This is our fifth installment of the FHSAA season preview.  We kept track of teams and players around the state, spoke to coaches, and watched some fall ball and think we have a pretty good handle on who is who in each district.  So here we go! See Districts 1 & 2, See Districts 3 & 4, See Districts 5 & 6, see Districts 7 & 8, See Districts 9 & 10, See Districts 11 & 12, See Districts 13 & 14.   District 19   One of the most competitive of all the FHSAA districts last year the District undergoes a change as both John Carroll Catholic and Pine School have pulled out to participate as Independents, leaving the 5 schools that battled back and forth for playoff slots.  The depth of the District was highlighted by the fact that 9-6 South Fork did not even make it to the District playoffs, even with a non-conference road win over Top 20 Pope John Paul II.  That’s parity.   Jensen Beach eventually prevailed in advancing, with hard fought wins over Martin County 9-7 and 6-5 over preseason #3 Vero Beach before bowing to state runner-up Benjamin 6-2 in the first round.  Jensen played a rigorous out-of-conference schedule, but mostly lost those games by narrow margins; 7-4 at Jupiter (which was a conference foe in 2013), 9-7 to PJP II, 9-8 at PB Gardens and 11-10 at Boca Raton.  All those teams remain on this year’s schedule and Coach Matt Sofarelli added Wellington, Oxbridge, Bishop Moore and MCC to the slate.  JB finished #14 in the final Media Poll and they look forward to pushing towards the Top 10 this year.     Among Jensen’s returning players are Bryant verbal commit Jack Staab, a junior long pole, senior goalie Austin Brodie (Lenoir Rhyne) and senior middie Wyatt Weiseman (Wingate).  They are joined by sophomore LSM Jake Ferguson, senior long pole Logan Bach and junior backup goalie Landon Salie.  If Jensen is looking anywhere it will be to make marginal improvements on both sides of the field as goal scoring was a problem against the best teams.  The defense held up well as only Boca Raton hit double digits against them all season.   Vero Beach finished #16 in the final poll after starting the season at #3.  The season was quite a rollercoaster trip and new Head Coach Rick McCarthy looks for more consistency this year.  Vero Beach posted wins over Top 20 teams Maclay, MCC, Boca Raton, Jupiter and PJP II but also lost to Pine Crest at home and Martin County.  Last year’s team played one of the most difficult schedules in the state and handled a number of those teams.  Vero truly missed a terrific record by just a few goals here and there as they did not score more than 8 goals in any of their losses.     Vero returns the Heckman twins, senior goalie Brad Hickman and senior middie Kevin Hickman along with senior defender Jake Coleman (Queens).  Senior attackman Tyler Martin (Lenoir Rhyne) comes back to provide the offense while senior LSM Mark Donadio (Lenoir Rhyne), senior attack Zach Funk and junior long pole Jacob Collins also bring significant experience to the team.   Surprising regular season winner St. Edward’s, led by Ross Pridemore’s 47 goals as an 8^th grader, went 10-4 in the regular season to finish 2^nd in the conference, losing only to Vero twice (once in the playoffs), Oxbridge and Benjamin, while defeating Jensen, South Fork, Miami-based Ransom Everglades and Martin.  This year Coach Andy Scheffer has added Oxbridge, Saint Andrew’s and Jupiter to the schedule and all 3 add quite a bit to schedule strength.  Unfortunately for St. Edward’s, Pridemore has moved north to The Taft School in Connecticut, robbing Florida of four more years of his brilliance.  

  St. Edward’s will return  junior goalie Kevin Murphy, sophomore defensemen Danny Walsh, senior defenseman Ian Leveton, who is converting from midfield, junior midfielders Austin Strazzulla and Mason Heim, sophomore midfielder Ritter Marchant, junior attackman Josh Hurwitz and senior attackman Caleb Mayhew (Tusculum).  A number of the other players are making final decisions on playing at the next level.   Martin County’s Justin VanTassel leads his team into the season looking to improve on his 8-8 season last year that included wins over Jensen, Vero and Wellington.  The team showed some inconsistency as they lost to 4-10 WT Dwyer early in the season before rebounding with a big road win over district foe South Fork but returned the victory as South Fork prevailed three weeks later on the Tigers home field.  Then they took down Vero Beach in their next outing.  But the team was never able to go on a winning streak and eventually bowed out to district champion Jensen in the first round in a close battle.  So it looks like there are a number of pieces in place and if they can find some of that consistency they could make noise this year.     Martin is led by star junior goalie Eric Simon, a Delaware commit, top faceoff middie Troy Fischer and senior Scott Beck, the leading scorer last season.  Long pole Nick Yanora returns to lead the defense.   South Fork, as covered above, were easily the best team not to make the District level.  Coach Scott Fletcher returns a number of top performers, including senior middie Trevor Boice, a commit to D1 VMI.  Also returning are 3-time all-District performer Spencer Brennalt, a long pole, 2-time all-District attackman Max Moran (Merrimack) and senior defender Mike Brandenburg.     South Fork has shown steady progress over the past three years, going from 2-9 in 2012 to last year’s 9-6.  Cutting down on the goals against will be a primary goal this year.