PRESEASON - 3/21/13  CLASS A 1- Penfield (34) 2- Fairport (32) 3- Pittsford (24) 4- Thomas (9)       CLASS B 1- Irondequoit (33) 2- Canandaigua (31) 3- Churchville-Chili (20) 4- Victor (10)       CLASS C 1- Penn Yan (58) 2- Aquinas (42) 3- Geneva (36) 4- Livonia (30) 5- Pal-Mac (28) 6- HF-L (11) 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?

This is a big year for Section Five Lacrosse as, after our own exciting tournament, we will be welcoming some of the best teams in the state when we host the NYS Boys Lacrosse Tournaments. St. John Fisher College, which will host our Sectional Championships, will also be the venue for the NYS quarterfinals and semifinals as well as the Championship games. There will be lots of information available as we move through the year.

But before we get to the tournaments, we have 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 2013 Section Five Tournament begins.

Each year, SportsFive reporters review articles, lists, player profiles and survey information from coaches and make some predictions about the performances of the the teams. Up until this year, we have been able to write previews on each team. Unfortunately, given the number of teams and the difficulty in getting timely updated information, we will be publishing only previews of each of the three classes. We have changed the view of the individual team pages so that there is more information available there.

Moving on to prognostication, we will continue to publish a weekly poll that asks the question, "Who do you think will win the championships in each class?"

In the "Preseason Poll" we asked the pollsters for their thoughts and they selected Fairport in Class A, Irondequoit in Class B and Penn Yan in Class C.

Section Five added another Varsity level team this year as Avon joined the Section. The Braves will play as part of the GRALL league and, with 254 students, are in Class C. Head Coach Vince McKeown has been working with the team for a number of years and is excited about their move to Varsity status. Last year, as a Junior Varsity team, the Braves finished at 8-8 with wins that included McQuaid and Livonia. Ryan Doudt, who will be a senior this year scored 12g-2a last year and Colin Ellis added 17g-2a as a sophomore.

East Rochester, however, dropped its program after a four year effort. Section Five continues to field thirty-seven teams in 2013.

There was more coaching changes for 2013. In addition to McKeown, three other head coaches were appointed for 2013. In the last three years there have been twenty-two new coaching changes which is nearly sixty percent.

Grant Catalino is the new Head Coach at Aquinas, taking over for Jason Mordaci. Catalino was a standout player at Webster Schroeder (AGR Player of the year) and the University of Maryland (3 time AA). Ian Buckley takes over as Head Coach at Bloomfield-Honeoye as Chris Stock learns how to raise a new set of twins. Long-time teacher and lacrosse coach in the lower levels in Victor, Jim Andre takes over as Head Coach, replacing Mike Gottko.

The number of players learning the game in Section Five and continuing on to play at the college level continues to grow. Although we are still missing a number of rosters at this time, over 1,100 student-athletes will be playing this spring. We have noted thirty-nine players who have already made college decisions. Many have signed National Letter of Intent contracts to play at D-1 or D-2 schools. Although we are still reviewing alumni rosters, almost three hundred Section Five alumni are playing in college. You can check out these lists and more information on the Players Page.

Currently, the first game of the regular season will be on March 21st when Batavia travels to Medina. The last games of the season will be played on May 17th. Of the three hundred and fifteen games currently scheduled, ninety-three are at 7:00 PM or later (30%) 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 2013

This year, not all teams will qualify for their sectional tournament. In Class A the top eight (of ten) teams will play. In Class B the top eight (of nine) teams will play and in Class C the top twelve teams (of 18) will play. Teams will be selected on the basis of the seeding procedure that has been used for many years.

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 2013 the trend continues. The coaches are optimistic about their prospects as seven teams expect to win at least 75% of their games and an additional eighteen expect at least a winning season. Thirteen teams expect to make the final four in their tournaments and six expect to be in their championship game.

CLASS A  - With thirty-six head coaches responding to the Class A portion of the poll, Fairport takes the top coaches' list with thirty-five ranking them one of the top three programs in Class A. Pittsford and Penfield also came away with significant votes (twenty-eight each). Only two other programs received any votes (Webster Thomas and Hilton). (Class A Story...)

CLASS B  - With thirty-six head coaches responding to the Class B portion of the poll, Irondequoit was the unanimous leader as all the coaches ranked them at one of the top three programs in the class. Canandaigua finished with a solid second (33 votes). Churchville-Chili finished with twenty-two votes and Victor finished with eleven votes. The defending Champion Eagles are once again the team to beat in Class B. Irondequoit won the 2012 tournament with six goals from graduated senior Briele Caples to defeat Canandaigua 11-9. The Eagles eventually lost in the State Finals to Garden City, 11-4. (Class B Story...)

CLASS CB  - With thirty-six head coaches responding to the Class C portion of the poll, Penn Yan was the unanimous leader as all the coaches ranked them one of the top three programs in the class. Aquinas came in with the number two spot at twenty-four votes. Livonia and Geneva both made significant showings with sixteen each. (Class C Story...)

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is the point of emphasis 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.

The Section Five Lacrosse Committee brought together over one hundred and twenty-five coaches who heard about new initiatives to help improve behavior at games. The "handout" included copies of the "Boys Lacrosse Mission Statement", the "Spectator Courtesy Code of Conduct", a new suggested order of events for games, a copy of the Monroe County League "Taking a Position in support of Respectful Speech and Behaviors In, at and around Interscholastic Athletic Contests" and a "Sportsmanship Rubric" that was adapted from the Webster (WABO) CARE's program. The handout is available here.