There’s no shortage of contenders to the claim:
* Two-time New York State champion Garden City.
* West Islip, the eight-time defending Suffolk County champions.
* Darien, which had won six Class M Connecticut state titles, before being denied a seventh straight last year.
* Always powerful CHSAA heavyweights St. Anthony’s and Yorktown.
* Yorktown, which is a favorite to win what would be a Section 1 title for the 30th time in the last 33 years.
Lots of contenders, indeed.
And lots of time to break down and discuss them.
But let’s start with a simple question.
Who do you think is the best high school team in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region heading into the 2012 season?
That’s our latest poll question.
Be sure to weigh in with your thoughts here and exercise or your right to vote now.
To vote, go to the right panel of this page. Then, just scroll past the “New Comments” and “Popular” tabs and click on “Poll,” and then cast your vote from the choices available, or write in your choice if it’s not listed.
* Previous “You make the call” topic threads
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Posted In: You make the call
Darien will be back – and with a vengeance!
John Jay will be a fun team to watch. They will not have the abundance of committed players they have had of late but do have good chemistry, a great work ethic and the best player in the section.
it will be interesting to watch JJ this year. the over hype of last years team was funny (ie. they only lost 3 games since 4th grade). coach tim will have them playing as a team in no time.
Yorktowns attack will be one of the best in the area. 3 d-1 commits and a soph. who’s pretty nasty, not sure about the rest of the team. Somers and Rye should be right in the hunt in the B league.
A league is L/P and Mahopac, arlington might step up. Don’t see anyone else.
C league- Bronxville should step back to the pack after losing 2 top players. Hen Hud drops down to C. Put Valley very young again this year should improve from last year. Bryam lost 1 of the top goalies in the section.
In A, I’d throw in Suffern and maybe Mamo to LP, Pac and Arlington
B-seems like Y is real heavy favorite, but u never know with Somers and JJ. Rye lost a ton of good seniors so they might drop back.
C-Bxville def lost two studs but still has some top talent. Byram’s goalie comes back–he’s a senior this year
GC Manhasset will be again awesome.
Cham St Anthonys will be great.
Darien and Wilton will be tops in CT.
Yorktown should rule Section 1 with a top level team.
Smithtown, WI, WM and Northport will be tops in Class A.
Dalers seem to have lost alot.
I see top 5 as
St Anthonys, Chaminade, WM, GC, Darien
mamaroneck taking home the class A title
no, conley is a great player and needs help….who is helping him?
A
Pac
LP,Suffern
Arlington, Mamo (tied)
B
Town (strong favorite)
Jay (graduation losses on offense?)
Somers (graduation losses?)
Rye
Rye has some skilled (a few quite skilled) O and D players spread among classes, some of whom will end up recruited (one now to Richmond–“varsity club”). They also have a good goalie and faceoff kids but the graduation of a deep and talented senior class will make things challenging vs top teams.
Mamo loses 3 starting close D, starting SSDM, and the best LSM in the section. Lot of holes to fill.
in class A in section one it may be a down year. a lot of the teams have lost a lot of power. I am not sure if more than one class A school will even be in the top five in the section when all is said and done next spring. Class B is loaded again.
I would say Pac and L/P are the top two with Suffern a close third…not really a big stretch. I guess Mamaroneck lost a bunch of players and so did Arlington. Didn’t Arlington graduate Lindsey last year? He was the real offensive threat on that team. I think the difference between the top three and the rest will be a bit wide this season. I think Mamo and Arlington might drop a bit and White Plains and Scarsdale might sneak in front to contend for the fourth or fifth spot in the class.
In my eyes this year should be a wild one in Section 1 because I see no heavy favorites in any class with the exception of Town. This is going to be a year of unsung heroes, young guys stepping up, who has better chemistry, and who has that grit that wins close games. In my opinion at least…
Relative to last season, Suffolk A will be down this year. WI, WM and Smithtown West seem relatively equal in the preseason. Sachem North has talent but a lot of it is relatively unproven considering they failed to even reach the semifinals after all the hype last year. My Northport Tigers are young but should be in the top six. I’m guessing Smithtown East and their solid underclassmen also will crack the top six.
Section 1
Class A
LP – Pac – Arlington – Suffern
in that order. Arlington is a big school who is starting to get some players but not yet. LP still has Monty, Prunty, etc. D will need to step up big. Zingaro should be better as sophomore. Berardis is a stud but Pac did lose alot, especially on D end of field. Foley seemed to be heart of the team as well.
Class B
Town – JJ – Somers – Rye in that order.
Town has to be heavy favorite and should not lose in section.
Too many studs. All 3 attack are D1 guys. Keolsch, Fusco(one of top sophomores in nation), and Cooley are all D1 guys. Midfield has alot of guys who played alot last year as well. Manning, etc.
JJ has alot of great younger players. Lambert is excellent. Branca needs to step up in front of talented D. JJ could struggle out of section.
Somers has some good younger guys as well. Cousins are excellent and Marasco should be better as a junior. Rye is consistently real good but I dont know if they can overtake the 3 favorites in the section.
Class C
Bronxville should cruise. They are a good Class C team. They would struggle vs Town or Jay but can play with top midtier teams. Pleasantville should also be good but doesnt have the players Bronxville does.
Have a nice holiday season. 3 months away!
agreed. do they still do the super six champions in section 11?
There are still banners for it, but I don’t think anyone really cares. It would be nice, we haven’t had one since 2006.
This years West Islip team will be better than last years.
Do you think the Ward Melville will ever make another run? They have been reloading for what seems like nearly a decade now. At some point someone has to challenge West Islip. Last year it was Smithtown West but they fell short…they graduated some big players too. Will Coach Keenan even be back now that his son graduated?
Keenan was pushed out
L.I.Lax, The last few years I have been told by Northport Alumni that they were young. It seems like that has been the case since 2009 when George told me they were talented but young. Was last year an experience team. No disrespect, just curious…
Just a comment from the outside looking in. I see Niskayuna getting to the semifinals, at least. I dont see anu section 1 team beating them in the regionals. They are very good offensively and whoever wins class A on the Island should expect to see them.
oh yeah, I’m not a supporter or fan of their program.