The Top Florida Lacrosse Stories for 2024

Welcome to today's post and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you!

Jan 02, 2025

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First of all, a big THANK YOU to my subscribers! You’ve shown that you appreciate what I do and value the content I provide. I pledge to be even better this season, with lessons learned from the first year.

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It was a banner year for the sport and this state, both in-state and across the nation.

I don’t think I’ll rank them this year, so this will be more of a summary of all the great stories. Frankly, the achievements are so clumped together that ranking them is pretty useless.

Tampa Women Win the NCAA D2 Title

The Tampa Women joined their male counterparts and the Florida Southern Women as teams winning the NCAA D2 title, with their 13-8 win over Adelphi.

STORY LINK

Sophie Wrisk led with 5G in the game. The Spartans jumped out to an 8-3 halftime lead and basically sustained the lead the entire second half. Congrats to head coach Kelly Gallagher, her staff, players and the Spartan faithful for the great accomplishment.

Florida Gators Make the D1 Final Four

The Gators, underappreciated by the national media and pollsters most of the year, went on a run to the national semifinals, losing a close game to eventual runner-up Northwestern. HC Amanda O’Leary’s squad was led by Maggi Hall and Danielle Pavinelli.

STORY LINK

After starting 1-2, the Gators reeled off 20 straight wins to make the FF, including convincing wins over UNC, UVA and Maryland, with the last in particular a spectacular effort.

Congrats to Coach O’Leary, the staff, players and fans for a great ride. Florida moves to the fledgling Big-12 Conference for 2025.

Keiser Men Repeat as NAIA Champs

The Keiser Men’s team rallied from behind in the 4th to stun Reinhardt 12-11 in Savannah. Trailing 11-9 with 6 minutes to go, the rally concluded with Palm Beach Central’s Ryan Rundle taking a pass from Lake Nona’s AJ Badik to score in the final minute . . . kind of says a lot about the growth of the sport in Florida, doesn’t it?

STORY LINK

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

Congrats to HC Patrick Johnston, the players, staff, fans, etc.! Coach Johnston has moved on, and Jeff Desko takes over, looking for the 3-peat.

Speaking of 3-peats . . .

Bartram Trail Women Become 1st 3-Peat Since the Vero/SA Dynasties

New head coach, same result . . .

Megan O’ Grady’s Bears jumped out early to a 4-1 lead and sustained that margin throughout the game to take the 10-8 win over previously undefeated Plant in the 2A finals.

Justin Barney’s Game Recap LINK

Freshwoman Esa Brenneman’s 5G lead the way, supported by Ryann Frechette’s 3G/1A and Emily Barnette’s 2G, holding off McKenzie Craig’s 4G/1A and Katie Fisher’s 2G/1A.

Bartram continued their tradition of nail-biting playoff wins, taking down Vero by one goal in the semifinals after an amazing one-goal win over Lake Mary in the regional final.

Lake Mary Repeats in 2A Boys

It wasn’t as easy as last year’s Final Four, as St Thomas staged a late semifinal rally before falling 11-10. The first half of the final showed a sluggish offense versus Plant, but then Lake Mary’s offense clicked into high gear and pulled away in the second half.

I believe this is the first repeat since the Lake Highland years. A tremendous class graduates for the Rams, and interestingly they are moving to Region 2 for 2025, so they won’t have to deal with Ponte Vedra in a playoff run.

The Orlando Sentinel has an article, but it is behind their pay wall.

Coaching Changes All Over Our Colleges

Sara Tisdale named FSU Women’s Coach

Sue Murphy named Stetson Women’s Coach

Jeff Desko named Keiser Men’s Coach

Brett Bernardo elevated to PBA Men’s Coach from interim tag

Laurie Podmilsak elevated to PBA Women’s Coach from interim tag

Cristina Nikolai elevated from Assistant to Head Coach at Embry-Riddle

Am I missing any?

(By the way, FSU’s Title IX upgrade occurred at the end of 2023; I was going to say it was 2024 until I checked, if you are wondering about that)

Boys 1A Final Four Full of Surprise

One of the biggest upsets in Final Four history was the 11-10 OT win by Community School over Saint Andrew’s.

Community School of Naples came into the Final Four by beating Berkeley Prep, Jesuit and Cardinal Mooney by a combined 28-14, while SA had stormed through the normally robust Region 4 by a combined 70-11, over Ransom Everglades, Oxbridge and SJ Paul II.

On the opposite side of the brackets, Benjamin ran through All Saints, St Edward’s and Lake Highland in impressive fashion, while Bolles cruised past Maclay and ESJ, before barely surviving Oak Hall by a goal.

Benjamin then took it to Bolles unexpectedly, winning by a comfortable margin.

In the finals, the game went back and forth until the 4th, when Benjamin took what was looking like a pull away lead in the 4th quarter, only to see CSN rally back within one. Benjamin then held on for the first title in program history at the varsity level.

This was easily the most fun of the four Final Fours to watch. CSN’s Michael Slusar overcame the heat to make several outstanding saves to keep CSN alive in both games, but they finally fell to another team on a mission, as Benjamin’s late season was lights out, only losing to SA early in the season.

Erin Bakes and Molly Garrett Lead Florida’s Presence at the Inaugural Women’s World Box Championships with Team USA

Arguably the biggest surprise of the year beyond the CSN win over SA was Erin Bakes’ performance at the World Box Lacrosse Championships. The Ransom Everglades star, who had graduated Georgetown in 2023, took an interest in the Box game and magic occurred.

Bishop Moore assistant coach Molly Garrett, the Winter Springs alum, played the Transition position, which is a defensive role. Both offense and defense came together in a remarkable fourth quarter rally to give Team USA the gold medal. Trailing 7-5 with about 8 minutes to go, the US scored the last 5 goals of the game, with Bakes scoring the eventual game winner for the 10-7 win.

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

Bakes put up 22G/17A, including 2G/1A in the final and earned a spot on the Women’s World 1st Team for the event.

Floridians Gain U18 and U16 USA Team Rosters

Out of 96 total players named to the 4 teams, we have at least 8, and possibly 9, of the slots on these national teams! Way to go kids!

Florida Boys on U-16:

Jack Ivancevic of Benjamin

(Does anyone know if George Caldroney of IMG is a Florida native?)

Florida Boys on U-18:

Ryker Kemp of Ponte Vedra

Alex Ponchock of Benjamin

Florida Girls on U-16:

Ashley Egbert of AH-Delray

Brooke McCoy of Episcopal School

Florida Girls on U-18:

McKenzie Craig of Plant

Kalina Johnson of East Ridge

Aubrey Robbins of IMG (formerly Out-of-Door)

Florida Women in D1 ALL OVER THE COUNTRY

As you saw in the last Substack, Florida women LIT IT UP this past season.

Check out that post for the details!

No need to re-hash that in this article.

Bonus: The Possibility of the Super State Title

I haven’t heard anything yet confirming it, and it would likely be a 2026 possibility if it comes to fruition, but the FHSAA is rumored to be thinking of adding a Super Championship for lacrosse. The Top 8 or 16 schools, as ranked by MaxPreps numbers after the districts, would be paired together, regardless of Class 1A or 2A, into their own championship tournament, leaving the remainder of the schools to compete in their own normal 1A and 2A events.

Whether it would be a balance of 4 or 8 each, or just the top combined, is up for discussion.

To give you an idea of what this would have meant, here’s the Boys pairings of a Top 16.

This is based on the final PRE_TOURNAMENT power rankings from 4/19:

First Round Pairings:

#1 SA vs #16 Calvary Christian Clearwater

#2 Benjamin vs #15 Bishop Verot

#3 Lake Mary vs #14 Gulf Breeze

#4 Lake Highland vs #13 SJP II

#5 Bolles vs #12 Tampa Jesuit

#6 Ponte Vedra vs #11 Gulliver Prep

#7 Bishop Moore vs #10 Jupiter

#8 Cardinal Mooney vs #9 Community School

Notable outside the Top 16:

Oak Hall, Plant, Winter Park, St Thomas, Nease

THREE 2A Final Four teams would not have been chosen last year. Truly a lot of heart burn would have occurred. If it was just a Top 8, 1A finalist CSN would not have had their shot!

To see how the Girls would have lined up:

#1 AH-Delray vs #16 St Edward’s

#2 Lake Highland vs #15 Ponte Vedra

#3 Plant vs #14 Academy of the Holy Names

#4 Manatee vs #13 Community School

#5 Hagerty vs #12 Newsome

#6 Saint Andrew’s vs #11 AH-Plantation

#7 Benjamin vs #10 Bartram Trail

#8 Vero Beach vs #9 Saint Stephen’s

If this was a Top 8 only, look at how Bartram Trail would not have been chosen! Final Four teams Stoneman Douglas and ESJ would not have made this bracket!

Be careful what you wish for! The use of this ‘Super Championship’ might well lead to more schools ‘playing to the FHSAA system’ instead of the best schedules they can play.

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