the highlight reel of Tommy Null’s masterpiece (Click on the picture to be taken to the Hudl post):   Thanks to Ray Colaiacovo for editing it quickly for me.  

And Here’s the Bad News:

I received multiple reports of PARENTS ACCOSTING REFEREES after games. I will not release the details right now as the process is ongoing and reports will be sent to the FHSAA Compliance Department. Parents, you need to understand that Gainesville takes this very seriously.  Parents have been banned from attending games and this is one of the quickest ways to do so. I’ll be covering this in greater detail during Morning Coffee this week as details come in. PLEASE STOP MAKING ME COVER THIS!  

Morning Coffee with FLN

This is a new feature we thought of last week and we want to make this a standard Monday through Friday feature during the week.  We’ve been experimenting with the time and we are going to settle on 8:30am to allow us to prepare properly in the morning.  These are Periscope broadcasts that appear live both on the PSCP.TV application as well as on our Twitter feed, FloridaLX.  Replays are found at either location but for most of you it probably is easier on Twitter. The basic broadcast will be recapping last night’s games and the day’s upcoming games, as well as a few topics of discussion.  We are shooting for about 10 minutes per day for now and we’ll see what happens after that.  As Lee’s tech skills improve we would expect to see some innovation on those broadcasts. Here’s one from last week to give you a taste:  

Morning Coffee with FLN – 2/25 https://t.co/u10YLOiDN0

— FloridaLacrosseNews (@FloridaLX) February 25, 2021

We’ve ordered a backdrop so you will be seeing this shortly:   Remember to check in every weekday for Morning Coffee With FLN!   Since we review the scores for Saturday and Friday on Monday, we no longer will recap the previous scores here and that will save us some wear and tear and make these Poll articles a little quicker to read.  Same with the upcoming game schedule since that will also be a feature.  

But we still need to highlight the Underdog Upset of the Week!

And the most interesting result to me was back on Wednesday when Naples upset Barron Collier 9-8.  Whether this holds up as an upset at the end of the season it, needs to be noted that two years ago it was BC by 9 goals (they didn’t play last year but Naples has been under .500 both of the last 2 years). Congratulations to them for the win!  

This Week’s Provider of Lacrosse News:  Twitter’s @LaxNorthFla, known as North Florida Lax!

We are North Florida Lacrosse and we started our Twitter feed because we felt there was a gap in coverage for lacrosse in North Florida by the local media. There was so much coverage on the other sports, and what coverage that was given to lacrosse was focused on a handful of teams, that we felt there was a place for us to promote as much as we could across North Florida. Simply put, our goal is to promote players and programs – there is no commentary or criticism. We work to promote. By North Florida we effectively mean all districts north of Orlando. That includes: 1A – D1, 1A – D2, 1A – D3, 1A – D4, 2A – D1, 2A – D2 and 2A – D3.  While 2A – D4 is not part of our normal cycle, because they have impact on the playoff rounds we will cover those team as we see it. Aside from promoting players and high school programs, we do call out recognition for those players who excel in the club scene as well, but we do not cover or endorse club programs at large. We also highlight any training events or opportunities in which the focus is on training.  

Eric Dobson, @Fleminglacrosse alum, starting for @NDlacrosse! https://t.co/AennBaQPVs

— northfl_lax (@LaxNorthfl) February 27, 2021

  That has resulted in three products. These are all done in conjunction with coach input. We also consider outside products that may highlight player activity. Our end of year “24” list, which includes the top 10 offensive, 10 defensive, 2 face-off specialists, and 2 goalies, who we feel are amongst the best in North Florida. In order to do the “24” list, we do a preseason “24 Watchlist” which is a list of players from as many programs as possible that may be on the end of year list. A player does not have to be on the Watchlist to make the end of year list, but it’s a nice product to get everyone ready for the beginning of the year. Our Weekly Top 10 List. These are products that we do regardless of classification – we don’t break it down because we don’t feel we have enough teams in those areas to do it effectively. That may change over time but for now it is a consolidate grouping.  We are always looking for interested individuals to share scores and push team information. We will tweet and retweet game updates. We are always interested in feedback from coaches. We may not always agree but we have great discussions about the game and that’s what we want. If you are interested in us, please DM us or contact us through our email address: northfl_lax@yahoo.com Keep up the good work!  

MCLA/SELC Is Great Lacrosse!

Now that the MCLA/SELC Season looks to be in jeopardy this is what we will be missing, as seen in this 2019 matchup between South Carolina and Florida State.  Since most of these games are free to attend there’s a worse way to spend a couple of hours.  Note the quality of the play too!     That’s a pretty good way to lead into this week’s Polls! Again, I will pick up the Also-Considered’s starting next week, as the proper rankings are starting to come into better focus.  

Class 1A Poll for 2/28/21

 

1. Saint Andrew’s
2. Benjamin
3. Maclay
4. St. Edward’s
5. Cardinal Mooney
6. Oxbridge
7. Lake Highland Prep
8. Pine Crest
9. Oak Hall
10. Saint John Paul II
11. King’s Academy
12. Canterbury
13. Gulliver Prep
14. Berkeley Prep
15. Bishop Moore

 

Class 2A Poll for 2/28/21

 

1. Ponte Vedra
2. Jupiter
3. Plant
4. St. Thomas Aquinas
5. Winter Park
6. Lake Mary
7. Creekside
8. Newsome
9. Boca Raton
10. Oviedo
11. Riverview-Sarasota
12. Gulf Coast
13. Lake Brantley
14. Stoneman Douglas
15. Wellington