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It’s become the lacrosse equivalent of a best-of-three series.

CHSAA rivals Chaminade and St. Anthony’s square off twice during the regular season, and then, invariably, once more, in the postseason championship game.

Neither team has swept a season series since 2006.

St. Anthony’s enters the season having won three straight Catholic League titles.

Last year, the Friars won the title game after falling to Chaminade twice during the regular season.

Chaminade last won the CHSAA crown in 2008.

How do the Flyers shape up as we rapidly draw closer to the start of practice?

For more on that, we turn to Ryan Lukacovic.

One of the nation’s leading juniors, the righty attackman ended a heated recruiting battle over the summer by accepting a scholarship offer from Virginia.

Now, here are Ryan’s perspectives on the season:

What have you been doing to get ready for the season?
Our team has been having captains’ practices twice a week as well as team lifts three times a week.  We have also implemented a speed-and-agility workout following our team lifts that is led by our strength-and-conditioning coach, Stephen Boyd.  These sessions have really allowed our team to bond and build strong chemistry as we enter the spring.

How does your schedule look, what games are you looking forward to most, and who are some of your scrimmages against?
Our schedule is a pretty good one.  There are a bunch of games we look forward to playing in each year, but, some games that always stand out on our schedule are St. Anthony’s, West Islip and Manhasset.  We also have some very exciting scrimmages before our regular season gets going and those include some against Farmingdale, Syosset and Don Bosco.

What player or players on your team do you think will surprise some people this season?
Although we have graduated some tremendous talent in the past year, we have definitely seemed to reload this season with some extremely capable guys.

Our junior class is extremely strong and will be a big part in the success of our team this season. But there are some players that will fill some big shoes as we mold our team.

Two players that I feel will have a huge impact on our team in 2012 are Matt Graham and Brendan Caputo.

Matt is a senior midfielder committed to Michigan who I feel will definitely dominate both sides of the ball with his athletic ability.

Brandon, who is also a senior midfielder, I feel will play a huge role in our offense because of his size and ability to shoot with both hands.

Another player that has been a huge part in our pre-season success is Paul Urbank. His leadership has brought our team together very quickly and will only benefit us as we enter the spring.

What do you think the strength of your team will be this year?
Throughout our captains’ practices this winter, our team has definitely began to mesh and the strengths of our team have continued to come from our midfield.  The depth that we have at that position truly shows because of some of the big-time names we have there like Brian Pratt, Tommy Zenker, Greg Rhodes and our slippery faceoff specialist Kris Clarke.

How do you view the race in your league and who do you think some of the contending teams will be?
In the past couple of years, the Catholic League has been almost completely dominated by St. Anthony’s and Chaminade.

But, one factor that should be extremely interesting this year is how Kellenberg comes out this season after preparing with their new head coach, Mike Schwalje, who recently came over from St. Anthony’s.  There may be some interesting turns in the Catholic League this year.

* For more info on Ryan, check out his player profile by clicking here.

03/21
4:15 PM
Massapequa 

03/23
4:15 PM
Holy Trinity 

03/31
1:00 PM
West Islip 

04/05
4:30 PM
St. Anthony's 

04/10
4:30 PM
Yorktown 

04/12
1:00 PM
@ Greenwich 

04/14
1:00 PM
@ Fairfield Prep 

04/17
4:15 PM
Kellenberg Memorial 

04/24
4:30 PM
St. John the Baptist 

04/28
1:00 PM
Manhasset 

05/01
5:00 PM
@ Fordham Prep 

05/03
4:15 PM
@ Holy Trinity 

05/08
4:30 PM
@ St. John the Baptist

05/10
7:00 PM
@ St. Anthony's 

05/15
4:15 PM
@ Kellenberg Memorial 

05/16
5:00 PM
@ Iona Prep 

05/19
1:00 PM
Delbarton