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As has been well-documented, Yorktown will have a new look on defense this season.
That defense will be anchored by a first-year starter in goal, Trinity College-bound senior Derek Koelsch.
After strong showings in the summer and fall, Koelsch has been spending the winter working hard to be physically and mentally prepared for the season.
White Plains enjoyed a breakout season last year that included groundbreaking wins over Mahopac, Putnam Valley and North Rockland.
Though league realignment has altered the Tigers’ schedule this season, they still hope to pick up some eye-opening wins.
That’s among the topics we discussed with Dickinson College-bound senior attackman Norman Greenfield.
Today, it all starts.
Officially, at least.
This is the first official day of practice and tryouts, but for many teams and players throughout the area, it’s just the continuation of a what’s already been an intense and diligent preseason.
John Jay senior midfielder Brandon Merlino (file photo by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com) has been getting ready for months. The UMBC-bound Merlino and the Indians face their first test on March 17 when they host Bronxville in a scrimmage.
Horace Greeley will be getting its share of tough tests this season.
The Quakers are members of newly aligned Conference League III-A, along with defending Class B sectional champion Somers as well as John Jay and Rye, who are both sectional champs four of the past five years.
Wittenberg University-bound senior defenseman Hunter Bastian shares his thoughts on the challenges that await the Quakers, who advanced to the sectional semifinals last year.
Conor Fraylick will be playing his college lacrosse close to home — at Fairfield University.
But he has some unfinished before then. Namely, two more varsity seasons at Pleasantville.
The Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region has no shortage of premier programs.
One program that often gets overlooked is Brunswick.
If you look at the scheduled the Bruins play – and the number of college recruits they churn out – you could argue Brunswick is as good as any program around.
How do the Bruins look this coming season?
That’s among the topics we discussed with Darien’s own Jimmy Craft, a Yale-bound defenseman for the Bruins.
Remy Lieberman is set to begin his third year as a starting attackman for Yorktown.
But this year’s Husker team will be minus many of the key players Lieberman played alongside the last two years.
That’s among the topics we discussed with Lieberman, who will attend Division III power Wesleyan, where he will join a pair of former Yorktown teammates: John Froats, the 2009 NESCAC rookie of the year, and incoming freshman Brett Cabriele.
Garden City can’t wait to get started.
The Trojans, who are coming off a state quarterfinal appearance, are the No. 7 team in the Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse Preseason National Rankings.
Garden City opens the season against Syosset for the second year in a row. The teams play on Wednesday, March 24 at Garden City. The game will come after the Trojans scrimmage St. Anthony’s (March 17), Hicksville (March 18) and Delbarton (March 20).
There’s a lot to look ahead to — and that’s exactly what we did with Connecticut College-bound senior midfielder Kevin Dachille.
Considering all the highlights he’s already enjoyed at the high school level, it’s almost hard to believe that Mike Daniello has two more varsity seasons to go.
In fact, considering all that’s happened, Daniello’s sophomore season seems like an eternity ago.
Since it ended, he became one of the most heavily recruited players in the nation, rising to No. 9 in Inside Lacrosse’s rankings of juniors in the U.S.
In the fall, he changed his college choice to Johns Hopkins after initially committing to North Carolina.
Then, just months later, John Jay relieved Nick Savastano of his duties before naming Tim Schurr as its new coach earlier this year.
Ossining will be playing this season in a newly aligned league that is made up of eight teams from Northern Westchester and Putnam, including Hen Hud.
How does Ossining look as we get set for the official start of varsity practice?
We got the perspectives of junior defenseman Michael Zavarella, who is coming off a productive summer and fall playing for WestRock.
The Clarkstown South Vikings will be keeping it closer to home this season.
The Vikings have been placed in a four-team league that also includes rivals Clarkstown North as well as North Rockland and Suffern.
While those teams are all familiar, being minus Luke Haggerty isn’t. The goaltender, who was an all-American last season, has graduated.
Those are among the topics that South’s Union College-bound senior midfielder Sean Day discusses.
With all the wintry weather we’ve seen — and will see — this week in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region, let’s take a trip to one of the area’s premier summer hot spots.
East Hampton.
Jake Beyer calls it home.
The 5-foot-10 senior longstick midfielder, who is bound for the up-and-coming Division I program at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., shares his thoughts on the upcoming season.
John Jay lacrosse has started a new era. Tim Schurr, who has taken over the program, is just the third varsity head coach in the 31-year history of the program.
The Indians, who saw their run of consecutive sectional titles end at four last year, welcome back a strong nucleus, and drew the No. 20 spot in Inside Lacrosse’s Preseason National Power Rankings.
Now, here are Kenyon College-bound senior goaltender Fletcher Franklin’s thoughts as we prepare for the start of varsity practice.
It’s been a busy few days for Johnny McGuigan.
He’s been spending the last few weeks preparing for his senior season as starting goaltender at Mahopac.
And this past weekend, he committed to Division II power New York Tech, where he will join teammate John Brandofino.
Last week, Brandofino shared his thoughts on the upcoming season. Now, it’s McGuigan’s turn.
Yorktown is hoping to win a sectional title for what would be the 29th time in the last 31 years this season. It’s certainly one of the more impressive streaks in high school sports. Anywhere.
If they are to do it, the Huskers will have to get consistent play from a new-look defense that is minus two all-Americans (John Fennessy/Towson and Ethan Fox/Marist) and three all-section standouts (Brendan Brunelle/Marist, Brett Cabriele/Wesleyan and Michael Bonitatibus/Loyola).
Perhaps the most experienced returnee on defense for the Huskers is C.W. Post-bound senior Stephen Burke.
Garden City will start the season as the No. 7 team in the nation, according to Inside Lacrosse’s Preseason Power Rankings.
So you’ll be hearing a lot about the Trojans, who have 11 players who are planning to continue playing the sport in college.
For an in-depth and thorough look at the Trojans, be sure to check out the perspectives of Washington & Lee-bound senior midfielder Jared Mitchell.
As we get set for the official start of varsity practices, we’ve headed east, west, north and south — and plenty of points in between — to get the thoughts of players from throughout the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region in a first-of-its-kind feature, “Player’s perspective.”
And we’re grateful to all the players for their amazing insights. As I said to a coach at one of the region’s top programs the other day, the quality of their analysis has been pretty impressive to say the least.
We now venture to Katonah in Northern Westchester, home of the Harvey Cavaliers of the Hudson Valley Athletic League.
St. Lawrence University-bound Jamie Lunt, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound defenseman who transferred to Harvey from Pelham, shares his outlook.
The Irvington Bulldogs enjoyed a breakout season last year under first-year coach Drew Werney.
But the Bulldogs lost quite a contingent of key players to graduation, especially on offense.
College of Wooster-bound senior midfielder Jake Bernard offers his thoughts on how Irvington will fare this season.
The Brewster Bears have made two sectional final appearances since 2005.
But senior goaltender Andrew Nicol was familiar with what title games are all about even before that.
Nicol’s father, John, was varsity coach at Yorktown from 1998-2002. During those five seasons, the Huskers won sectional championships each year.
The Rye Garnets’ run of four straight Section 1 Class C titles ended last season with a 10-7 setback to Putnam Valley last June in the sectional finsld.
Junior defenseman Michael Collins (shown defending against Rye Country Day’s J.P. Garry last season) will be among the players the Garnets will be counting on if they are to regain sectional supremacy.
Defending Section 1 champion Somers.
John Jay and Rye, who have each won four sectional titles the last five years.
Horace Greeley, a 2009 Class B semifinalist.
Those are the four teams that join Byram Hills to form Conference III League A.
The Bobcats bring strong credentials to the league as well, having made a sectional final appearance in 2008 and sectional semifinal appearance last year.
Senior defenseman Brett Dresner says the Bobcats have the potential to achieve similar success this year.
We continue counting down to the official start of varsity practice for the 2010 season by checking in with some of the leading players from throughout the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region.
Now batting is Wesleyan-bound senior attackman/midfielder Ian Vazquez, who helped Ridgefield win the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference title for the first time in school history last season.
Mahopac enters the season minus all-America attackman Tyler Perrelle, but the ‘Pac does have a strong nucleus of returning players that includes one of the region’s top offensive players, John Brandofino, a senior bound for Division II power New York Tech.
* Player’s perspective archive
This is a big season for Kevin Walsh – and for North Rockland.
Walsh, a 6-foot-3, lefty-shooting attackman, hopes to lead the Red Raiders to another Rockland County championship while increasing his chances of taking his game to the college level.
Briarcliff begins a new era this season as the Bears welcome in new varsity coach Paul Bordonaro. One of the players Bordonaro will be relying on in his debut season is senior midfielder Troy Press, who has committed to attend Division II Wingate University in North Carolina.
Press, who is currently one of the standout on the Bears’ boys basketball team, is the subject of the latest installment of our new “Player’s perspective” feature.
We continue our new feature, “Player’s perspective” with one of the top underclassmen in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region.
Darien attackman Case Matheis, who became the first freshman to start in coach Jeff Brameier’s 26-year tenure with the Blue Wave, helped the Blue Wave win their fifth straight Class M state title.
It didn’t take long for the Somers Tuskers to set the tone against three-time defending sectional champion John Jay in last year’s Section 1 title game at White Plains High School.
It happened just seven seconds into the game when Greg Petre (shown above in a photo taken by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com) fired in a shot off a fastbreak.
If the Tuskers are to win another sectional title this year, they will need plenty more big goals from the Army-bound senior attackman, who is also expected to see a considerable amount of action at midfield this season.
Austin Heneveld, a Navy-bound senior attackman from East Hampton, is next up in our newly introduced “Player’s perspective” feature. Check back each day to read the insights of other players from throughout the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region.
Few high school players excel in the two key parts of the posssession game — groundballs and faceoffs — more than McCormack.
So perhaps it’s appropriate that McCormack’s college destination is Cornell, a college program that excelled in both areas en route to its appearance in this past season’s NCAA Division I championship game — a 10-9 overtime loss to Syracuse.
But before he arrives in Ithaca, McCormack has some unfinished business at Rye.
Princeton-bound senior defenseman and New Canaan resident Derick Raabe of the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., is looking forward to one more season of preparing to take his game to the next level.
Few players in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region enjoyed the rapid rise Somers senior John Bello did last season.
After coming off an injury-riddled sophomore season, Bello emerged as one of the area’s top defensemen and a Division I recruit. Over the summer, he accepted a scholarship offer from St. John’s of the newly formed Big East Conference.
Last season was a historic one for the Iona Prep Gaels, who won their first state championship.
Leading the way was a core group of four Division I-bound seniors, including Nick Trizano, who scored his 300th career point and finished second on the all-time state scoring list behind Casey Powell.
How will the new-look Gaels fare this year and what players will need to step up?
Those are among the topics were discussed with Fairfield University-bound senior Pete De Salvo.
Manhasset won a state championship for the third time in program history last year.
But the Indians lost a strong senior nucleus from that team, including attackman Connor English, who is now a freshman at Virginia. English had nine — count ‘em, nine — goals in a 16-11 win over LaFayette in the state title game.
So if the Indians hope to contend for another title, they will have to get big contributions from several first-year starters and underclassmen.
Among them is sophomore defenseman Bobby Duvnjak, who shares his thoughts as the Indians prepare for the official start of preseason practice.
It’s Day 2 for our brand, spanking new “Player’s perspective” feature, gang.
Today we head out to Ridgefield, Conn., home of the defending FCIAC champion Ridgefield Tigers. We will be hearing from a couple of coach Roy Colsey’s Tigers here this season.
First up is University of North Carolina-bound junior defenseman Matt Shannon.
If you read the preview of this feature posted here yesterday, you shouldn’t be too surprised as to who our first subject is.
Yorktown’s Kevin Interlicchio (pictured above in the file photo by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com).
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