Great Day of Lacrosse. Jackets 7 – Conchs 2. Thank you Key West for your hospitality. @ConchLacrosse @LaxNorthfl @FloridaLX #GrowTheGame #laxbros pic.twitter.com/gVT4sKq067

— Saint Augustine High School Lacrosse (@stauglax) March 17, 2019

Take a GOOD LOOK at this tweet. If the kids, after playing a PHYSICAL, COMPETITIVE athletic contest can get together after the game and have a good time, so can EVERYONE ELSE who attends the contest. It will make the experience a lot better for everyone involved.   Last Week’s Top 25 Poll 1) Oxbridge – road wins over Saint Andrew’s and Bishop Moore and the home win over Jupiter 2) Jupiter – someone else has to prove they can beat the Warriors too.  So far it’s been only Oxbridge and SA the last 2 seasons and they already avenged SA twice 3) Ponte Vedra – Lambert is the real deal in the South 4) St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesday they look to send a message 5) St. Andrew’s – looks like they are getting it together 6) Cardinal Mooney – they showed well in a tough atmosphere 7) Plant – maybe a little too high but they are doing what they need to right now 8) Lake Highland Prep – the road loss to STA was not a bad sign at all 9) Bishop Moore – huge road win over Benjamin, will they continue to improve? 10) Creekside – Friday at Jesuit is all of a sudden a must-attend game . . . 11)  Jesuit of Tampa – for both sides 12) American Heritage-Plantation – On Tuesday they also want to send a message 13) Oak Hall – unfortunately the schedule does not look as good as it was over the summer 14) Benjamin – just like Bishop Moore they have to earn their way back to Top 10 and Tuesday would be a great way to do it 15) Lake Mary – righting the ship 16) Newsome – Plant loss doesn’t cost them anything, a great showing . . . and the schedule is better this year 17) Lake Brantley – a bit of a mystery to me but trending in the right direction. 18) Riverview-Sarasota – a one-goal win over Canterbury gives them upward movement 19) Winter Park – is the Bishop Moore win the only hat to hang on this season?  We’ll see. 20) Belen Jesuit – solid effort against Cardinal Mooney, we’ll see how they react to a loss 21) Melbourne Central Catholic – needs to keep winning 22) First Academy – kind of stuck for now and needs to keep winning 23) Steinbrenner – impressive start but a weaker schedule until Plant late keeps them kind of capped 24) Providence School – just going along 25t) Canterbury School – three straight one-goal games and finally it caught up to them 25t) Gulf Coast – taking care of business, but the schedule on MaxPreps keeps them pretty capped too   Also Considered: Berkeley Prep, Boca Raton, Bolles, Boone, Fleming Island, Gulliver Prep, Hagerty, Martin County, Montverde Academy, Out-of-Door Academy, Oviedo, St. Edward’s, Stoneman Douglas, Viera, Western,  Windermere High   A Mea Culpa When I looked at last week’s poll, as I have to do every week, I currently have to rely on the MaxPreps.com game results to come up with the data I need to do this poll.  Berkeley Prep unfortunately had not updated their schedule on the site and I missed a significant result that would have greatly altered the positioning of both Berkeley and Jesuit of Tampa.  Berkeley Prep has now updated their full schedule and I will be ranking them consistent with their performance so far, while also adjusting Jesuit’s place. There likely will be another incident like this at some point.  For example, I don’t think Gulf Coast has all their games listed and the ones they do have them at 5-0, and that will make it harder to be comfortable with where they truly are.  I do not have the time to utilize a number of websites to piece this all together.  Inside Lacrosse is also trying to get full information but it isn’t there either.  Two new operations are FanLax and LaxNumbers, each looking to replicate the LaxPower approach.  LaxNumbers seems to be getting close to fully updating available results but it is not complete yet. So, don’t be surprised if this happens again this year, even with my best efforts. And coaches, one more time, UPDATE your MaxPreps.com schedules, rosters (makes it easy for me to do game recaps for your programs) and make sure someone with the program updates the scores.  The final MaxPreps.com rankings in the state currently requires 15 games to make the cut.   A Look Back – 10 Years Ago Last Week     Why is this tape interesting?  Because it showed Olympic Heights in Boca Raton playing varsity lacrosse. After a significant period of time without the sport, Olympic Heights has re-started a Club team and hopes to evolve back into varsity status. Long-time fans will recognize some of the last names in this video! I’ve been kept up to date by contacts within the scope of the program about how the pathway to getting this far was replete with, shall we say, some impediments.  But the new Principal is a fan of growing this sport and paved the way.  I hope she attends the state championships this year across town . . . I’ll even buy her the ticket! But the persistence of those who desired this sport to bloom again won the day and he we are, ten years later, with lacrosse at Olympic Heights. Sean Zipper scored the first goal in ‘modern’ Olympic Heights history for new Head Coach Brian Lejeune. Let’s hope this time there is never a ‘last goal’.   St. Joseph Academy Another new program this year is St. Joseph Academy up by St. Augustine.  I met the new Head Coach, Matt McCord, at an event in Palm Coast during the winter months (yes, I actually had to wear long pants one day) and we talked quite a bit about the new program.  His program is jumping right in with both feet and has already garnered the respect of his peers in the area. And although this is the first season and his club is in Independent status, they already have their first win over a varsity program!  On March 6th they defeated Atlantic Coast 16-3, so congratulations to them! Coach McCord is keeping some notes and we will be publishing his insight into the building of this first year team!   Our First Intermission . . . and since it’s St. Patrick’s Day . . . At first I was going to play a St. Pat’s song but when I checked up on some of those I couldn’t inflict that on anyone who might have recently dined . . . So instead let’s go with something a little more high brow, the final performance of Riverdance by Michael Flatley!     Key Games From Last Week   Monday the 11th Bolles 14-12 over Oak Hall   Tuesday the 12th Berkeley Prep 9-5 over Alonso Providence 8-6 over Nease Fleming Island 12-7 over Buchholz Benjamin 12-10 over Jupiter SJP II 9-8 over Martin County King’s Academy 15-4 over Calvary Christian St. Thomas Aquinas 11-7 over American Heritage-Plantation Oviedo 10-8 over Winter Park   Wednesday the 13th First Academy 9-8 over Edgewater   Thursday the 14th Dwyer 8-7 over Martin County Jupiter 11-10 over Episcopal School of Dallas Hagerty 14-6 over Oviedo Oxbridge 14-8 over Saint Andrew’s Bishop Moore 19-1 over Bolles   Friday the 15th Maclay 15-14 over Montverde Academy American Heritage-Plantation 10-5 over University School Ponte Vedra 16-6 over Lake Highland Prep Out-of-Door Academy 10-4 over Canterbury Cardinal Mooney 11-6 over Lakewood Ranch Pine Crest 8-6 over Stoneman Douglas Saint Andrew’s 9-7 over SJP II Oak Hall 17-4 over West Florida Episcopal School of Dallas 13-5 over Benjamin   Saturday the 16th St. Edward’s 13-3 over Maclay Boys’ Latin 16-9 over Oxbridge West Florida 9-6 over Buchholz Creekside 11-4 over Tampa Jesuit St. Thomas Aquinas 18-5 over Viera King’s Academy 8-5 over Lake Brantley Ponte Vedra 10-3 over Episcopal School of Dallas   And now a word from our Sponsor . . .      Okay, now back again!

Lee’s Useless Pop Culture Trivia!

This one is a simple question, and the answer will be found at the bottom of the story: What former Florida Launch player had a role in the lacrosse movie Crooked Arrows? And speaking of movies, how many of you know about the Disney flick Invisible Sister and it’s Florida lacrosse connection? Well, here it is . . .

Area prep lacrosse players part of Disney movie

Published 10:21 p.m. CT Oct. 13, 2015 by Bill Vinola of the Pensacola News Journal Excerpt:

Carlee Costello, the Gulf Breeze High girls lacrosse team coach, was hired by Walt Disney productions as a consultant for Disney Channel movie, “Invisible Sister.”

Costello, founder of the LaxChix traveling team, helped train Hollywood stars Rowan Blanchard and Rachel Crow as well as stunt actors in fundamentals of lacrosse. She was responsible for eight scenes in the film, which first aired Oct. 9 and will be on the Disney Channel throughout this month.

The film includes members of the Gulf Breeze and Pensacola High girls lacrosse teams, who traveled to New Orleans last March during their spring break for four days of filming.

“For the girls, it was so exciting for them,” Costello said. “We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown (across from Mercedes-Benz Superdome). We were in the same hotel with all the Hollywood people, all the people in the moving. When the girls learned who was directing the movie, they had seen so many of his movies growing up. That added to it.

The link to the article is HERE     The Underdog Upset Of The Week This one didn’t take that long to think about. Even though the program has shown remarkable growth this season Oviedo’s 10-8 win over Winter Park has to be recognized due to Winter Park’s earlier upset over Bishop Moore early in the season.   Out of State Caravan Continues   Episcopal School of Dallas has finished their Florida swing and now the MIAA is in the middle of theirs. Boys’ Latin, Loyola Blakefield, Gonzaga and St. Pauls are all in town. TRY to catch one of those teams even if they are not playing you. And coaches, if you can, take your team to one of these if you have an off-night and have one of these teams in your area. Bullis is also on the way. These are some of the top programs in America. Don’t waste the opportunity.   Readers from last season remember that I highlighted a music video for Surf Music last season. Today the Surf Music world lost the man considered ‘The King of the Surf Guitar’, Dick Dale. Here’s a taste of him playing Pipeline with Stevie Ray Vaughan:     Okay, before we get to the new Top 25 let’s remember another sponsor   If you are downtown in Boca after 6:30pm, 7 days a week, or even if you are suddenly driven by the desire to hop in your car and drive 3 hours to the location, here’s Boca’s hottest new dessert place . . . really, the only place you get FRESH, MADE TO ORDER, baked goods and sweets!  Take your date, your parents, heck, even your dog . . . they even DELIVER within a couple of miles!    

Let’s not forget the important hash tags . . .  #TAFTAG #LacrossePutMyButtInThisSeat #GrowTheGame #LayOffTheRefs and now we add #SportsmanshipRocks which also leads us to #EnjoyTheGameNotTheBlame!

 

Okay, here we go. 

And note that I had to drop some teams back to the Also Considered category even if they didn’t lose because teams in that category had impressive weeks and deserved the ranking more based on the whole season to date.

Don’t gnash your teeth too much, there’s plenty of time left in the season for all this to figure itself out . . . there’s about 30-35 teams I could easily put in the Top 25 this week.

  Triple Crown Sports/FLN Weekly Top 25 Poll for the Week Ending 3/17/2019 1) Oxbridge – still the best in-state 2) Ponte Vedra – great win over Episcopal and a big takedown of LHP 3) Saint Andrew’s – this is almost by default since Jupiter lost twice and they do have the win over CM 4) Cardinal Mooney – Sticks for Soldiers this weekend, hope they fill the house over there! 5) St. Thomas Aquinas – solid team that played a bad first half in their loss 6) Jupiter – Two straight losses versus the Episcopal win . . . probably too low but there’s always next week’s poll and the way this season is going . . . 7) Bishop Moore – Looks like they’ve righted the ship 8) Benjamin – Someone call the Exorcist, I can’t figure them out, maybe the occult could help do so? 9) Creekside – Right now the only team in the Northeast that is within any sort of reach of PV, only loss out of state 10) Plant – fell a little due to not playing a tough game while others that slipped by them beat one 11) American Heritage-Plantation  – Solid effort against STA, the gap is narrowing 12) Lake Highland Prep – Between them and Benjamin the drug stores will run out of Tums 13) Hagerty – the Lake Brantley loss seems like a long time ago right now 14) Lake Mary – Coach Robinson told me before the season the young pups need to blossom, it seems they are starting to.  STA comes to town Tuesday 15) Newsome – I really wish their district/area would step up more 16) Berkeley Prep – Sorry for last week’s snub! 17) Riverview-Sarasota – Slowly making their way up 18) Belen Jesuit – this weekend will be a fiesta!  But they will need a top 25 win at some point. 19) Boone – just one of the best programs in the state if your time horizon goes back a ways 20) King’s Academy – the Lake Brantley road win really signals another step up 21) St. Edward’s – I’ve been waiting for them to get a big scalp, they really handle the teams they should very well 22) First Academy – doing what they can right now 23) Oak Hall – they need a big win 24) Melbourne Central Catholic – after watching the STA-Viera game I need to see some sort of a good win to take them up and others will be able to pass them from below 25t) Out-of-Door Academy – big win over Canterbury 25t) Oviedo – cop out city . . . 25t) Winter Park – on my part   Also Considered: Jesuit of Tampa, Lake Brantley, Western, Providence School, Canterbury School, Steinbrenner, Boca Raton, SJP II, Gulliver Prep, Gulf Coast, Pine Crest   And the answer to the trivia question is: Roman Lao-Gasney!