I hope all is well. We open with Colby this weekend at home at 1:00. We had a scrimmage this past weekend vs. Skidmore in which we played very well. Offensively we are moving the ball better than any team I have coached. Defensively we have not yet been tested (other than at practice!) but we look strong and deep there as well. Depth has become one of our trademarks, and this team top to bottom is as deep as we have been. All of this having been said, we will have to get the job done on the field. Being deep top to bottom does not necessarily guarantee anything, as our top 20 has to beat the other team's top 20! Below is a little preview by position.

Attack:

Charley Howe and Mike Saraceni are both senior returning starters and they will lead the attack. Saraceni is a polished all around attackman who has shown a great ability to feed that I didn't know he had his first couple of seasons. He ended the season with over 30 assists last year. He quarterbacks our Man Up unit. Howe is a big, strong dodger and shooter. He will turn the ball over a little, but will also create offense more than our other attackmen. Finding the balance will be important to him. Two of our top four returners from last year, Senior Ben Tobey and Sophomore Jon Sisto, have been limited by pulled muscle injuries since the first practice. Tobey returned to practice yesterday and looked great. He gives us an extremely quick, ground ball, riding, feeder. Sisto practiced 1/2 speed yesterday and is probably a week away. In their absence a couple of players have emerged. Junior Mark Foster is a tall lefty with a great shot, great stick and great finishing ability. His speed is limited, but will be a man up starter and could get a couple goals a game even with limited action due to his skills. Freshman Nick Bastis could be a great one. He is a tremendous finisher and is more explosive than all of our other attackmen (all other players in fact, other than his brother, Senior Greg Bastis.) Nick is a 6'0 190 lefty, he should see a considerable amount of time. We had a Man Up/Man Down competition at the end of practice yesterday. With man up behind 4 games to none, Nick scored 3 consecutive goals to bring man up back into the game, which they eventually won, leading to the man down unit running "gassers"! Of course, you may hear that the man up strategy was to prolong the game until it was dark and the goalies could not see the ball anymore, but don't listen to those excuses. Brad Myers, J.P. Coviello, Henry Sheehan and Will Simpson are all very good at back up spots!

Midfield:

The top two middies are Senior Greg Bastis and Junior Dave Leach. They are both terrific athletes who have played a lot of d-middie in their careers. They will continue to play a lot of defense, because of their ability to defend, but also so we can get them out in front of some fast breaks. They are both dangerous offensive players. Bastis will have to get the long stick because of his tremendous speed which should free up Leach who is difficult to guard with a short and is doing a great job shooting. Aaron Herter looked tough to handle in the first couple of practices, excellent speed, 6'1, great stick and quickness. He then had an appendectomy which has slowed him down! He should return by the Gettysburg game. Andrew Giordano will handle much of our face off duties and possesses one of the best shots on the team, both lefty and righty. Travis Meyer is a Sophomore who has a great stick, can finish and feed very well, will need improve his outside shot to jump into the Leach category. Jamie Duke is a skilled Junior middie who can go righty and lefty to shoot or to feed and will round out the players playing most of the offensive runs. Mike Murray is a junior defensive middie who has greatly improved his offensive game, making him a threat in transition. He will also stay on the field to play a little offense. He is a great athlete, a starting receiver in football, and starts a lot of fast break opportunities for us. Senior Bob Wannop is a great story. He was cut as a freshman, made the team as a sophomore and has started as a d-middie the past two seasons. He is an undersized middie who makes up for his size with toughness, smarts and tenacity. He is great at breaking out and leading breaks, has great vision in the open field. Several other middies will be role players and give us tremendous depth.

Defense:

Senior John West and Junior Ed Brown combine to give us as strong a #1/#2 combo as there is in the country. West is 6'5/6'5 245 and Ed is 6'2 210 and built like an NFL player. Will Rawson who has played mostly Long Stick Midfield his first two seasons will round out the starters at close defense. It is another position with great depth, however. Senior Rob Borden(6'3 200) should see quality minutes. He is not as fast as the other guys, but very poised and smart and has an incredible stick. Sophomore Gabe Wood (6'3 220) is also a great soccer player and will see a lot of time and continues to get better all the time. Senior Tom O'Connor has played better than ever at LSM, he will be backed up by Rawson bumping up from close and Freshman Graham Cvinar who has looked very impressive. Freshman Ben Raymond will see some time at close as well, he is big at 6'3 200 (we have a huge group of defensemen!) and has great hands. He also is a smart defender, especially for a freshman. Brother Jed has taught him well!

Goalie:

Eric Krieger looks better than ever at this point of this season, which is saying a lot. He is relaxed and confident in the goal and makes great outlet passes to our breaking middies. He will be backed up by Freshman Alex Palmisano who looks as if he can be an outstanding heir apparent to Krieger's job.

As I said before, we still have to get the job done on the field and the competition is deep in our league, but we are playing well and looking forward to getting started this weekend.

Best,

Erin