District 26 This district fell off a little last season as Boca Raton’s season slid in the second half and St. John Paul II showed lots of inconsistency.  Spanish River was probably the best 3-win team in the state’s history and West Boca showed some major growth signs.  And now you can add in to the mix the return of Jeff Goldberg to the district as the FHSAA played matchmaker.  Should be a fun season to watch!  Saint Andrew’s regained their mantle and after seeing some practices Friday night it looks like we are going back to the future.  But the battle at the bottom for the last playoff slot or two will be intense as this is probably the deepest district in the state this season.  

  Saint Andrew’s made it back to the Final Four with a second half surge before running into a buzz-saw in St. Thomas, but the second half of the season was a harbinger.  Wins over Lake Highland, Jupiter and Benjamin followed by a playoff run through Stoneman, Oxbridge and Jupiter again showed that the program was back on track.  The turnaround came on both sides of the ball as a new zone scheme/format on defense gave a look that other high schools were not used to playing against and the offense picked up a good deal over the 2014 outage that occurred against the better squads. Coach Tony Seaman enters his second season and his squad looks poised to make a run at a potential state title.  The staff highlighted the following players: Conlan O’Hara , Senior, D/LSM *Captain*.  Conlan is the leader of our team. Always gives his best effort, and pushes his teammates to be better. Excels in transition game and can ignite our offense as well. Davis Diamond, Senior, M *Captain*.  Our offensive creator who will be looked to for more goal production this year. Has assumed a great leadership role within the offense and makes those around him better.     Brian Fox, Senior, M *Captain*.  Hard working and selfless. He’s the type of player that does not demand the ball, but always makes plays. Nick Diamond, Senior, Attack *Captain*.  Nick does all of the little things for us. He creates offense in our riding game. Understand what it takes to be a successful teammate and leads by example. Gable Braun, 8th, F/O M – He is a truly special talent. After graduating an All American in Alex Newhouse, we expected a possible decline at the X. That is not the case. Gable is skilled and knowledgeable at the faceoff X. Nick Iznaga, Junior, Attack – Big goal scorer who has all the tools. Was instrumental in out late season surge. Nick has matured as a player and will be expected to carry a heavy offensive load for us. The staff noted the following: “We have attempted to build the toughest schedule possible, so every game matters. Within the district, all teams return solid talent and will be competitive.  We get to play against Naples powerhouse Barron Collier, juggernaut IMG, and Orlando’s best in LHP and Lake Mary. We will also host Benjamin and Jupiter, two very talented teams. We will benefit from playing 3 out-of-state games, which will allow us to see different styles of lacrosse.  Another big game will be the FLN event against Oxbridge Academy. We can not settle at any time. Our goal is to compete and get better everyday. Every player on our roster needs to bring their best if we want to have the opportunity to make a post season push.”   Saint John Paul II finished 12-8 and the results were all over the lot.  The brutal early schedule included losses to Jupiter, Benjamin, Oxbridge and Jensen Beach and the season started 1-4.  That was followed by a 7-game winning streak highlighted by a ‘road’ win (the schools are about a 3-minute drive apart) over Boca Raton.  Then the next three games were against Vero, Columbus Catholic and Saint Andrew’s and an OT win at CC was sandwiched by a tough loss to Vero and a blow out against SA, which pretty much summed up the season nicely. Coach Andy Bolger sent us his full preview: “Seniors Chase Caldararo (Lynn), Nico Niro, Joey Loscalzo and Rob Hall are our returning players and we will have Ryan Haag (soph) and Anthony Peccararo (soph) to help out on the defensive end.     Offensively, Chris Castellon (Lynn), Patrick Brower and Ryan McMahon are the three seniors we will look to for leadership.  Juniors Jared Chaloux (Lynn) and Shawn Gildea have been starters since the day they stepped on campus and we continue to expect them to improve. We lost a three year starter in the goal, Niko Morfogen.  Senior, Zach Czulada will step up and play well for us.  He has shown flashes of being very good, he needs a little more consistency.  Sophomore Stephen Brower will push him for playing time. All the teams in District 26 are very well coached and have a lot of talented players.  St Andrew’s is probably the team to beat, they are loaded with players at every position. Boca High is a close second with a ton of talented players returning. Spanish River, West Boca and American Heritage are all tough.  Every game in our district will be tough as always. We are working towards competing for a spot in the District Playoffs, that’s the goal.  We want to improve every day.  We play Vero Beach in the Blue and Pink game.  It’s to raise awareness for Breast and Prostate Cancer.  Both teams have people who are close to them who have been touched by these diseases.”   Boca Raton started the season on a high but the second half of the season saw the team fall off badly.  An 8-2 start, highlighted by wins over Pine Crest, Columbus Catholic, Vero Beach in 4OT’s and Jensen was followed by an 0-5 end to the season as the team’s competitiveness in those 5 games went away.  The team had struggled defensively even while winning the early games but the offense fell off badly in the losing streak.  The team will be in transition this year as most of the 2014 squad that gave Boca its’ best season in their history have now moved on and it is time to develop the next wave.  A .500 record is the focus this year as the schedule is still loaded.     Head Coach Chris Holly regains 2014 All American Nick McCabe, who missed most of 2015 with a number of maladies and he brings stability to two problem areas last season, face-offs and two-way midfield play.  He will be joined by  Michael Clinton and Brandon Ruditz.  The competition for open positions will be fierce and some underclassmen will emerge in key positions.   Spanish River’s strength of schedule was ranked FIFTH in the state in the computer rankings last year and it’s not difficult to see how they finished 3-11.  They were competitive in a number of their losses.  The most important win was their third as it allowed them to edge out West Boca for the final playoff slot in then-District 23, a game we covered; one of the best games we saw all year. The schedule is not quite as loaded but still a stiff enough test and new head coach Dan Schaffer comes in under a baptism of fire scenario.  He will rely on Josh Stefle and Chris Lynch on attack and seniors Phil Carson and Sam Rosenberg on defense, with senior Cam Maynard at midfield.  Sophomore middie Alex Ehrnstein will also be counted on. Coach Schaffer noted “We look to have a winning season.  I believe we have a Top defense but we have a very young team on offense we only have 4 seniors .”   West Boca improved greatly last year and missed out on their first district playoff slot by one goal.  The program has been on the rise for a few years now and the upcoming schedule reflects that as they are stepping it up this year with a 19-game slate featuring out of district games with Stoneman, Pine Crest, Oxbridge and University.     Dustin Markwardt enters his third year in charge and his team will rely on Grant Telford, Steve Santoro, Eric Saperstein and Griffin Berke to lead the way.   American Heritage-Boca slots into this district and will challenge for the final playoff slot.  The lacrosse Gods showed a sense of humor in matching their opener against Saint Andrew’s and local fans might want to check that one out.  The schedule has a similar feel to last year’s 9-9 finish, as AH-B was able to compete and defeat the teams they should have but were not ready to play the heavyweights yet.  The 2016 schedule is rigorous but not as loaded as last year’s, partly because the district is tougher and a repeat of a .500 season would probably be a good result. Coach Jeff Goldberg has put his usual high-end development skills to work and will look on offense to senior attacker Roberto Villasana (FIT) to lead, with senior middie Patrick Boylston (faceoff, 2-way mid) and sophomore middies Colin Sypek and Dante Moore.  On defense senior captain Parker Sargeant (Vassar) and senior captain Nick Updike will lead the way.     Coach Goldberg noted: “St. Andrews appears to still be the class of the field. They came on strong at the end of the year last year, and expect them to do the same this year as any zone defense they throw out will take time to dial in, and even more time for some offenses to crack. Boca High and JPII should also be strong. Our roster will have several younger players, so our goal is to develop them into our system and get them valuable game time as much as possible.  Being in a new district, we have aspirations to be playing in the district tournament and get over the .500 hump.”   Back to main preview page