Florida Lacrosse News on Substack 04/14/2025
Welcome to the post!
In this issue . . .
What’s with the forfeits?
Faceoff wing play, pay more attention to it
Our kids have the right mindset
Palm Harbor Boys pull the upset
Viera sweeps the Cape Coast coaching awards
. . . and much more!
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#TAFTAG
#LayOffTheRefs
#FloridaRising
#LacrosseFanandDamnProudOfIt
#StopYellingWard
#AcknowledgeFloridaLacrosse
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Before I get to the rest . . . WHAT’S WITH THE FORFEITS?
What signal does that send to your student-athletes?
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We’re coming up on the week that decides the bracket participants and barring any weather issues that pushes it back, Thursday will be the end of the District Playoffs.
If memory serves, the FHSAA released the brackets on Sunday morning at 9:00am last year and I’ll confirm with them whether they are doing that again this year.
Assuming so, that will give me a few days to come up with the projected brackets. Last year was a solid year for me on that, as I got 63 of the 64 teams right and about 85% of the slots correct. Most of the misses were #4/#5, which is important because of the home game status.
Hopefully, the FHSAA keeps to it, as the number of viewers last year was significant. It’s really too bad we don’t have an extended live broadcast to go over the brackets similar to how the March Madness or CFP does it, but maybe we can plan something like that for next year with a studio approach and sponsors.
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There haven’t been a lot of surprises yet in districts (see Palm Harbor Boys for one), but that’s not unusual. We’re still building out the depth in programs around the state and eventually that will come. It’s been a great year so far and there will be some highly competitive district titles, as noted in the graphic below about D5 in Boys 1A.
Plenty of seedings still to be determined and we’ll have a few solid teams failed to make the brackets, which also highlights our growth.
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One thing that continues to make me proud about our kids is how much they look at using their games to help those less fortunate; it’s a trait we don’t brag enough about, and you’ll see I will include those IG’s or tweets that have that focus as their theme. Keep it up kids!
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Smartening the Audience
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Today, we focus on something that even the more experienced lacrosse fans tend to overlook, which is how Faceoff Wing Play is designed and used during a game. I’ve found this 10-minute video from Greg Gurenlian’s Face Off Academy, with Greg explaining the basics of coordinating film study, wing placement and how to communicate adjustments.
A lot of the time, we see a dominant FOGO winning draws, but also a lot of the time it goes a lot deeper than that, and it also is about controlling the space the FOGO is driven towards.
Enjoy the video, from one of the best to ever do it!
YouTube LINK