District Playoffs start this week . . . Where did the time fly?   This is from LaxPower:   Monday, February 9, 2015   American Heritage/Boca 10 – vs. Cardinal Newman 0 Atlantic Coast 3 – vs. Mandarin 16 Barron Collier 21 – vs. Immokalee 0 Buchholz 20 – vs. Gainesville 1 Coral Springs Charter 11 – vs. Taravella 10 Jupiter Christian 1 – vs. Martin County 23 Key West 5 – vs. Flanagan 12 Lee 9 – vs. P.K. Yonge 6 Miami Country Day 2 – vs. Gulliver Prep 17 Oak Hall 21 – vs. Eastside 0 Palmer Trinity 8 – vs. North Broward Prep 6 Ponte Vedra 17 – vs. Menendez 1 Sebastian River 11 – vs. Edgewood 10 Westminster Christian 6 – vs. Miami-Killian 12   That was only 56 days ago.  Opening Day. As the old saying goes . . . time flies when you’re having fun.   Speaking of fun, at the STA-Jupiter game a parent asked me about whether I had finally gotten some Monty Python lines in and he suggested ‘and now for something completely different’, but I’m pretty sure I used that already last year.  So I went searching for some classic lines and thanks to a reminder in The Telegraph of England, which ran their Top 25 Python quotes I came across one I remember so fondly, from the Dead Parrot Sketch, which is one of the funniest segments you’ll ever see: Mr. Praline: “’E’s not pinin’!  ‘E’s passed on!  This parrot is no more!  He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker!  ‘E’s a stiff!  Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace!  If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory!  ‘E’s off the twig!  E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!!  This is an ex-parrot!! The whole sketch is something pretty much everyone of my generation remembers fondly:     https://youtu.be/npjOSLCR2hE   Thankfully the season is not deceased. Nor is the Top 20!   We mentioned these key games last week:   Tuesday (I wish I had Star Trek beaming capabilities for this day!) Benjamin hosts Boca Raton  (Easy win for Benjamin as Boca’s season continues it’s descent) Fleming Island hosts Ponte Vedra  (Yuck . . 16-2 for PV) Lake Mary hosts Lake Highland Prep  (LHP puts it away comfortably) Pine Crest hosts Pope John Paul   (PC continues their late season rush) Vero Beach hosts Jupiter  (Jupiter shows mental toughness on the road)   Thursday   (another Star Trek night!) Jupiter hosts St. Thomas Aquinas (#1 vs. #2!!)   (A beauty . . . and STA proves it again) Lake Highland Prep hosts Ponte Vedra   (scratching my head and once again have to tip my hat to Chris!)     And those results certainly did change the rankings some!   But first, there is something that is not completely different . . . STA ran the table in the regular season From Lax Power (with a couple of columns removed):  

Date	Opponent	Conference	Score
02/10	at Western-Davie (6-9)	FL Dist-29	W	19 –	3
02/13	LAKE HIGHLAND PREP (14-3)	FL Dist-11	W	11 –	10
02/20	at Gulf Coast (8-9)	FL Dist-27	W	19 –	6
02/24	UNIVERSITY SCHOOL (6-9)	FL Dist-29	W	15 –	2
03/04	PLANTATION (1-10)	FL Dist-29	W	18 –	0
03/05	AMER HERITAGE/PLANT’N (9-5)	FL Dist-29	W	16 –	3
03/06	at Columbus Catholic (12-5)	FL Dist-31	W	20 –	8
03/10	BENJAMIN SCHOOL (8-6)	FL Dist-20	W	14 –	9
03/13	BARRON COLLIER (12-4)	FL Dist-28	W	16 –	5
03/16	SOUTH PLANTATION (7-8)	FL Dist-29	W	17 –	1
03/20	LAKE MARY (13-4)	FL Dist-8	W	12 –	6
03/25	BOCA RATON (8-6)	FL Dist-23	W	20 –	6
03/27	vs Lake Forest # (3-2)	IL A NorSub	W	17 –	12
03/31	at American Heritage/Boca (8-8)	FL Dist-22	W	19 –	6
04/02	at Jupiter (15-3)	FL Dist-20	W	12 –	10
04/07	WESTERN-DAVIE (6-9)	FL Dist-29		–
# Neutral Site

  A fantastic achievement for the Raiders and fully deserving of the regular season Number 1 slot.  Congrats to Coach Crowley, his staff and his team for this season!   So, here we go for the final time in the regular season!   This Week’s Top 20   #1 – St. Thomas Aquinas #2 – Lake Highland Prep #3 – Saint Andrew’s #4 – Jupiter #5 – Stoneman Douglas #6 – Ponte Vedra #7 – Seminole #8 – Vero Beach #9 – Lake Mary #10 – Maclay #11 – Barron Collier #12 – Buchholz #13 – Oxbridge #14 – Benjamin #15 – Newsome #16 – Pine Crest #17 – Bishop Moore #18 – Bolles #19 – Jensen Beach #20 – All the Also Considered Teams:  Fleming Island, Cypress Bay, Columbus Catholic, Gulliver Prep, Nease, Oviedo, Oak Hall, Dr. Phillips, HB Plant, Berkeley Prep, Cypress Lakes, Lake Brantley, Boone   Why not?  That way all of these teams can say they hit the Top 20 this year at least once! No, that’s not the same as everyone getting a trophy for showing up in the youth league . . . there’s 200 high schools playing at the varsity level and all of these teams also played a terrific season and let’s give them a little extra love this week.   When we look at how the season ended and why the poll has gotten to this place we can say that for the most part the final rankings occurred on the field but there a re a couple that didn’t and then I had to go with more of a gut feel of how the teams ended the season. For example, do I put LHP ahead of SA?  Or Stoneman ahead of SA? SA defeated LHP and was dominant down the stretch and has the win over LHP at home while LHP also finished strong with convincing wins after the SA loss over Ponte Vedra and Lake Mary.  That’s the way to end the season when questions were being raised about how much LHP was focusing by me. SA has been on a roll too and it’s a shame that they did not play STA this season but that can still occur in Bradenton.  If Stoneman had been able to schedule a better schedule there is no limit to where they might have ended up but #5 is pretty darn good when you didn’t even start the season in the Top 20. Jupiter is 6 goals shy of a perfect record against probably the best schedule in the state and nothing says potential state contender better than that record.  Ponte Vedra is the small loser in this half-dozen due to the lopsided way they ended the season against LHP. Seminole has earned the #7 spot as they were only 5 goals shy of an undefeated season and the one win that really impresses me is the victory over Columbine, which is a nice way to prepare for the playoffs.  Lake Mary is waiting in the district final in what might well be the best district championship game in the state. Vero Beach, Lake Mary and Maclay round out the Top 10 with Vero and Lake Mary not able to beat higher ranked teams and Maclay convincingly winning their last game on the road over Oak Hall. Barron Collier did take one of their two games against the Georgia powers but did not finish that strong and I believe this is the first time they have fallen out of the Top 10 all season. Buchholz finished strong and the only concern is that they didn’t really play anyone near the Top 10 to really let me know how big a gap they still have to fill. Oxbridge is red hot since the poor performance against Stoneman and has steadily climbed back towards the Top 10.  Their road through district is relatively easy and the first round is eminently winnable until the likely match-up against either SA, Stoneman or Pine Crest. The biggest riser of the week is Pine Crest and they are almost white hot, not red.  They are scoring all sorts of goals against solid competition and the district final against Stoneman looks like must-see lacrosse.   The rest of the Top 20 has achieved this almost through a war of attrition and their final post-season spots will be determined by district and first round results.   As always, a plea to the readers out there . . . get out and watch some lacrosse! The season ends May 2nd in Bradenton and if next season also starts on February 9th that means  . . . 287 days until you can see another high school game in the state! Don’t miss the opportunity!