Welcome to the first weekly poll of the new high school season and we didn’t even get through 7 days before upheaval!  #1 LHP loses to #5 St. Thomas Aquinas.  Oxbridge falls to Saint Andrew’s.  Jensen Beach has lost twice.  And Stoneman Douglas rockets into the Top 10 after convincingly beating SA. Seven days in lacrosse heaven. As I go through this weekly exercise, just remember not to take the first three weeks too seriously as there will be a lot of movement as we get a number of terrific match-ups early, and since a lot of the top programs are playing each other movement will be great.  At about the 7-game mark for most teams the true ratings will start to take shape.  As you look at these ratings consider that I will emphasize quality wins and losses just as much as pure won and loss records, and will also look at road versus away, etc. FYI -Since IMG is not eligible for post season play I did not include them in this poll. So don’t get too upset if your team feels slighted the first three weeks!  We’ll get it figured out pretty well by then!   So, without further ado, I unveil the new Top 20 for the seek of 2/15/15:   #1 – St. Thomas Aquinas #2 – Jupiter #3 – Barron Collier #4 – Ponte Vedra #5 – Lake Highland Prep #6 – Gulf Coast #7 – Stoneman Douglas #8 – Lake Mary #9 – Benjamin #10 – Saint Andrew’s #11 – Boca Raton #12 – Maclay #13 – Martin County #14 – Oxbridge Academy #15 – Seminole #16 – Vero Beach #17 – Bishop Moore #18 – Lake Brantley #19 – American Heritage/Boca #20 – Fleming Island   Dropping out:  Jensen Beach, Columbus Catholic, Pope John Paul II, Bolles and Hagerty   Also considered:  a number of schools that I need to see more of before I can decide . . . that will also play itself out soon enough!   Why St. Thomas Aquinas at the top?  As one of my favorite social philosopher’s once stated:  “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man”. Which they did. LHP falls to #5, which might be too much but it’s only the first week and they’ll have plenty of quality games to get back in the top spot if earned anyhow. I’m jumping Jupiter over Barron Collier and Ponte Vedra this week solely because of how they’ve played so far, but really you can just throw a blanket right now over the Top 5 and consider them one entity.  PV certainly did nothing to hurt themselves and is playing at a level that justifies my preseason prediction of a finals appearance. Barron Collier is playing Gulf Coast on Tuesday so bragging right s get settled right away in the Floridian version of the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s. The biggest jump is obviously Stoneman Douglas, which gets this year’s Boca Raton award for the most impressive first week move, as they showed a tremendous effort over another Top 10 team as they completely controlled an SA team that looked primed for an excellent season, which is still possible given their convincing rebound win over Oxbridge on the road.  Stoneman travels this week to Jupiter in what is now a really intriguing match-up that will show whether this is a flash in the pan or the start of a tremendous season for them. Lake Mary moves up a little as they took care of business quite comfortably over some good programs.  Their schedule is back-loaded and they make an interesting March swing to Boca Raton and STA back to back. Benjamin drops a little as their wins don’t quite look as good as some of the other schools. Saint Andrew’s is showing the same tendencies early this season that they did last year. Boca Raton posts some solid wins and Maclay shows well in the Ponte Vedra loss.  Martin County moves up and faces a nice test in the Moe’s Classic tomorrow against Oak Hall. Seminole has started very well and moves up to #15 and on Tuesday we’ll really know about them as they take on a suddenly more angry LHP. Bishop Moore took down Jensen Beach to get their spot and Vero Beach might be ready to make up for last year’s inconsistency.  Vero and Maclay meet at the Moe’s Classic in what should be the best of the games on Monday. Lake Brantley took care of business and looks forward to a Top 20 match-up with Seminole on Friday. American Heritage/Boca completed an eventful week, with Coach Goldberg getting his 400th career win, then tumbling to LHP before recovering to gain it’s own Top 20 win over Columbus Catholic.  That’s a full week. Fleming Island moves up into the Top 20 as they also took care of business while others above them fell by the wayside.  They have a chance to run the table for awhile as their tougher games are later in the season.   There are plenty of games coming up between the top teams that will impact these standings this week. Remember, go out and watch a game this week, even if you don’t have a dog in the fight, it’s well worth it!