For your enjoyment, here is the Bored Dad fall rankings preview. Ranking in parenthesis is the last ranking from the summer from me.
1. Annapolis Hawks (MD) (1). Put together the strongest season of any team last year. Outstanding offense and goalie. Solid in the midfield and defense. Word out of Annapolis is that they’ve added some key contributors this fall. Loss to Madlax at NLF is maybe a little concerning, but still not enough to knock them out of the top spot.
2. Madlax (VA) (2). Huge win to end the year at NLF. Very well coached and solid at all positions. Word out of McLean is that they retained all key players but didn’t add a lot this off-season so will be riding with basically the same group.
3. Team 91 (NY) (3). Very well coached and solid at all positions. Very physical. Word out of strong island is that they’ve upgraded talent significantly this offseason. They were maybe a little undersized relative to the top MD teams last year. (I can hear LI dads yelling holdbacks from here.). I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this team is at the top of the rankings at the end of year. (MD teams - we can’t let that happen.)
4. Next Level (MD) (4). Up and down team but no team except the those above them have shown they can win against very top competition. Had wins against Team 91 and Madlax but a bunch of surprising losses too. Very athletic in the midfield and physical. I would not be surprised if they ended the year top 3 or outside the top 10. Word from Bethesda is that they added a couple pieces, but mostly bring forward the same team.
5. 2way (CT) (5). Very solid results over the summer but didn’t play any of the top 4 teams or anyone from MD, so a little untested among the best teams. I don’t know anyone plugged into the CT lacrosse community so no idea about additions. Come to MD 2way, we want to see what you’ve got.
6. BBL (NJ) (6). Big and skilled. Struggled some against the very best teams, but clearly a top team. I’m not plugged into NJ either, but I’d expect talent in that part of the country to consolidate here.
7. FCA (MD) (9). I’m moving FCA up because I think the coaching change is going to make this a better team. Very skilled at attack. Good at FO and goalie. This is a team where the talent level seemed better than the results (outside wins against NL). Tournament schedule was a little weak last year.
8. Express North (NY) (8). Skilled team. Another team pretty solid across the board. Some uneven results, but a number of nice wins. Strong tournament schedule last year.
9. Legacy (NY) (7). Very uneven results but ended the year strong. Word from LI is they’ve added some nice pieces. Will they be able to retain their top players against the LI machines of 91 and Express long term? I doubt it, but I have them second on the Island for now. I think I had them slightly too high last year, so moved them down a little, but 7-9 all had pretty similar results last year so it could be any order.
10. Long Island Express (NY) (13). Moving them up based on word from LI that they’ve upgraded their roster. Had several strong athletes and good size when I saw them play. Very uneven in results, but I would expect Express and 91 to consolidate LI over time.
11. Freedom (PA) (10). They were an honorary HOCO team last summer with the amount they played HOCO teams. Really good FOGO and some good shooters. Well coached. I don’t know the Philly scene that well but would expect them to consolidate the Philly market as the other Philly teams are all at least a notch down.
12. 3D New England (NE) (12). The 3D teams don’t always have stable rosters. But this team played enough together that I’m including them. Seem to be the top dogs against NE competition. They were a little more uneven when they played NY and south teams.
13. Thunder (GA) (unranked). Their results were okay, but probably not good enough to be top 15. But anyone who watched the Atlanta based teams last year had to be impressed with some of the raw athletes they had. My guess is that Thunder consolidates talent and this ends up being a team no one wants to play. I expect we will see a California team and a Colorado team in the top 10 by the end of the year too.
14. MadDog West (unranked). Maybe more of a tournament team than a stable roster, but played enough together that I’ll include them. Big and strong athletes. Wouldn’t be surprised if they move way up.
15. Crabs (MD) (unranked). Have they improved enough to include them? Some Crabs dads think that is this case. We will see. Had some nice wins - mostly over True.
Watch list - Laxachusetts, 4 Leaf Army, True Annapolis, 3D Gulf Coast, 3D Dallas, Seattle Stars, Denver Elite, Alpha Elite Colorado, ADVNC. Who else?
National teams - Nationals, Mad Dog National, True National. yes these teams will probably be good. No I am not including national teams in these rankings unless they consistently play together.
I'd add Blue Claws (MD), BLC and True KP (MD) to the watch list. I think all three remain in tact from their very good teams last year and added a few new pieces. We shall see.
