PRESEASON - 4/01/14  CLASS A 1- Pittsford (41) 2- Fairport (34) 3- Penfield (23) 4- Thomas (19)       CLASS B 1- Canandaigua (44) 2- Victor (29) 3- Irondequoit (19) 4- Churchville-Chili (19)       CLASS C 1- Penn Yan (70) 2- Geneva (50) 3- Pal-Mac (44) 4- Aquinas (43) 5- Livonia (15) 6- Gananda (14) AGAIN THIS YEAR This year, we will conduct a weekly poll of about a dozen pollsters who represent all three classes and all four leagues. The group will be supple-mented by SportsFive reporters, Section Five officials and parents. EACH WEEK THE SAME QUESTION This poll asks the question: At the end of the season, who do you think will win each championship?

Last year was a big year for Section Five as we hosted New York State Tournament games from the quarter finals right through the Championships. Section Five Boys Lacrosse Coordinator, Mike Simon led his committee in the most professional manner and the games hosted at St. John Fisher College were exciting and proved to be a great experience for players and fans.

This year Fisher is replacing their turf and will be unavailable for this year's Championships. Instead, Championship day will be held at Webster Schroeder High School, which is fitting, as the Webster lacrosse community celebrated their 50th anniversary.

But before we get to the tournaments, there will be lots of action in boys lacrosse during the regular season. Well over three hundred games will be played from mid-March to the end of May when the 2014 Section Five Tournament begins.

Players

With the loss of Bishop Kearney during the off season, Section Five comes into 2014 with 36 teams. As of this writing there are 928 varsity athletes including 389 new players for this season. That means that 42% of all Section Five players are new to Varsity. Midlakes takes the title with the highest percentage of new players with 77% of their roster coming new this season (20/26). The smallest turnovers come from Waterloo and Churchville-Chili. Both teams added four players to their 25 player roster (16%). The largest current roster in the Section is from Fairport with 40 players and the smallest is from Avon with 18.

The oldest roster entry still active in Section Five belongs to Pal-Mac's Ben Reeves. Reeves was entered into the varsity database in 2009 where he finished his 7th grade season with 2g-5a for the Red Raiders. He has made a commitment to continue to play next season for Yale. He enters this season with a career record of 204g-229a (433 points) . He is a returning US Lacrosse All American and has been named Finger Lakers Player of the year and to 1st Team All Section the last two seasons. He has also led Section Five in assists for three years in row (60 in 2011, 66 in 2012 and 70 in 2013). Reeves made Pal-Mac an offensive threat last season and was responsible for 68% of this teams' points last year. He looks to continue that trend this season.

Reeves is the only returning All American to Section Five this season. However, four other players return who were named to the First Team All Section List. Senior goalie Brandon Maciejewski and senior attackman Bradley Voigt from Penn Yan return. Senior attackman Stephen Quinzi from Pittsford and junior attackman Ryan Cosgrove from Churchville-Chili also return. Second Team All Section Five returns nine players: Alex Bianchi (Aquinas), Joe Eddinger (Canandaigua), Eddie Eddington (Geneva), Brian Feldman (Canandaigua), Trevor Hodgins (Churchville-Chili), Dylan Joy (Gananda), Danny McAvoy (Fairport), Nick Panara (Pittsford) and Andrew Perl (Penn Yan).

Of last year's top 20 point scorers only four return. Joining Reeves and Voigt in the top 20 are Aquinas senior Alex Bianchi (76) and Pal-Mac junior Tyler Hurlbutt (64).

Polls

Once again, SportsFive will be asking a panel to determine the weekly rankings. The representatives this year were asked who they felt were the strongest teams at the start of the season. Each week we will ask the question "Who will be in the final four when the Sectional tournament is played?" Class A enters 2014 with 10 teams. Five total teams received votes with three teams receiving a vote from all 12 representatives. Leading the charge in Class A is Pittsford with 41 points , followed by Fairport (34), Penfield (23) and Thomas (19) filling out the top four places.

Class B enters 2014 with 11 teams. Seven teams received at least one vote and only one of which was given a vote by all the pollsters. Canandaigua, who received votes from all the pollsters, finished with 44 points. Victor (29), Irondequoit (22) and Churchville-Chili (19) filled out the top four spots.

Class C has the most teams again this year with 15. Nine teams received at least one vote with the top four receiving a vote from each representative. Penn Yan took the top spot with 70 points, Geneva (50), Pal-Mac (44), Aquinas (43), Livonia (15) and Gananda (14) filled out the top six.

Coaching

There are another significant number of new Head Coaches this season. Eight teams have new leaders this year. In the last five years twenty-one new coaches have been appointed. Bath Head Coach Ken DiDomineck remains the "Dean" with the most years in his current team. This will be his thirteenth season with the Rams. The new coaches this year are Erik Schneider at Avon, Nick Boylan at Bloomfield-Honeoye, Scott Hopsicker at Brockport, Donny Moss at Churchville-Chili, Matt Kleehammer, who was at Bishop Kearney is now at Eastridge, Mike Malloy is at Gananda, Andy Hilton is at Greece Athena-Odyssey and Scott Sciera is at Mynderse.

College Players

The number of players learning the game in Section Five and continuing on to play at the college level continues to grow. Of the roughly 900 players on the Varsity Rosters there are currently sixty-one players who have already made the decision to play in college. Many have signed National Letter of Intent contracts to play at D-1 or D-2 schools. You can check out these lists and more information on the Players Page.

The first games of the regular season were played on March 22nd. The last games of the season will be played on May 17th. Of the three hundred and eleven games currently scheduled, seventy-nine are at 7:00 PM or later (25%) thanks to, in great part, lighted turf fields. The games can be found on the schedule page where you can see the games by month, or the whole season. Remember, though, this is upstate New York and schedules change all the time. As games are changed, they will be posted as soon as they come in, so check SportsFive.NET before you leave on a snowy day.

Tournament Changes for 2014

This year, there were more changes in the tournament format. At the request of the Monroe County League, the Class A and Class B tournaments will be "open" this year. The Class C tournament will remain "closed" and will include the top twelve seeded teams playing. For more information, see the tournament Page.

Classes A, B and C

For the most part, the same team names continue to show up on the top of the polls and rankings and in 2014 the trend continues.

CLASS A  -  Pittsford comes out on top of the pre-season poll with two exceptional athletes. Defenseman Nick Panara (Fairfield) was recently named to the Northeast Region Top Players Watch List by Lacrosse magazine. He finished last season with 44 ground balls and 17 takes for the Panthers. Stephen Quinzi (Georgetown) finished last season with 34g-17a and was named to the All Section Team. He is one of only four non-seniors named to the list in 2013. Quinzi had the second highest goals and assists for the Panthers last year behind graduated senior Albie DiPasquale. He will continue to be a serious threat this season for the Panthers. (Class A Story...)

CLASS B  -  After a triple overtime win in the Class B Finals last season, Canandaigua returns at the top of the pack.  The Braves lost their next game to the Section VI Champion Hamburg.  They return fifty-two percent of their roster this season with fourteen new players joining the team.  The leading scorer and assister for the Braves both return in Brian Feldman (52g-8a) and Eric Munn (34g-29a).  The loss of graduated seniors Dan LaCrosse (Colgate), Connor Moore (St. Rose), Ben Northrup (Nazareth)  and goalie Michael Cuciti (Nazareth) will be hard felt this season.  Last season’s back-up goalie, Luke MacNeil, returns to start in the cage this season.  He played 100 minutes last season.  Canandaigua will have to step up to replace some of the starting offensive as well as their starting goalie if they want to defend their Championship. (Class B Story...)

CLASS C  - Penn Yan returns this season a favorite for their nineteenth Section Five Championship. The Mustangs return eighteen players from their 2013 roster. Bradley Voigt returns as the leading goals and points scorer for 2013. He finished the season with 57g-40a (179g-112a in his career). A first Team All Section selection in both 2012 and 2013, he is joined in the offense by attackman Rion Davison (34g-21a) and midfielder Andrew Perl (48g-14a). Defensively, Brandon Maciejewski returns for his fourth season starting between the pipes. He finished last season with a 67.68% save percentage. Over the last four seasons Brandon has a total save percentage of 64.23%. He was named to the first team All Section list the last two seasons and was named to the second team as a freshman. The Mustangs had the second best defense rating last season with a 3.9 goals against average with the highest goals against in any game coming from Geneva (10 goals). (Class C Story...)

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is the point of emphasis again this year. Expect to see flags thrown more often as the GVLOA officials have been asked to be "less forgiving" this year when it comes to the behavior of players, coaches and fans. Please help out on the field and in the stands by remembering that the boys are just playing a game. Let the players play, the coaches coach and the officials call the game.