Florida Lacrosse News on Substack 04/16/2025
Welcome to today's post!
In this issue . . .
FHSAA Bracket Release scheduled for Friday at 2:30pm
Gators top Hatters
Tampa, FSC, Saint Leo Women take SSC contests
The Districts are shaping the brackets
AH-Delray Girls show Saint Andrew’s there’s still a gap
Man-Down Rotation Defense explained
Benjamin’s national ranking all over the place
More awards come in
All 8 SSC Men’s teams match up tonight
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#TAFTAG
#LayOffTheRefs
#FloridaRising
#LacrosseFanandDamnProudOfIt
#StopYellingWard
#AcknowledgeFloridaLacrosse
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Alert! Looks like the FHSAA is releasing the brackets on Friday at 2:30pm, I confirmed that this morning.
It is Good Friday, but it will happen that day via their YouTube channel. After the brackets are released, they will also release the final power rankings on the FHSAA website so we can see the data calculations the decision-making was based on.
It will be tight fully predicting the brackets since there are six Boys title games Thursday night, along with 3 Girls finals. I’ll be grinding away Thursday night and Friday (thankfully, the markets are closed on Good Friday) and I’ll have my predictions up and ready!)
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MaxPreps/FHSAA Rankings vs Online Dating - Which is Harder to Succeed At?
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I was communicating with a Boys’ coach today about the FHSAA/MaxPreps power ranking formula and the lessening of the influence of head-to-head results not counting any more than a normal win (a common issue with many coaches) and a bit of a bizarre thought came to me.
Of course, long-time readers know that’s hardly a first, as I tend to see things others might gloss past, roll their eyes over or scoff at.
My life isn’t the easiest for building a relationship, as the woman would have to put up with a man who spends a ridiculous amount of time during the month before to the month after the season ends, with a time dedication that is difficult to accept. Also, at age 66, my lack of desire to travel much (due to traveling a LOT for work in the past) when many women are looking to do so and a few other things, makes it a tough sell of me, even with the Mensa IQ and cute smile . . . okay, maybe a little too thick on that . . .
Online dating (no, not Tinder, Ashley, etc., of the hook-up culture!) is something I’ve tried here and there, with a little bit of success and a lot of WTF . . . and for some reason, OD and MaxPreps started to meld in my mind as similar experiences.
Online dating is kind of . . . ‘elusive’ might be the best word. My ‘Bumble-ing’ comes to mind . . . No ‘Match-ing’ . . . Can’t Catch a Fish . . . you get the point.
Like understanding and trying to maximize the use of MaxPreps algorithm to make the right schedule for a program. Even the name MaxPreps . . . I can understand the Preps part, but the Max only seems to be a hope, not a reality. Or is Max the Maxwell Smart of the ranking world . . . '“missed it by ‘that’ much” . . . (old TV show called Get Smart for you kids).
We know by now that Won/Loss tends to have the most influence on the power rankings, which kind of makes common ground with today’s culture of ‘teaching to the test’ instead of learning to think critically instead. The latter is how an algorithm should work when ranking teams, encouraging programs to reach to play the BEST SCHEDULE they can handle, not the one that piles up wins against lesser teams, where the player does not ‘Max’-out their talents.
Maybe we can try to put together a petition for the MaxPreps owners to try to adjust their algos, but if that doesn’t happen, I hope our coaching community does not all try to exit their tough games all at once. It might feel good to make the bracket, but do we really want a whole bunch of mediocrity permeating the state?
We’ve come a long way in the last 15 years, let’s keep that path and let’s communicate with Gainesville where improvements can be made instead of racing to the bottom. Going 12-2 with an SOS of -8.00 is not a big accomplishment.
And I can pretty much guarantee you will see unintended consequences you will not like if we see poor scheduling take hold. The number of games that many programs play have already sunk below the allowed 18 at many schools.
When you look at the top Girls programs this year, you have to go down to #25 Tampa Catholic to see ONE that played all 18 games allowed. NONE above them did.
It’s better on the Boys side, but Lake Mary, Jesuit, Winter Park all played 13 or 14. Some played even less.
Some of the top programs have trouble getting in-state games already, what if the race to the scheduling bottom worsens that?
Don’t take the easy way out. We’re trying to GROW the sport, not GAME it.
And to circle back . . . we don’t settle for a mediocre relationship either, do we?
😊
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Smartening the Audience
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The Basics of Man-Down 2-Man Rotation Defense
POWLAX.com’s YouTube channel, by Patrick Chapla
I was thinking of coming up with something I hadn’t introduced yet and the concepts of Man-down Defense seemed to be a bit of a neglected topic. We touched on the Man-up principle from Coach King about finding a seam in the Man-down defense while being Man-up and thought about defending against it, coming up with this video. It’s not supposed to be all-encompassing, so we’ll expand beyond this in the future.
Video LINK
As I watched the video, the takeaways I heard were:
Rules for a base defense that are followed to keep it simple
Try to take the seam pass away by where the defender aligns himself.
Communication, particularly when a defender has to move to follow the offense’s movement
Don’t overcommit to the outside
A high IQ defender is worth a LOT when they can communicate where the teammates should be moving to
Enjoy the video as it is clearly laid out!