FHSAA Season Preview – District 30
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
District 30
Last year District 30 was one of the deepest in the state but district champion Gulliver Prep has been moved out into a newer district and St. Brendan has been moved in. That will make the race for the final district slot wide open as Belen, Columbus and Ransom are pretty much locked in to top three slots in any order this season. Belen Jesuit laid down a marker for this season with their upset of CC in the first round of district, avenging last season’s regular season loss. This is a district that features some long-time coaching experience and the race at the top will be highly competitive, with each school also looking for out of district quality wins; each of the Top 3 have earned success in those games in the past.
Columbus Catholic has the best track record the last few years in this district, including their quarterfinal run in the FHSAA playoffs in 2013. Last year’s team finished with a 12-6 record, sweeping the district regular season before Belen upset them. The team featured a fast-paced offense that scored a lot of goals and they were only beaten soundly once, by state finalist STA. Every year there seems to be one head-scratching loss and that happened again when they fell to American Heritage-Boca early in the season. The other three losses were by one and two goals to strong teams and there were two high quality wins over Gulliver and Pine Crest on the road (a game we covered).
Coach Jim DeLang has built the CC program to the point where it’s time to reload.
Belen Jesuit is a program on the rise and the next step is to advance out of district. The number of players in the program has taken a big leap up and many of those newcomers are starting to make an impact. As with many young programs consistency is an issue and last year’s 11-7 record featured plenty of it. A loss to Coral Reef at home just before the Columbus Catholic win certainly showed that. The schedule takes a step up too, as the regular season ends with games against Boca Raton and Saint Andrew’s.
Head Coach Alan Bellando has the pedigree in Florida and his patient building of the program, if not quite this year, then most likely 2017, will come fully to fruition. Coach Bellando noted: “Lacrosse is taking off at Belen Jesuit, We had 75 middle schoolers tryout out for the Middle School team and now we have two teams at the middle school level.”
Coach Bellando went on to note about his district: “Columbus is our special rivalry and we still have not beaten Ransom. Columbus is always a special rivalry with Belen Jesuit, being both all boys’ schools in Miami, now more so with Belen beating them last season in Districts, giving Columbus their first loss to a Miami team in 56 games and five years. Our main goal this year is to win Districts and to improve as a team as the season progresses.”
He will rely on a number of players to take the team on to its goals:
Mat Salas (Guilford) Goalie, Senior. Oscar Ortega (Wheeling Jesuit), Def. Senior, Luis Corps (Oglethorpe) Def. Senior, Joey Cruz Def. Sophomore, Ted Huertas (Catholic Univ) LSM Senior, Gabriel Garcia (Dowling) Attack, Senior, Daniel Dager Attack, Senior, Johnny Powell Midfield, Senior, Brian Pascual Midfield, Senior, Robert Fernandez Midfield, Sophomore and Carlos Romero F/O Sophomore.
Ransom Everglades might well have the prettiest playing environment in the state as their field overlooks the waters of Biscayne Bay. Not that it makes the difference on the field but for the casual fan it is worth the effort to catch a game there. Ransom finished 8-8 last year but that was after a 7-3 start as they stumbled down the stretch against a tough schedule. Then they fell to Gulliver in the first round.
Coach Roy Kelly rides one of the longest tenures in the state and he is assisted by former MLL star Chazz Woodson. Coach Kelly gave us his thoughts on the upcoming year:
“We return 3 of the 4 attackmen from our rotation last year, Alex Fuster/Sr. Chris Kucera/So. and Alex Kucera/So. should all be very productive this season. At midfield, we are fielding the most athletic group of players we have had at Ransom in many years. The top 6 middies are guys we have confidence in to play both offensively and defensively equally well. We graduated a great defender, Eddy Garcia-Monte (MIT freshman) but return 2 guys who played alongside him Lance Helguero-Kelley and Anthony Royero who are both playing well with newcomer to defense Reece Ritzenthaler. We feel goalie Andrew Swerdlow is going to develop into another strong RE netminder. One of our starters, Eli Ramos, has committed to play at Hendrix College.
Columbus and Belen are both going to be tough to beat. Belen was not an easy game for us last year, and Columbus has been the class of Dade County for years now. Beating Columbus would be another significant step for us as a program.
Last year we were a young team. This year’s challenge is to take the experience we finally have, and the athleticism that we haven’t had in a while, and to position ourselves as best we can to win our district and to make some noise beyond that.”
Miami Country Day comes off a 4-9 record where they yielded 15 goals of more in 7 of those games so the task ahead is clear. They did play one of the more fun games we covered last year in a 15-14 OT loss to Calvary Christian. It’s a school that has potential if the school wants to make an impact in the sport but the last few years have been rough.
Head Coach Matt ‘Chaka’ Bainbridge enters his third year at the helm.
St. Brendan went 4-11 in Doug Shanahan’s first season and they did win 4 of their last 7 games. The program has large aspirations and the school is putting the resources forward. Obviously it will take some years to build a program from scratch and particularly in a deep district like this is and we encourage our readers to follow Coach Shanahan’s blogs on our site about the experience.
Immaculata-LaSalle unfortunately has not gotten their program in gear. Although they finished 4-6 the four wins were over St. Brendan and Riviera Prep and neither SB win was convincing enough to make us feel they will easily repeat that this year. They were shut out four times in district and that is a very troubling sign. Getting outscored 77-0 by the top 4 schools in your district needs to be a wake-up call. As lacrosse fans we want to see each school strive for that level of competitiveness.
Head Coach Anthony Vuono will look to rely on senior defenders Charles Damon and Carlos Lopez, and senior middie Diego Aguirre for improvement. Interest has come from Division 3 colleges for a number of players.
Coach Vuono noted:
“I predict Belen to win our district. They returned many key players from a successful 2015 season. They also have the right administration, coaching staff, and off-season developmental program to help create the best all-around program. St. Brendan is our rival in all sports. The equal skill level made this the biggest game of the season for both of our teams last year. We meet twice a year, and one of those is the last game which gives it a championship feeling.
Our goal is to improve from last season. We also want to set a precedence of hard work and a commitment to excellence for our underclassmen. We graduate 15 seniors who want to leave behind a winning legacy.”
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Columbus Catholic has the best track record the last few years in this district, including their quarterfinal run in the FHSAA playoffs in 2013. Last year’s team finished with a 12-6 record, sweeping the district regular season before Belen upset them. The team featured a fast-paced offense that scored a lot of goals and they were only beaten soundly once, by state finalist STA. Every year there seems to be one head-scratching loss and that happened again when they fell to American Heritage-Boca early in the season. The other three losses were by one and two goals to strong teams and there were two high quality wins over Gulliver and Pine Crest on the road (a game we covered).
Coach Jim DeLang has built the CC program to the point where it’s time to reload.
Belen Jesuit is a program on the rise and the next step is to advance out of district. The number of players in the program has taken a big leap up and many of those newcomers are starting to make an impact. As with many young programs consistency is an issue and last year’s 11-7 record featured plenty of it. A loss to Coral Reef at home just before the Columbus Catholic win certainly showed that. The schedule takes a step up too, as the regular season ends with games against Boca Raton and Saint Andrew’s.
Head Coach Alan Bellando has the pedigree in Florida and his patient building of the program, if not quite this year, then most likely 2017, will come fully to fruition. Coach Bellando noted: “Lacrosse is taking off at Belen Jesuit, We had 75 middle schoolers tryout out for the Middle School team and now we have two teams at the middle school level.”
Coach Bellando went on to note about his district: “Columbus is our special rivalry and we still have not beaten Ransom. Columbus is always a special rivalry with Belen Jesuit, being both all boys’ schools in Miami, now more so with Belen beating them last season in Districts, giving Columbus their first loss to a Miami team in 56 games and five years. Our main goal this year is to win Districts and to improve as a team as the season progresses.”
He will rely on a number of players to take the team on to its goals:
Mat Salas (Guilford) Goalie, Senior. Oscar Ortega (Wheeling Jesuit), Def. Senior, Luis Corps (Oglethorpe) Def. Senior, Joey Cruz Def. Sophomore, Ted Huertas (Catholic Univ) LSM Senior, Gabriel Garcia (Dowling) Attack, Senior, Daniel Dager Attack, Senior, Johnny Powell Midfield, Senior, Brian Pascual Midfield, Senior, Robert Fernandez Midfield, Sophomore and Carlos Romero F/O Sophomore.
Ransom Everglades might well have the prettiest playing environment in the state as their field overlooks the waters of Biscayne Bay. Not that it makes the difference on the field but for the casual fan it is worth the effort to catch a game there. Ransom finished 8-8 last year but that was after a 7-3 start as they stumbled down the stretch against a tough schedule. Then they fell to Gulliver in the first round.
Coach Roy Kelly rides one of the longest tenures in the state and he is assisted by former MLL star Chazz Woodson. Coach Kelly gave us his thoughts on the upcoming year:
“We return 3 of the 4 attackmen from our rotation last year, Alex Fuster/Sr. Chris Kucera/So. and Alex Kucera/So. should all be very productive this season. At midfield, we are fielding the most athletic group of players we have had at Ransom in many years. The top 6 middies are guys we have confidence in to play both offensively and defensively equally well. We graduated a great defender, Eddy Garcia-Monte (MIT freshman) but return 2 guys who played alongside him Lance Helguero-Kelley and Anthony Royero who are both playing well with newcomer to defense Reece Ritzenthaler. We feel goalie Andrew Swerdlow is going to develop into another strong RE netminder. One of our starters, Eli Ramos, has committed to play at Hendrix College.
Columbus and Belen are both going to be tough to beat. Belen was not an easy game for us last year, and Columbus has been the class of Dade County for years now. Beating Columbus would be another significant step for us as a program.
Last year we were a young team. This year’s challenge is to take the experience we finally have, and the athleticism that we haven’t had in a while, and to position ourselves as best we can to win our district and to make some noise beyond that.”
Miami Country Day comes off a 4-9 record where they yielded 15 goals of more in 7 of those games so the task ahead is clear. They did play one of the more fun games we covered last year in a 15-14 OT loss to Calvary Christian. It’s a school that has potential if the school wants to make an impact in the sport but the last few years have been rough.
Head Coach Matt ‘Chaka’ Bainbridge enters his third year at the helm.
St. Brendan went 4-11 in Doug Shanahan’s first season and they did win 4 of their last 7 games. The program has large aspirations and the school is putting the resources forward. Obviously it will take some years to build a program from scratch and particularly in a deep district like this is and we encourage our readers to follow Coach Shanahan’s blogs on our site about the experience.
Immaculata-LaSalle unfortunately has not gotten their program in gear. Although they finished 4-6 the four wins were over St. Brendan and Riviera Prep and neither SB win was convincing enough to make us feel they will easily repeat that this year. They were shut out four times in district and that is a very troubling sign. Getting outscored 77-0 by the top 4 schools in your district needs to be a wake-up call. As lacrosse fans we want to see each school strive for that level of competitiveness.
Head Coach Anthony Vuono will look to rely on senior defenders Charles Damon and Carlos Lopez, and senior middie Diego Aguirre for improvement. Interest has come from Division 3 colleges for a number of players.
Coach Vuono noted:
“I predict Belen to win our district. They returned many key players from a successful 2015 season. They also have the right administration, coaching staff, and off-season developmental program to help create the best all-around program. St. Brendan is our rival in all sports. The equal skill level made this the biggest game of the season for both of our teams last year. We meet twice a year, and one of those is the last game which gives it a championship feeling.
Our goal is to improve from last season. We also want to set a precedence of hard work and a commitment to excellence for our underclassmen. We graduate 15 seniors who want to leave behind a winning legacy.”
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