See District 1&2 See District 3&4 See District 5&6 See District 7&8 The Central-North Bracket features Districts 9 – 16.  This bracket is going to be very interesting for two reasons.  One, as always, it features two of the state’s top programs in Lake Highland Prep and Lake Brantley.  But the addition of the Tampa area teams brings a solid element of the unknown.  Longtime readers of the site will remember the transition of the South Florida clubs into the FHSAA.  Both Jupiter and Benjamin did quite well right out of the box.  Now we are looking for teams like Wharton and Plant to give last year’s Tampa area powerhouse, Tampa Jesuit, a solid run.  But nobody really knows until they take the field. District 9

Lake Brantley will roll through this district and move on to play the winner of District 10.    Just like last season Lake Brantley won’t really tip their hand until the end of the season when they play Lake Highland Prep, Lake Mary, Centennial (GA), and Ponte Vedra in a two week stretch.  They have some tough games through the first part of the season playing Bishop Moore, Hagerty, and Winter Park, but that is going to be a tough stretch to finish the regular season. The Patriots graduated a ton of depth last season and will need to replace some solid players like Max Preddy, Austin Sopp, Sam Rock,  Caleb Ross, and the Layden brothers but they still have some serious star power.  Tim Gehlbach (NC) is  arguably the top middie in the state and a bigger faster Jared Bernhardt is back for his sophomore year.  He is going to be a big problem for most of the defenses he encounters this season.  Hiram Carter (Navy) is back and should have a huge senior season on the defensive side of the field.  These three players are in any conversation about the best players in Central Florida at their respective positions.

Apopka finished second in this district last season, losing to Brantley 24-2 in the championship game.  A relatively light schedule should lead to another winning season for the Blue Darters. Lyman looks like a team who has begun a rebuilding process.  They have Luke Harper on attack.  Harper is a good looking sophomore who will score some goals this season.  He will be joined on attack by a pair of seniors; John Damasceno and Trey Sifrit.  They will get some leadership on defense from senior  Jacob Gouty who will head up defensive unit that also features sophomore Trevor Vanorman and Chris Culhane, a senior.  Top Midfielder for the Greyhounds this season should be another young player, sophomore Trevor Dierkes. First year head coach J.R. Rozier knows that he’s got some work ahead but feels they have a good start.  “This year will be a year to change the culture of the program. Our previous coach left a great foundation for us to build on. We just have to become more disciplined this year and change the attitude of the program.” Wekiva finished the 2013 at a respectable 8-9.  New head coach Sean Gleason has put together a somewhat more challenging schedule and we are looking forward to seeing how the Mustangs respond. District 10

This district reunites two of Seminole County’s top tier programs.  Hagerty made it all the way to the State Quarter Finals last season before dropping a tough 8-4 contest to eventual State Champs Lake Highland Prep.  The Huskies graduated a lot of scoring last season and will be looking for some new guys to step up this year to keep it rolling. Oviedo didn’t make it out of a district last year which included a strong, fast Winter Park team.  The Lions were knocked off 11-9 in the district championship.   These two teams played once last year and Hagerty came out on top 17-14.   This one is too close to call.  We think Hagerty is going to be “re-loading” a little bit this year and Oviedo will be a little stronger than they were last year but it’s going to be a tough hard fought District Championship battle.  The winner of which will have to lick their wounds and get ready for Lake Brantley on a short turn around.

Hagerty has some solid senior leadership including Conner Knaresboro. Conner is an exclellent  F/O middie with ability to push in transition as well as the ability to dodge to score. The Huskies have Jacob Collins and Kevin Collins, two senior attackmen.  Jacob posseses a great ability to push to cage from X and feed the ball.  Kevin is the highest returning goal scorer and is an excellent finisher.  Senior leadership on the defensive end will come from Sam Hapgood. Sam is one of the best on ball defenders in the area and can create a lot of transition goals. Oviedo’s top player this season will be Dakota Dunmire.  The very accomplished lefty can be dangerous from the low attack and can dodge from the top as well.  He is headed to Monmouth next season.  Dakota will team up with an absolute beast of a middie named Logan Smith.  Smith is a 6’2” linebacker on the Oviedo Lions Football team and he is also a very good lacrosse player. Rylan Kortus will continue to be a consistent and dependable scorer for the Lions as well.  The Lions will be challenged defensively this year and much of their success will depend on how well they tighten up that end of the field.

Trinity Prep has just not been able to get over the hump and break out to the level they should be able to.   The Saints will take the field this year with the second new head coach in as many years in Austin Ricci.  But he has done a great job with this group of players through the off-season and they have been conditioning hard.  They have an upper tier player in John Michael Night who should lead this team in scoring as a sophomore.  Adam Hale is a sophomore with a ton of experience and junior Marshall Trier is a tall lefty threat who can play and score goals as a D-pole or up on attack.  They have three seniors on the squad this year and 19 sophomores and freshmen.  With a robust middle school program in place the future of lacrosse at Trinity Prep looks great, however this may not be their year. Lake Howell will struggle this season and have canceled their JV season.  However,  Austen Ayoub and Croix McGee are expected to lead the team and should have strong senior seasons.