Author’s Note:  We are still missing Newberry High and Trinity Catholic.  We will add those if we receive them.

  District Three The bad news here is that it looks like PK Yonge has dropped their lacrosse program, after 11 wins last season. The good news is that there are two new varsity programs in the District in Forest and Trinity Catholic (as an aside, that makes FOUR schools in the state with the name Trinity in the name . . . hmmm). More good news is that there are two high end programs in the district in Oak Hall and Buchholz, the bad news is that the rest of the District has not caught up to them. Third place PK Yonge lost the two regular season games to those two teams by a combined 38-2. Long time coach Wayne Macuirzynski has come aboard at Santa Fe so let’s see if that school can start to take strides for future competitiveness. But right now it’s still a 2-team race. Oak Hall took a comfortable road win in the regular season over Buchholz during a breakout year that saw them crack my Top 10 but Buchholz turned the tables with the District championship upset. That upset was the more surprising given that Buchholz’s only ‘good’ win in the regular season was over Creekside and some losses were pretty bad. But that’s why you keep score. Let’s see if Oak Hall can get over the hump and do some damage in the FHSAA brackets.  I suspect it will be their year in this District.     District Playoff Oak Hall over Gainesville 18-0 and Buchholz over P.K. Yonge 19-5 Buchholz Over Oak Hall 8-5   Team Name: Buchholz Bobcats Head Coach’s Name: Casey Adams  Who are your leading returning players?   Evan Vogel – Senior Midfield / Player of the Year 2017 -1st Team All-Area . . . 13G, 141GB, 170 Face off Wins (78%) McKinley Peter – Junior Defense – 2nd Team All-Area . . . 29GB, 11 Caused Turnovers Tanner Merritt – Senior Long-stick Midfielder – 2nd Team All-Area . . . 5G, 22GB, 15 Caused Turnovers Philip Evans – Junior Attack – 2nd Team All-Area . . . Started as a Sophomore all year in 2017. Austin Neal (Transfer from PK)- Senior Attack – 2nd Team -All-Area Evan Cloutier(Transfer from PK) – Junior Defense – 2nd Team All-Area  

  Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? Cam Banks – Sophomore Goalie Graham Denault – Sophomore Midfielder What are your realistic goals for the season? We want to play fast. With 15 seniors graduating in 2017, we can’t afford to be slow. We want to see players caring more about getting the Assist, than Goal. What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? Oak Hall (District 3) is always highlighted on our schedule. Creekside and Fleming Island are great games and a lot of fun for us. Awesome programs with excellent coaching. What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Without a doubt: Jaxon Lamb – Oak Hall, Thad Spiker – Oak Hall and Alex Spiker – Oak Hall I truly believe that these three student-athletes should be All-Americans for North Central Florida.   Team Name:  Oak Hall School Head Coach’s Name:  Jonathan Montes Who are your leading returning players?   Thad Spiker (2018)  Defense, – Villanova, 2017, US Lacrosse All America, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Alex Spiker (2018) Defense – Villanova, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Trey Saunders, (2018) Defense – Florida Southern, Honorable Mention Gainesville Sun Jaxson Lamb (2018) Midfield – 38g, 22a, High Point U., 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Jacob Hicks (2018) Attack/Midfield – 52g, 7a, 74% Faceoff, 106 GBs, Mount St. Mary’s, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Chris Keel (2018) Midfield – 54g, 25a, 104 GBs, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Ryan O’Leary (2019) – Attack/Midfield – 17g, 43a, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun Kyle Cox, (2019)- Attack – 21g, 36a, 1^st Team Gainesville Sun     Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? Ben Moraski (2021) Attack Connor Clarke (2020) Midfield Jackson Ryan (2020) Defense/LSM Romer Kohlhaas (2020) Midfield/Attack Jacob Limon (2021) Defense/LSM Shayne Ryan (2021) Goalie What are your realistic goals for the season?  We feel we have the talent to get into the final 8 but we have to beat some very well coached and talented teams to do so.   What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? There are 2 rivals in our program. Buchholz HS:   Having Buchholz down the road from us creates a natural rivalry.  From a player perspective, most guys at both schools come from the same zipcodes – and neighborhoods in many cases.  Many of them grew up playing youth ball together and/or rec and club ball.  From a coaching perspective:  Our coaching staffs coach together during the summer/fall with the Florida Generals so we know and like those guys Casey Adams has assembled at BHS.  We’ve won the districts 6 times and they clipped us last year in the district championship game.  We won the 1^st match up last season and they won the last.  We want to win them both. Maclay School:  They have had some great teams over the years and probably haven’t gotten as much credit for the talent and teams they’ve had because they are from the north part of the state.  We’ve struggled against them for a few years now but we were able to beat them last season.  I think that helped fuel the fire. Maclay will always be in the conversation if you plan to advance in states from our region so being two private schools with similar enrollments and missions, it’s a rivalry from jump street. What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Evan Vogel, BHS, Faceoff, Daniel Grow, Forest HS, Attack and Phillip Evans, BHS, Attack   Team Name: Gainesville High School Head Coach’s Name: Evan Milch  Who are your leading returning players?   J.T. Hayes (Attack/Midfield) junior, last year, he was all-area 2^nd team with 20 goals and 10 assists Andrew Storch (Defense), Senior, 2^nd team last year with 8 takeaways and 68 ground balls. Greg Sulander (Goalie), Junior, he has made major strides this offseason and is back and better than ever Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? N/A  

  What are your realistic goals for the season? Compete with every team we play. Make it to the District semi-final. What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? Eastside is always a fun matchup. It’s one of those games where the records are thrown out and it comes down to who wants it more. What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Evan Vogel, Buchholz, Jackson Lamb, Oak Hall and Tanner Merrit, Buchholz   Team Name: Eastside Rams Head Coach’s Name: Brian Mooney Who are your leading returning players?  RJ Rooney, Goalie, Sr.: A great leader and All-Area Honorable Mention 2017. 3^rd season as the team’s starting goalie. Sam Long, Attack, Jr.: Rising Junior, was All-Area Honorable Mention 2017, and led the team in goals last season. Sheldon Hardy, Midfield, Jr.: Rising Junior, was All-Area Honorable Mention 2017. He is a two sport star at EHS playing both Lacrosse and Football. Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? Will Bullard, Attack, So.: Will is a very aggressive attackman with a very strong shot, that will complement our other attackman’s skills very well. Todarius Sumpter, Defender, So.: “TD” will be the anchor of this team’s defense. Lincoln Weaver, Defender, So.: Lincoln hit the weights this offseason and it shows, he’s a long, strong, skilled defender that will see lots of time as one of our main poles. Kentavious Johnson, LSM/Midfield, So.: “KJ” is one of the more versatile players we have, he will see time at, defense, midfield, and possibly face-off at times.     What are your realistic goals for the season? Our goal for this season is to build a strong foundation for this program to grow off of, and a great step in that direction would be making the district playoffs this season. What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? Gainesville and Newberry. What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Evan Vogel, Buchholz, Midfield, Sr.: A great face-off player that gets Buchholz a lot of possessions and last year’s “Player of the Year” definitely makes him a player to watch. Thad & Alex Spiker, Oak Hall, Defenders, Sr.: Both D1 commits to Villanova, both very athletic defenders. Andrew Storch, Gainesville, Defender, Sr.: A under the radar great defender, “Storch” is a great leader with a vicious poke check, looking forward to competing against him.   Team Name:   Santa Fe “Raiders” Head Coach’s Name: Wayne “Coach MAC” Macuirzynski Who are your leading returning players?   Seth Grieve (Defense long pole), Alec Grieve (Off Middy), Hunter Phillips (Goalie) Brenden Guile (Defensive long pole), Britian Ashley (Attack). Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? Luke Lower (Attack) What are your realistic goals for the season? Our goal as a second year program is to have several wins against District 3 teams What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? Newberry High School What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Evan Vogel (Buchholz), Spiker brothers (Oak Hall) and Hunter Phillips (Goalie, Santa Fe)   Team Name: Forest High School Head Coach’s Name: Kyle Strausser Who are your leading returning players?    Cade Hightower (39g 11a), Jared Grow (34g 16a), Chris Gilman (21g, 28a), Will Holland (25g, 11a), Josh Austin (65.9 save pct), Josh Gilman (16g, 14a, 68% FO pct.) *All stats are from Florida Gulf Coast Lacrosse League play last season*  

  Are there any underclassmen that you expect to step up and contribute right away? Max Blessing (Jr), Braeden Forrest (Fr), Drew Flagg (Fr)  

  What are your realistic goals for the season? Making in impact in our district right away. Giving ourselves the chance at post season play. What game or two do you point to as something special, like a long-lasting rivalry? Trinity Catholic is an automatic rival, as they are the only other high school team in Marion County. As a first year program we look forward to battling in our district to develop “rivals”.     What 3 players in your District that don’t play for your school are the ‘players to watch’? Unfortunately, this is where we are at a loss. We have not had the chance to play any other high school teams before this upcoming season.   As mentioned, when we receive Newberry and Trinity Catholic we will add them!