FHSAA Season Preview – District 23
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
District 23
District 23 was likely the deepest district in the state last season but last year will be hard to replicate thanks to some upheaval in the coaching positions late in the year. Jensen Beach program builder Matt Sofarelli, also an assistant coach on the Launch staff, has moved on to the Pine School to serve as Athletic Director. Vero Beach coach Rick McCarthy left the lacrosse world for a business opportunity and St. Edwards’ parted ways with long time coach Andy Scheffer. All 5 teams finished at .500 or above and they went 37-15 out of district against pretty good schedules.
Vero Beach is coming off a terrific 15-3 season that saw them finish in the Top 10 in the final polls, including running the table in the district. Vero knocked off both Top 10’s Maclay and Saint Andrew’s away from home and their only losses were twice to Jupiter and a 4OT loss at Boca Raton.
Vero replaced McCarthy with long-time coach John Combs and he will face a more back-loaded schedule featuring second half out of district games with St. Thomas Aquinas, Saint Andrew’s and Jupiter so he will have a pretty good barometer heading into the playoff season where his team stands.
Coach Combs commented on his team:
“Our senior class of Tanner Rymes, Bennett O’Brien, Jamis Davis, Hanson Peirce, Chris Britton, Austin Dupis, Jacob Collins and Austin Cadiere will play major roles for us this season.
Offensively, we look for middies Britton (Lenoir Rhyne), O’Brien and Dupis along with Peirce at attack to anchor the offense along with Juniors Chase Stokes, Wils Tucker and Ryan Overholt on attack. A strong core of Junior Middies will be battling hard for playing time: Alex Houk, Robbie Lykins, Ian Peterson, Max Lindenthel and Shane Duffy.
Defensively, Senior Jacob Collins will anchor the defense along with a strong Junior class: Garret Cooper, Austin Schepers, Harry Wood, Nick Frank and Trevor Bird, with defensive middie Jack Hendrix.
In goal, Juniors Marcus Lantier and Alex Suriano both have looked good in practice.
I think all teams in our district will be very competitive and can beat each other on any given day. The goal for the season is to be competitive in each of our games and hopefully make it to the District Playoffs again. (Author’s note: I think you’ll do a little better than that Coach!)
Jensen Beach comes off an 11-6 season that included a lot of lower scoring grind it out games and three of the losses were by one goal to Vero, Boca Raton and Bishop Moore, keeping Jensen from a higher final ranking. The offense struggled at times and the defense had to stretch themselves to keep the game alive.
New head coach Brent Mahieu takes over the program and has some excellent pieces returning, including Chris Cariello (Florida Southern) 2016 Middie, Jack Staab (Bryant) 2016 Defensive Pole, Landon Salie (Rollins) 2016 Goalie, and Jake Ferguson 2017 Long Stick Middie. Kei Seymour (Tampa) and Matthew Laird (St. Leo) also figure to be in the mix.
Coach Mahieu noted “Our goal is to win all the District games, win Districts, and make the Regional Final. Vero is the team to beat this year, our main rivalry is always Martin County and the most challenging team we will face this year is Oxbridge.”
Martin County was expected to take the next step up but after racing out to a 5-0 start, with wins over Pine Crest and Oak Hall, fell back with three district road losses and finished the season at 10-7, with only a 1-4 district record, barely squeezing into the final district playoff slot. The end of the season left Martin desiring to turn the page and look to find a way to do better within the district. There was no glaring statistical deficiency between goals for and against, just the inability to finish down the stretch.
Coach Justin VanTassel looks to a senior-laden class led by attacker John Senior, Attack/middie Owen Anderson, Goalie Eric Simon (Florida) and LSM Sam Meyerson. Coach VanTassel indicated that Senior has a number of offers but hasn’t chosen yet. He also pointed out that Jensen, Vero and his squad will vie for the district title and that is the goal they have set, as well as looking to win 14 games this season.
St. Edward’s started slowly against a brutal early schedule before ending at 7-7 with 4 straight wins over the teams they were favored to beat. Besides the district they fell to Oxbridge, Benjamin, Jupiter and Saint Andrew’s before bowing to Jensen in the districts.
New head coach Doug Bailey takes over and he will rely on senior goalie Kevin Murphy (Berry), senior long pole Danny Walsh (Mercer), multi-position senior Mason Heim, senior attack/middie Josh Hurwitz, juniors Ritter Marchant and KC Barry, and sophomore Gage Bartosch.
Coach Bailey also commented “There is strong competition in our District. Last year’s champion Vero Beach is probably the early favorite and Jensen Beach has a strong team from what I saw in the scrimmages on Feb 6. I haven’t seen Martin Co. or South Fork yet, so I’m assuming that they are very competitive in this strong top to bottom league. I’m concentrating on us frankly, and hoping that our work together will put us in that upper tier of the mix.
We have a young team, and there is much room for growth. The good news is, our experienced players are learning and building on their ability, and our younger players are growing and developing rapidly. We are specifically building our depth and lacrosse ability, and hope to be able to utilize our new depth later on in the season to help us in key matchups; helping us build into a playoff team that can make a strong run.
Our goals include continuing to grow as a lacrosse team throughout the regular season, secure a playoff spot, and compete for a District Championship in April.”
South Fork found itself in the unfortunate dilemma of being the odd man out, even with their 7-2 out of district record, making them probably the best team not to make the district playoff in the state. Defensively they struggled late in the season as goals against spiked.
Coach Scott Fletcher looks to get off to a fast start this season as his schedule is backloaded.
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Vero Beach is coming off a terrific 15-3 season that saw them finish in the Top 10 in the final polls, including running the table in the district. Vero knocked off both Top 10’s Maclay and Saint Andrew’s away from home and their only losses were twice to Jupiter and a 4OT loss at Boca Raton.
Vero replaced McCarthy with long-time coach John Combs and he will face a more back-loaded schedule featuring second half out of district games with St. Thomas Aquinas, Saint Andrew’s and Jupiter so he will have a pretty good barometer heading into the playoff season where his team stands.
Coach Combs commented on his team:
“Our senior class of Tanner Rymes, Bennett O’Brien, Jamis Davis, Hanson Peirce, Chris Britton, Austin Dupis, Jacob Collins and Austin Cadiere will play major roles for us this season.
Offensively, we look for middies Britton (Lenoir Rhyne), O’Brien and Dupis along with Peirce at attack to anchor the offense along with Juniors Chase Stokes, Wils Tucker and Ryan Overholt on attack. A strong core of Junior Middies will be battling hard for playing time: Alex Houk, Robbie Lykins, Ian Peterson, Max Lindenthel and Shane Duffy.
Defensively, Senior Jacob Collins will anchor the defense along with a strong Junior class: Garret Cooper, Austin Schepers, Harry Wood, Nick Frank and Trevor Bird, with defensive middie Jack Hendrix.
In goal, Juniors Marcus Lantier and Alex Suriano both have looked good in practice.
I think all teams in our district will be very competitive and can beat each other on any given day. The goal for the season is to be competitive in each of our games and hopefully make it to the District Playoffs again. (Author’s note: I think you’ll do a little better than that Coach!)
Jensen Beach comes off an 11-6 season that included a lot of lower scoring grind it out games and three of the losses were by one goal to Vero, Boca Raton and Bishop Moore, keeping Jensen from a higher final ranking. The offense struggled at times and the defense had to stretch themselves to keep the game alive.
New head coach Brent Mahieu takes over the program and has some excellent pieces returning, including Chris Cariello (Florida Southern) 2016 Middie, Jack Staab (Bryant) 2016 Defensive Pole, Landon Salie (Rollins) 2016 Goalie, and Jake Ferguson 2017 Long Stick Middie. Kei Seymour (Tampa) and Matthew Laird (St. Leo) also figure to be in the mix.
Coach Mahieu noted “Our goal is to win all the District games, win Districts, and make the Regional Final. Vero is the team to beat this year, our main rivalry is always Martin County and the most challenging team we will face this year is Oxbridge.”
Martin County was expected to take the next step up but after racing out to a 5-0 start, with wins over Pine Crest and Oak Hall, fell back with three district road losses and finished the season at 10-7, with only a 1-4 district record, barely squeezing into the final district playoff slot. The end of the season left Martin desiring to turn the page and look to find a way to do better within the district. There was no glaring statistical deficiency between goals for and against, just the inability to finish down the stretch.
Coach Justin VanTassel looks to a senior-laden class led by attacker John Senior, Attack/middie Owen Anderson, Goalie Eric Simon (Florida) and LSM Sam Meyerson. Coach VanTassel indicated that Senior has a number of offers but hasn’t chosen yet. He also pointed out that Jensen, Vero and his squad will vie for the district title and that is the goal they have set, as well as looking to win 14 games this season.
St. Edward’s started slowly against a brutal early schedule before ending at 7-7 with 4 straight wins over the teams they were favored to beat. Besides the district they fell to Oxbridge, Benjamin, Jupiter and Saint Andrew’s before bowing to Jensen in the districts.
New head coach Doug Bailey takes over and he will rely on senior goalie Kevin Murphy (Berry), senior long pole Danny Walsh (Mercer), multi-position senior Mason Heim, senior attack/middie Josh Hurwitz, juniors Ritter Marchant and KC Barry, and sophomore Gage Bartosch.
Coach Bailey also commented “There is strong competition in our District. Last year’s champion Vero Beach is probably the early favorite and Jensen Beach has a strong team from what I saw in the scrimmages on Feb 6. I haven’t seen Martin Co. or South Fork yet, so I’m assuming that they are very competitive in this strong top to bottom league. I’m concentrating on us frankly, and hoping that our work together will put us in that upper tier of the mix.
We have a young team, and there is much room for growth. The good news is, our experienced players are learning and building on their ability, and our younger players are growing and developing rapidly. We are specifically building our depth and lacrosse ability, and hope to be able to utilize our new depth later on in the season to help us in key matchups; helping us build into a playoff team that can make a strong run.
Our goals include continuing to grow as a lacrosse team throughout the regular season, secure a playoff spot, and compete for a District Championship in April.”
South Fork found itself in the unfortunate dilemma of being the odd man out, even with their 7-2 out of district record, making them probably the best team not to make the district playoff in the state. Defensively they struggled late in the season as goals against spiked.
Coach Scott Fletcher looks to get off to a fast start this season as his schedule is backloaded.
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