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4/26/2009- Lacrosse
2009 Oakland County Boys Lacrosse Preview
Orchard Lake St. Mary's a team to watch
By JAKE SHARFMAN
Special to The Oakland Press
Birmingham Brother Rice enters the 2009 lacrosse season coming off cloud nine.
A season ago, the Warriors not only took home their eighth straight state championship in blowout fashion, but ended the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the entire country, according to Inside Lacrosse, with a dominant 23-0 record. The Warriors were the first Midwestern team to claim the top spot in a sport dominated by East Coast teams.
This year, however, head coach Rob Ambrose and his returning seniors have their work cut of for them.
Graduating 90 percent of the scoring from a year ago, in an impressive 11 players that went on to play lacrosse at the Division I level, Ambrose refuses to call this a rebuilding year. Instead, Brother Rice has approached a “learning curve” with a handful of experienced players, accompanied with a slew of young talented kids in the program's mix.
“We don't need to rebuild, we just need to close the gap between our experience and our young guys, so we can get consistency,” Ambrose said. “We are putting a whole lot of pressure on our returning players to get the young kids to their level and we're also testing our young ones because we are looking for the right mix as the season goes on to be where we want to be.”
Senior midfielder Danny Henneghan and senior goalkeeper T.J Yost lead the cast of returning talent back to the Warrior gridiron. Both were All-Americans from a year ago and are eyeing yet another state championship before heading off to play lacrosse at the collegiate level.
Henneghan is a four-year starter for the Warriors and has received All-American honors in all three of his previous seasons with Brother Rice, the first time that has happened in the team's significant history.
“We definitely have a different team from last year. We don't have the all-stars that we had, but we do have a bunch of good role players that will need to step up,” Henneghan said. “What we (the seniors) try to do with them is just be more personable. They get yelled at enough by coach Ambrose, so we just want them to be able to come talk to us with any questions they have and build good, comfortable relationships.”
Henneghan and most of his senior counterparts have won a state championship every year they have suited up in the Warriors' black and orange. Henneghan has committed to play at Penn State next season with teammate and best friend Nick Dolak. The two have been playing together since the eighth grade and look to continue the dominance they've grown so accustomed to in Happy Valley next year.
“Man, it's so great to be going there with Nick,” Henneghan added. “We've known each other for a long time and we'll both be going through the same stuff as freshmen in a new town, just trying to transition to college. It will definitely make it much easier for lacrosse and the other stuff.”
Yost will be moving on to play at Quinnipiac University, located in New York. With a young and inexperienced team in front of him, Brother Rice feels much stronger about its chances with such a strong backbone of a keeper in goal as Yost is, a three-year starter.
“There is no substitute for experience,” Ambrose said. “He's very quick and very fast in net, but we're going to need him to make some big saves for us this year, no doubt about that.”
Already this season, the Warriors have matched their total number of losses they had in the past two seasons — one. A loss to Western Reserve (OH) dropped the Warriors to the No. 3 ranking in the Midwest, but still atop the rankings in the state. With the type of schedule Brother Rice plays, taking on teams from all over the Midwest, it's not going to have much time to get the young players in the shape needed to reclaim their throne of national champions.
“We can only control what we can control and that's one day of practice at a time,” Ambrose said. “We came off a stellar year last year with a team that didn't have any weaknesses. This season is more of a challenge, but I think our kids are up for the task.”
Five other teams to watch
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood — Head coach Justin Ronayne and his Cranes no doubt have the talent to win the Division 2 state title this season, but a few inconsistencies have arisen this season. Cranbrook doesn't hold a lot of practices, so the progression in getting better comes as the season wears on in game action. However, a recent debacle against Forest Hills Central, along with a few injuries, has Ronayne a little concerned.
Talent-wise, Cranbrook is up there with anyone. Holding an astonishing 15 juniors on their already slim roster, the Cranes have solid players at every position of the game. Junior midfielders William Miller and Ben Moman take control of the Cranbrook offense and mesh very well together after playing with each other for two years.
Attackers Dean Stanton (senior) and junior Andrew Stanton will also take part in the Cranbrook offense, returning from a season ago, when Cranbrook lost in the state semifinals to University of Detroit Jesuit. Dean Stanton was an all-state first-team selection, while Andrew was a second-team selection a year ago.
In net, Cranbrook brings back senior captain Adam Wells, who has been an all-state selection the past two seasons he has been in net for Cranbrook. Acting as the true anchor of the Cranbrook defense, the Cranes will need Wells to continue his superb play this season to get over the semifinal hump and reach the big show. Dakota Sherman will play in front of Wells, as the Cranes' top defender.
Birmingham Unified — Head coach Jeff Martin and his Birmingham Unified squad expects to not only compete for the state title, but for the Midwest title as well. To do so, Birmingham will have to do quite a bit of learning on the job.
Graduating 15 seniors from its regional final team a year ago, Birmingham is filled with predominately all juniors. Junior midfielders Scott Drummond and Brent Prior have gotten off to a hot start so far in this fresh season and will need to lead this inexperienced group as the season wears on. Drummond and Prior have already combined for 54 points this year.
Defender Tom Stacy is a senior captain and will also be integral in mentoring the inexperienced junior class. In addition to leadership, Stacy will lead Birmingham's defense on the field in front of goalkeeper Adam Mondry. Martin loves Stacey's ability to guard the ball with tenacity and calls him one of the most physical defenders in the area.
For Birmingham to have success, they are looking for this season, however, they will need some unexpected juniors to step up and improve greatly as the season wears on to accompany the returning experienced players.
Birmingham Detroit Country Day — The Yellowjackets play one of the tougher schedules in the county and it certainly works out in their favor come playoff time. After an average regular season a year ago, Country Day won its last six games before the playoffs, getting hot at the right time, and pushed to the regional finals, only to lose to the touted program of Grosse Pointe South.
Country Day will start mostly juniors and sophomores this year, as a bright future awaits this Yellowjacket program in years to come. Country Day has two key juniors back from last year's team, both great defenders in Joe Maclean and Brent Howard. Maclean is a midfield defender who plays an old school style with a classic two-way approach. Maclean is one of Country Day's best offensive players and is steady and tough on defense.
The Yellowjackets graduated an All-American goalkeeper from a season ago in Austin Anusbigian, so the keeping duties will be up to sophomore Drew Gyrrell and freshman Ahmed Iftakha. Gyrell and Iftahka will be crucial to the Country Day success this season and must improve in each practice and in each game.
Novi Detroit Catholic Central — Like most other teams in the area this season, Catholic Central graduated a bunch of talent and will need to rely on a young attacking sophomore class, which is unsettling to head coach Dave Wilson.
The Shamrocks graduated eight players from a year ago and carry 13 sophomores on the roster this season. The most promising of the sophomore class is attacker Mitch Burgin. The young Burgin is explosive in the open field attacking, but also takes great care of the ball, a trait not too common among sophomore attackers. Burgin also has, as Wilson says, a great nose for the net and where the ball needs to go to get past an opposing keeper.
Catholic Central has six seniors on this year's roster who will need to make up for the lack of experience. Senior captain midfielder Chris Nemes is in his third year of varsity experience and will hold down the middle of the field with his uncanny stick skills. Committed to play at the next level at the University of Detroit Mercy, Nemes will not only need to bring his act to the field with great play, but in the locker room as well with some divine leadership abilities.
Juniors Alex Moore and Kevin Lerg will be counted on to defend. Moore is returning to the Shamrock defense from a season ago, while the goalkeeper Lerg has shown very nice improvements in goal in the early going of this 2009 season.
Farmington — The Falcons return a strong offensive attack and a very solid defense from a year ago, but lost a lot of midfielders in the 2008 to 2009 transition.
Farmington returns senior captain Mike Garner and juniors Mitch Hall and Kraig Andrews to their attack that combined for 92 goals from last season, so scoring shouldn't be too much of a concern.
However, Farmington enters the season with an essentially brand new midfield, only returning two midfielders from last year, and a brand new goalkeeper in sophomore Matt Allemang. Allemang has been the surprise of the season so far with his lights-out play in net.
Allemang had only one game of goalkeeping under his belt before the season, and it was on junior varsity. But Allemang has played fantastic so far, compiling a 79 percent save percentage in the first eight games for Farmington.
Five more to watch:
Troy Athens — After reaching the Division 1 semifinals a year ago only to get beaten by Brother Rice, Athens looks to make a nice playoff run again this season.
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep — Playing in a very competitive Catholic League, Notre Dame Prep will need unexpected players to step up to compete for the league title.
Novi — Outside of South Lyon, Novi will be competing in a somewhat sub-par Kensington Lakes Activities Association and should be at the top of the league come crunch time.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's — The Eaglets have had a couple of down years in a row, but rebounded to 10-9 in 2008 under new coach Greg Normand and look to have picked things up this season with an 8-1 record to begin the year.
Rochester Adams — With big wins this season already over Troy Athens and an overtime victory against Farmington, Adams looks to be a major player for the Oakland Activities Association title this season.
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