FHSAA Season Preview – District 29
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
District 29
District 29 has been dominated recently by Cypress Bay as they have won 47 games over the last three years. District champions again in 2015 they have had the misfortune of having STA in their way each year in the playoffs and each year that hurdle has proven unattainable. Long-time Coach Geoff Swinerton has retired from Cypress so it will be intriguing to see how all the turnover in this district’s coaching ranks (new coaches at Archbishop McCarthy, Flanagan and pretty much anyone not named Rick Nash) make the future of this district a mystery. Part of Cypress’ dominance lately has been the play of the District’s only All American Anthony Courcelle and he returns for his senior year with a repeat performance on his mind.
Cypress Bay went 17-3 last year with the only losses to Pine Crest, university and STA in the playoffs. As has been the same for the past few years the district scheduling presented a challenge for them as the AD’s required home and away games, tying up 10 of their 18 regular season games, leaving few chances to prepare for the playoff season. Adding Western-Davie is a two-edged sword; they are a higher rated program over some of the others but now it means 12 games taken up. They did gain wins over Belen Jesuit and Spanish River so it was not that Cypress was just a team beating weak competition.
New head coach Joe Courcelle takes over and the players he will look to keep the program going are returning All American senior Anthony Courcelle LSM (Marquette) and seniors Anthony Turri Middie/Attack, Nick Countrymen at Attack, Dylan Pulitano at attack and long pole Cameron Valle (Florida Southern)
Coach Courcelle also noted “Archbishop McCarthy and Cypress are the two favorites for the season and we also are looking at the Belen and Stoneman Douglas games this season. Our goal is to make a playoff run.”
Archbishop McCarthy put up a nice 12-6 record, a marked improvement over the 8-9 season in 2014. AM put some nice out of district wins on the record, knocking off Cardinal Gibbons, American Heritage-Plantation and Calvary Christian and took Cypress to 2OT in a game we covered; a game that might have been game of the year if that was measured by keeping you on the edge of your seat.
New head coach Kieondre Woody (who immediately goes to the front of my line because he grew up in Geneva, NY and his Mom works at Hobart!!) will look to build on last year’s results and one place he will look is a sophomore who really made me take notice last year as a freshman, Kyle Noble. Noble burst out with 6 goals against Cypress Bay, including the game tying goal with 6 seconds left to send the game into overtime. His lacrosse IQ is off the charts and he combines that with a lethal left hand that he gets off quickly. This is one player I am going to watch very carefully and his opponents should too.
Coach Wood will also look to Ty Espada-senior attack/mid, Ryan Merek-sophomore mid/FOGO, Thomas Rama-junior on defense, Greg Riordan-sophomore defense/attack, Shane Lyons-junior attack, Dylan Atkins-freshman attack/FOGO and Brendan Roach- junior middie.
Coach Wood went on to note:
“The team to beat this year is definitely Cypress Bay. They’re our rival. Every game we play against them is a great game played on both sides with high intensity and good fundamental lacrosse played by both teams. Cypress has a great offense. They’re very difficult to plan for, they move quickly on and off the ball. Another team to beat this year in our district is Flanagan. The program is still on the rise but they’re an aggressive team that plays as hard as they can until the very last whistle is blown. In the future of South Florida lacrosse I feel that Flanagan will be a top contender.
None of our players have made college commitments yet.
This season we are really striving to be district champs. We also want to get players exposure to lacrosse outside of South Florida and get them to a university with academic and collegiate lacrosse programs they’re interested in.”
Western Davie moves over from STA’s district and comes off a 6-10 record, with a win over AM and a tough loss to Cypress, so they should fit right in. One area they certainly need to improve on is the goals against as they gave up double digits 12 times.
Western Davie will be led by new head coach Evan Sovay. He noted the following players:
Team Leaders will be Grant Chiappelli playing attack and Michael Hood playing attack and middie
Impact players – Alec Rodriguez playing attack, Jake Cimerberg at faceoff, Mateo Knight playing middie, Dylan Davis at goalie, Jacob Suss and Keaton Vannatta on defense.
Coach Sovay went on to note:
“The team to beat this year in our district also happens to be our biggest rival in Cypress Bay. Also another significant game would be against our other rival Cooper City. Our first major goal is to compete for the district title followed by a run in the playoffs. Second goal will be to let every team on our schedule know that they were just in a game. We are not just an automatic “W” on our opponent’s schedule.
Cooper City went 6-10, 3-7 in conference last season under long-time coach Rick Nash, the dean of this district, to grab the last playoff berth. They need to improve on both sides of the ball. They yielded double digits in half their games and scored single digits in 13 of them, with six or less 11 times. This district has a number of teams with similar statistics so the good news is that a few changes can yield positive results.
Flanagan finished with a nice 9-7 record, with 5-6 in district and lost three games in OT, including their district game with Archbishop McCarthy. It was the second straight winning season for the school after they opened their program with an 0-9 record in 2012.
Richard Boutin assumes the reins from Philip Garza.
West Broward edged out Cooper City for the last playoff spot following their 4-12 season, with 4-7 in conference before falling to Cypress Bay in the first round. Goal scoring was an issue, as they exceeded 7 goals only 4 times all season. The defense struggled down the stretch as they gave up double digits each of the last 6 games.
Head Coach Daniel Cuoco looks to Offensive impact players this year such as middie Kevin Matthews (2017), middie Tyler Cerione (2016), attack Noah Meyer (2018), attack Cody Trembley (2016) and attack/middie Carson Davis (2019) while Defensive impact players include D-pole Kevin Strickland (2017) and D-pole/LSM Matthew Cuoco (2017).
Coach Cuoco’s thoughts included “Cooper City always seems to be a big rivalry game because a lot of the players compete with each other in the off season and they are usually pretty well matched. The teams to beat this year, like every other year are the 2 power house teams, Cypress Bay and Archbishop McCarthy: they always have great teams due to strong feeder programs.
Unfortunately the West Broward High zone does not have a strong recreational feeder program.
Hopefully this will change in the future with West Pines Optimus looking to start a lacrosse program. Western High is new to the district this year and they may be a challenge.
None of the seniors have yet to commit although Tyler Cerione is considering a couple of DIII schools. I expect to have a number of commitments next year due to a strong group of juniors this year.”
Pembroke Pines Charter went 0-13 last season and has struggled to gain any sort of footing in its’ recent program history. Coach Corey Masiello deserves the respect of being the good trooper in keeping the program together but it will require a lot more commitment from the school to even make a little dent.
Coach Masiello noted Isaak Andrade, a freshman midfielder and long pole junior Chinedu Ezenwa as players to keep an eye on. He also stated Cypress Bay was the team to beat and that Flanagan is their main rival. He set a goal for this season of winning 4 games.
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Cypress Bay went 17-3 last year with the only losses to Pine Crest, university and STA in the playoffs. As has been the same for the past few years the district scheduling presented a challenge for them as the AD’s required home and away games, tying up 10 of their 18 regular season games, leaving few chances to prepare for the playoff season. Adding Western-Davie is a two-edged sword; they are a higher rated program over some of the others but now it means 12 games taken up. They did gain wins over Belen Jesuit and Spanish River so it was not that Cypress was just a team beating weak competition.
New head coach Joe Courcelle takes over and the players he will look to keep the program going are returning All American senior Anthony Courcelle LSM (Marquette) and seniors Anthony Turri Middie/Attack, Nick Countrymen at Attack, Dylan Pulitano at attack and long pole Cameron Valle (Florida Southern)
Coach Courcelle also noted “Archbishop McCarthy and Cypress are the two favorites for the season and we also are looking at the Belen and Stoneman Douglas games this season. Our goal is to make a playoff run.”
Archbishop McCarthy put up a nice 12-6 record, a marked improvement over the 8-9 season in 2014. AM put some nice out of district wins on the record, knocking off Cardinal Gibbons, American Heritage-Plantation and Calvary Christian and took Cypress to 2OT in a game we covered; a game that might have been game of the year if that was measured by keeping you on the edge of your seat.
New head coach Kieondre Woody (who immediately goes to the front of my line because he grew up in Geneva, NY and his Mom works at Hobart!!) will look to build on last year’s results and one place he will look is a sophomore who really made me take notice last year as a freshman, Kyle Noble. Noble burst out with 6 goals against Cypress Bay, including the game tying goal with 6 seconds left to send the game into overtime. His lacrosse IQ is off the charts and he combines that with a lethal left hand that he gets off quickly. This is one player I am going to watch very carefully and his opponents should too.
Coach Wood will also look to Ty Espada-senior attack/mid, Ryan Merek-sophomore mid/FOGO, Thomas Rama-junior on defense, Greg Riordan-sophomore defense/attack, Shane Lyons-junior attack, Dylan Atkins-freshman attack/FOGO and Brendan Roach- junior middie.
Coach Wood went on to note:
“The team to beat this year is definitely Cypress Bay. They’re our rival. Every game we play against them is a great game played on both sides with high intensity and good fundamental lacrosse played by both teams. Cypress has a great offense. They’re very difficult to plan for, they move quickly on and off the ball. Another team to beat this year in our district is Flanagan. The program is still on the rise but they’re an aggressive team that plays as hard as they can until the very last whistle is blown. In the future of South Florida lacrosse I feel that Flanagan will be a top contender.
None of our players have made college commitments yet.
This season we are really striving to be district champs. We also want to get players exposure to lacrosse outside of South Florida and get them to a university with academic and collegiate lacrosse programs they’re interested in.”
Western Davie moves over from STA’s district and comes off a 6-10 record, with a win over AM and a tough loss to Cypress, so they should fit right in. One area they certainly need to improve on is the goals against as they gave up double digits 12 times.
Western Davie will be led by new head coach Evan Sovay. He noted the following players:
Team Leaders will be Grant Chiappelli playing attack and Michael Hood playing attack and middie
Impact players – Alec Rodriguez playing attack, Jake Cimerberg at faceoff, Mateo Knight playing middie, Dylan Davis at goalie, Jacob Suss and Keaton Vannatta on defense.
Coach Sovay went on to note:
“The team to beat this year in our district also happens to be our biggest rival in Cypress Bay. Also another significant game would be against our other rival Cooper City. Our first major goal is to compete for the district title followed by a run in the playoffs. Second goal will be to let every team on our schedule know that they were just in a game. We are not just an automatic “W” on our opponent’s schedule.
Cooper City went 6-10, 3-7 in conference last season under long-time coach Rick Nash, the dean of this district, to grab the last playoff berth. They need to improve on both sides of the ball. They yielded double digits in half their games and scored single digits in 13 of them, with six or less 11 times. This district has a number of teams with similar statistics so the good news is that a few changes can yield positive results.
Flanagan finished with a nice 9-7 record, with 5-6 in district and lost three games in OT, including their district game with Archbishop McCarthy. It was the second straight winning season for the school after they opened their program with an 0-9 record in 2012.
Richard Boutin assumes the reins from Philip Garza.
West Broward edged out Cooper City for the last playoff spot following their 4-12 season, with 4-7 in conference before falling to Cypress Bay in the first round. Goal scoring was an issue, as they exceeded 7 goals only 4 times all season. The defense struggled down the stretch as they gave up double digits each of the last 6 games.
Head Coach Daniel Cuoco looks to Offensive impact players this year such as middie Kevin Matthews (2017), middie Tyler Cerione (2016), attack Noah Meyer (2018), attack Cody Trembley (2016) and attack/middie Carson Davis (2019) while Defensive impact players include D-pole Kevin Strickland (2017) and D-pole/LSM Matthew Cuoco (2017).
Coach Cuoco’s thoughts included “Cooper City always seems to be a big rivalry game because a lot of the players compete with each other in the off season and they are usually pretty well matched. The teams to beat this year, like every other year are the 2 power house teams, Cypress Bay and Archbishop McCarthy: they always have great teams due to strong feeder programs.
Unfortunately the West Broward High zone does not have a strong recreational feeder program.
Hopefully this will change in the future with West Pines Optimus looking to start a lacrosse program. Western High is new to the district this year and they may be a challenge.
None of the seniors have yet to commit although Tyler Cerione is considering a couple of DIII schools. I expect to have a number of commitments next year due to a strong group of juniors this year.”
Pembroke Pines Charter went 0-13 last season and has struggled to gain any sort of footing in its’ recent program history. Coach Corey Masiello deserves the respect of being the good trooper in keeping the program together but it will require a lot more commitment from the school to even make a little dent.
Coach Masiello noted Isaak Andrade, a freshman midfielder and long pole junior Chinedu Ezenwa as players to keep an eye on. He also stated Cypress Bay was the team to beat and that Flanagan is their main rival. He set a goal for this season of winning 4 games.
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