Tune in to Varsity Sports Network Florida for the final 1-hour season wrap-up show!

One theme that will likely run through these final polls is how I analyze the entire resume, outside of an automatic #1/#2 ranking for the finalists. Quality wins are very important (as measured by relative positioning) and quality losses vs bad losses are also including in my thinking. The higher the ranking, the likely there are quality wins, and you will see that schools that are in the ‘Also Considered’ tend to not have the signature win that gets them ranked.

As usual, there are a lot of A beats B, who then beats C, and when C upsets B it causes deeper analysis. Put on top of that, you have plenty of instances of teams in the Top 10 playing each other three times.

Don’t get too hung up on the records of the teams. The FHSAA ranking system tends to overemphasize Won-Loss record and Strength of Schedule (SOS) is underweighted in my opinion. Other ranking agencies tend to overweight SOS in my opinion, so I’m more inclined to analyze the total resume, as mentioned above.

Lake Mary and Ponte Vedra – I felt they were the two best teams coming into the season, and believed their regional final would likely decide the state title winner, and that’s exactly how it played out. Lake Mary won the regular season game in OT and the regional final by one goal. St Thomas gets the automatic #2 slot due to their finals appearance, but this year it’s a tie at #2 since Ponte Vedra deserves that recognition too.

The next tier includes the threesome of Jupiter, Winter Park and Plant, with the latter two making the Final Four. Jupiter’s resume includes wins over Benjamin (split the season), St Edward’s, SJP II and Oxbridge, and losses to Lake Mary, SA, St Thomas 2x and Benjamin. Winter Park’s resume shows wins over Cardinal Mooney on the road and Vero twice. They lost by one to Bolles, 3 at Lake Mary, 5 to Ponte Vedra and a bad loss to St Thomas in the semifinal. The Bolles and Lake Mary losses are arguably their best results. Plant’s schedule was tougher than WP’s, and includes one goal losses to Benjamin, Jesuit and Cardinal Mooney, plus losses to SA, PV and a bad loss to Lake Mary in the semifinals. The problem with Plant’s year is that the ‘best’ wins were over Steinbrenner, Gulf Coast and Mitchell, and winning one of thsoe close losses would have made a big difference.

If you throw out Nease’s last game of the season, the bracket loss to Ponte Vedra, this is a pretty good year, but how do you ignore that last score? They played PV well in both previous games, have two wins over Creekside and a win over Holy Trinity. They lost to PV 3x, Bolles by 5 and to Pope (Ga).

Steinbrenner lost badly to Plant and only also to Mitchell in the regional semifinal, and ran the table against the rest, but the ‘best’ wins were over Gulf Coast, Mitchell 2x and Newsome. That’s not a great resume compared to who the other teams above them played. Mitchell played a better schedule, but came away with 7 losses, including 2x to Steinbrenner, Plant 2x, Cardinal Mooney, Jesuit and a Georgia team. Their best wins were over Steinbrenner in OT and Newsome, and their last game against Plant was awful.

A number of the next schools have in common a number of losses and are bunched closely together. Bartram Trail went 10-7 and their best wins were over Episcopal, St. Augustine and Oak Hall. They lost to PV, Creekside, Cardinal Mooney, Bolles and Nease. Columbus Catholic went 10-10 against a very tough schedule and their best wins were over Western, Boca Raton and Palmetto 2x, while losing to Oxbridge by 1, Benjamin, Community School, Jesuit, SJP II, Pine Crest, St Thomas (those last 4 in consecutive games!), Gulliver and St Thomas again in the brackets. Win one or two of those and that goes a long way, but not this year.

Vero Beach went 12-7 and their best wins were over Viera 2x and AH-Plantation, while losing to SJP II, SA, Holy Trinity, St Edwards and Winter Park twice. None of those losses were close at the end. Western-Davie went 10-4 and their best wins were over Gulliver by 1 and Spanish River in the brackets. The losses were to Community School, AH-Plantation, Columbus and a bad loss to Jupiter in the regional semifinal. Not a lot to lean on there.

Creekside went 14-6 and the results got better as the season went on, unlike some of the others here. Early losses to Oak Hall, Nease, Forest and PV and then wins over Gulliver, Bartram and Forest, with a one goal loss to Nease and then losing to Lake Mary in the bracket. The only quibble is Bartram being the best win. Viera went 15-7 as their program continues to climb up the state. As with so many here, the close losses were better than the quality wins, which in Viera’s case is Windermere 2x. Vero beat then 2x (one by 1 goal) Holy Trinity beat them by 2. But they also lost to Lake Brantley and Jensen Beach, among others. Like so many, a few more wins against the teams above them would go a long way.

Windermere’s best win was over Newsome, not enough to get much love. Gulf Coast’s best wins were over King’s Academy, Boca Raton in OT and Newsome, while a number of their losses in the second half of the season were not good ones. They did play well against Steinbrenner early in the season.

Too soon for Niceville despite the 14-4 record. St Augustine’s best win was over Episcopal. Forest did win a playoff game against St Augustine.

The theme in 2A is clear . . . close to better results but didn’t quite finish the opportunities. This poll has been traditionally one of the toughest for me and it hasn’t changed this year.

FLN 2023 Boys 2A Final Top 15 Poll!

1) Lake Mary (24-0)

2t) St Thomas (17-4)

2t) Ponte Vedra (16-6)

4) Winter Park (18-4)

5) Jupiter (15-6)

6) Plant (16-6)

7) Nease (15-5)

8) Steinbrenner (17-2)

9) Creekside (14-6)

10) Gulf Coast (15-6)

11) Western-Davie (10-4)

12) Columbus (10-10)

13) Mitchell (16-7)

14) Bartram Trail (10-7)

15t) St Augustine (15-5) / Forest (13-6)

Also Considered:

Viera (15-7) and Vero Beach (12-7)