2014 FHSAA Season Preview! The “South” Bracket Districts 31 & 32
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
See District 1&2 See District 3&4 See District 5&6 See District 7&8 See District 9&10 See Districts 11&12 See Districts 13&14 See Districts 15 & 16 See District 19 & 20 See Disttricts 21 & 22 See Districts 23&24 See Districts 25 & 26 See Districts 27 & 28 See Districts 29 & 30
The South Bracket includes the schools from the Sarasota/Bradenton area through South West Florida and over to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. Big contenders to advance out of this bracket include St. Thomas Aquinas, Columbus Catholic,and Barron Collier. Gulliver Prep is certainly going to be in the conversation as well.
Columbus Catholic had a tremendous season in 2013 going 19-3 and making it to the third round of the playoffs before dropping a 16-11 decision to St. Andrews. Columbus graduated 16 seniors but will still be the team to beat in this district.
They have a very good senior F/O specialist in Jimmy Perry. On attack senior Michael Bulnes is a big presence and can shoot well. He will work with another returning senior Alec Carreras. A great starting midfield will consist of Sebastian Cancio, Cody Brais, and Nick Quintairos who are all returning seniors. Don’t be surprised to see the Explorers running up to four full midfield lines as they still have that kind of depth.
Defensively look for Brett Jacobs and senior LSM Matt Larrea to get the job done.
Ransom Everglades and Gulliver Prep are sure to renew their rivalry this season. These two teams split last year with Gulliver winning the regular season match up but Ransom winning when they met in the district playoffs.
Gulliver will be led by three athletes who are headed to the next level. Pierce Bailey- Attack (Goucher), Jojo Rousseau– Midfield (Connecticut College), and Geno Mayans- Midfield (Regis.)
Belen Jesuit is ramping up the program and shaking up the coaching staff. Alan Bellando has taken over the role of head coach after assisting at Belen last season. He was an assistant coach at Saint Andrews for 5 years and before that Head coach at Coral Reef High School for three years. He will certainly look to bring some of Saint Andrews’ winning ways back down to Miami. “I’m lucky enough to have one on the greatest players to ever come out of the state Florida as my offensive coordinator in Matt Bellando,” he said. He has also added to the staff his other son, Joseph Bellando. Joseph was the 2008 Dade County Player of the year at Coral Reef.
The Wolverines return two starters at attack. Senior Patrick Arroyo and junior Michel Abud. The also return a good portion of the midfield in Seniors Kevin Pasqual, Billy Candela, Michael Chang, EJ Cosculluela and George Powell.
Defenseivley, they return all the starters from last season, Oscar Villa (Sr.) , Alex Adams (Sr.) , and Oscar Ortega (Soph.) Sophomore goalie Matt Salas has the potential to be one of the best goalies in Miami.
When asked about the district this season Coach Bellando said, “Columbus is still the team to beat in the district, very strong at the midfield and great coaching in Jim Delang.”
The Belen Jesuit players and coaches are looking forward to the March 21 trip to Tampa. “We are traveling to Tampa to play in the Jesuit Lacrosse Classic, we will be playing against Strake Jesuit (Texas), St. Ignatius (Illinois),
and St.Louis University (Missouri).”
“This is also the first year we will be playing at our school. We would like to thank the Hernandez Family for generously donating funds to build a state of the art (artificial turf) Lacrosse and Soccer field. The field is called The ‘Hernandez Family Field'”
At Miami Country Day keep an eye on Jordan Karp, an accomplished lacrosse player who can finish, but is also contributing his time and energy to his inner city lacrosse program. Sam Cohen, Alex Hansen, and Austin Weinberg are also expected to have standout seasons for the Spartans.
Immaculata-LaSalle (4-11 in 2013 is also in the district.
District 32
Miami Palmetto won this district in 2013 but lost in the first round to Columbus 20-7. No team in this district had a winning overall record last season.