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Will Murphy - Lausanne- Rhodes College Julio Prieto- Cordova- Northwood University Sebastian Simota- Houston- Delta State University

The Public schools in the Memphis area should have quite a battle this year. Most every traditional powerhouse team in the area is pumped for the season to begin. Collierville seems to think they are the team to beat. Their young talent from the past couple years will be put to the test. Collierville lost a pretty strong and deep senior class from last year. Hensley- Carson Newman, McCalister- CBU, and Thornbury- Central College are all playing college soccer. Those young men plus the twins, Michael Stewart and Thomas Hipps who all gave Collierville experienced and quality players all over the field last year are gone. Luckily, they return some quality players Lesnick, Carbognani, and others. I'm just not sure if they will be as good as last year. Houston should be better than last year. They were young last year and continued to improve as the year went along. Their big question mark is the health of their keeper, Simota. He was hurt in August and has just started back. He is set to play college ball at Delta State next fall, but not sure if he will be at his best during high school season. Luckily, the Mustangs have one of the best back lines returning with Dee, Vanderburg and company. Rumor has it that Blankenship will be moving to an offensive position this season. That should really help the attack that was a little inconsistent last year. Houston has better depth than they have the last couple years so things should go pretty well for them this year. White Station will again be strong. They don't have a great deal of big name players, but Felsenthal is really strong in the middle. They also have Cohen and Shibata on defense and Edelman in goal, so defensively they look good. Losing Brown and Jono is going to be tough though. Germantown returns most of their players. Forman and the Hughes boys along with Hanisco will keep them in a lot of games. They lost they keeper and will need to find a replacement. Central is really excited once again about their team. They return most of their players from last year, with Will Vaughn leading the way. Should be a strong season for them. Cordova was hit hard with graduation. Look for them to slide a little this season. I have no idea about Kingsbury, but hey keep coming up with a pretty good squad though Good luck to all.

Another year, another stacked CBHS team. This year's team should be better than last year's squad. Last year's team lacked leadership and composure early, but they were able to use their superior depth to take home their second title in two years. That shouldn't be a problem this year. Once again CBHS will be strong at forward with Banks, Bran, Svgdik, and Wickham. Their real depth is in their midfield. They have more quality midfielders than other teams have quality players in general. Matthews, Wilson, Gardea, Kauker, Palonia, Silver, Reddick, etc, etc. They also have strength on their backline. Roberts, Tarver, Burdette, Owens. Not sold yet on their keeper Healy, but you can't overlook his success.(2 state titles in high school and 5 in club). Rogerio goes into the season with 5 regional ODP players. Most teams don't have 5 ODP state players. Franklin their all everything midfielder will be their most significant loss. MUS will also be tough again this year. Defensive stars Matt Montsinger and Toby Baker will again have to keep the defense organized and aggressive with the loss of Utkov in the back. Luckily, the Owls should be much better offensively this year. Henke, Kaline, Levy, and Camuti should give the Owls nice skills throughout the frontline and central midfield. Graduating seniors, Baker and Utkov, especially Utkov, will be tough to replace. ECS is loaded again with Gagnon, Wilson, Chenault, Crockarell. They will miss Vander Voort's scoring(over 30 goals last season) and Linn's overall great play, but in their division, they will be extremely tough. SBA will be a better with the rumored return of Ryan Ashielman, to help Wagner and Tucci. They just don't have a lot of depth. The biggest team hit from graduation will be Briarcrest. Losing 8 seniors( Pacileo, Davis, Hendrik, Stimpson) and having Ballard graduate early and join the Creighton soccer team for the spring is going to leave the Saints in a rebuilding position. This season the Saints will lean on Golightly, and West. They have other hard working players. They will need to really unite as a team and just out work teams to have success. St. George's also took a hit with graduation, losing midfield playmakers Sims and Schneider among others. They return a pretty solid group though and Nate Sims is a very nice player. My Public school opinions tomorrow

Thanks for correcting. I meant Coach Wollf. I think he is great. Also thanks for speaking up for Carmen. I heard she was looking to play at the next level and has opportunities at every level. She is also a very bright student and may decide to concentrate on her academics. I hope she gives the college soccer experience a try. She has a real gift.

The list isn't bad. However, I can't believe Carmen Manes isn't on the list. She is one of the top players in the area in any division. I was actually expecting to see her as one of the finalist. She sacrifices her offensive game to play defensive mid, controls the midfield and let's others play the glory positions. She could be racking up points. I have watched St. agnes play many times in the past couple years and Carmen being left off the list is just not right. Coach Irby is a great pick for coach of the year. Not because his team has won back to back titles, but because he works harder than any coach in town(boys and girls). I don't know him at all, but I see him at games all over town scouting opponents. Houston is very fortunate to have him.

It wasn't a bad list. Three of the schools represented were pretty easy, I could make a case for Van der Voort or Gagnon from ECS, I could also make a case for Gardea, Franklin, or Banks from CBHS, I could make a case for Felsenthal or Brown from White Station, and I could make a case for Montsinger or Baker at MUS. The Kingsbury player had a nice year, but with the exception of White Station, the public schools were a little down, not bad, just a little down from years past. Hensley from Collierville, definitely should have gotten consideration, as should Vaughn from Central and Ballard from Braircrest. I'm sure they probably did. Although, I have been told your team pretty much has to go to state to make the list. I think that is a little unfair. Soccer is a team sport and the best players aren't always surrounded by as solid a group as others. The state thing does explain some of the picks the past couple years. Last year 3 CBHS players, 1 White Station, and 1 Kingsbury made the list. Dennis Kennetz should definitely have made the list. The year before 3 Houston players and 2 from CBHS.(4 were very strong) but lots of players were overlooked for the 5th spot. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But, I'm not voting. All in all, it was a great season and the Memphis teams did really well. Yes, it would be nice for some of the players to have the recognition to put in their player bio in college and have a little recognition in town, but most of the players overlooked really don't care. The parents just want it for their sons, which is completely understandable. I would like to acknowledge how nice the prep soccer coverage was this year in Memphis. I know there are a lot of sports going on in the spring and soccer got a lot of nice articles. Congratulations to all the best of the prep all metro honorees.

I agree with Wicker, but also think Vincent Beck gets a lot out of his players as well.

I'm not a huge MUS fan, but to say all they have returning is Levy(1 goal this year) is an interesting statement. MUS will have Matt Montsinger, Britt (their Keeper), Toby Baker, Sam Henke, Joseph Levy, Daniel Camutti, Will kaline, just to name a few. MUS loses Matt Baker, George Utkov, and a few other seniors that were pretty good, but not game changers. Montisnger was the most consistent player for MUS and Toby Baker was the most important this year. The biggest hole will be Utkov. He is a great leader and comes to play every game. Plus, you should never underestimate Coach Beck. He gets more from his players than any other coach in town. CBHS has a huge group returning. But they lost or tied teams this year like never before. They were young and had to get used to playing together. A lot of the ties and loses were without Banks. Yes, MUS beat them twice. The first time neither Banks nor Gardea played. The second time both played and all of MUS's goals were off keeper errors or misplayed balls by the CBHS defense. Credit MUS, they kept the pressure on and came away with the wins. CBHS does have Roberts, who was hurt most of the season, Wilson, Banks, Gardea, Kenneth Kauker, Andrew S., Chris Matthews, Tarver, Wickham, Owen, Silver, Burdette, and Bran back. They had those guys this year and when Banks didn't play, they were not the same team. That doesn't mean they weren't good. They just were not as good. In years past, having a player miss a game or two or three was no big deal for CBHS. This year it seemed to be much more noticeable. Banks stretches the field and demands attention. I can't imagine a coach in the area that doesn't game plan trying to stop him when they are up against CBHS. That being said, I think CBHS's most consistent players this year were Sam Wilson and Cecil Franklin. They did the dirty work, while others got to look pretty.

In Memphis: Look for MUS and CBHS to battle in the D2 AA. CBHS only loses 4 seniors and they return a real solid group. MUS loses more, but their freshman class is pretty special. MUS should still be pretty solid on defense, but I think they will be better on offense. For the first time in years CBHS was vulnerable to an injured or missing player this year. Even with their depth overload, they struggled without their big forward, Banks. If he doesn't play, they are a completely different team. Briarcrest loses a huge senior class and their play maker Ballard and St. Benedict just doesn't have the big number of club players needed to compete with MUS and CBHS In D2 A ECS will dominate again. They lose VanderVoort and Linn, but they return Crockerall, Gagnon, Wilson, and Chenault. Plus, other teams lose more. St. Georges loses Sims, Schneider, and Harris. Many of their remaining players are good, but they are role players, except for the younger Sims brother. It will be interesting to see how he fares without the older players. AAA look for Houston to be improved. They lose Martinez, but return a pretty solid team. Collierville will be a little down. They lose a big senior class. Collierville does return most of their offensive player makers. They will need to light it up. White Station loses Brown, Leor, and Jono, but hey will still be pretty good.

I think CBHS has a great opportunity. The CBHS defense is much stronger than the Briarcrest defense. Where the Briarcrest backs would panic and just boot the ball all over the place. The CBHS defense is more skilled with their feet and in the air. I think PJP will have a hard time scoring. CBHS has more dangerous players on offense as well. Briarcrest has three maybe four dangerous player, CBHS has probably double the threats. The sweeper for PJP plays really hard and will have to keep his defense very organized. The midfield will be a good battle, but CBHS is probably stronger on the outside. OF course, I am saying this after watching PJP play only one game and I have no idea if that was a good indication of their true team. The heat on Saturday afternoon was brutal. Good luck to both teams, but I will be pulling for the Brothers.

Why would the state have the winner of the East area Farragut play the winner of the West White Station first round? It seems like it would make more sense to have Collierville play Farragut and White Station play Bearden. This is why a couple years ago Houston tanked against Collierville to avoid the tougher first round matchup. White Station has handled Collierville twice this year. Not much of a reward for winning.

Listen, ECS is strong this year. I think they might have done well even had they played a decent schedule, but we will never know. CBHS was without it's best player and the ECS schedule has had them face many of their other tough teams at home. It has been difficult to look at their box scores this year because I feel they have run the score up repeatedly on terrible teams. Why would starters be scoring when the game is 11-1 or 10-0. Most teams have JV players littering the field when the score is 3 or 4 to 0. I have lived in Memphis for a long time and have never heard of some of the teams they are playing this year. Of course, they may just be ignorance on my part. That being said, Chandler didn't win this award because of his high school soccer accomplishments. He won it because of his club soccer and ODP recognition. It is hard to just go on high school stuff. Who has the better team surrounding them?, Who has better stats?, Who plays a tougher schedule?. Who's coach pushes for their players? Give it up to Chandler, he is a nice player and a nice young man (maybe not perfect). Lord knows, my son has never had a competitive outburst on the field. (ha, ha) Someone had to win the award. I personally would have given it to a Farragutt(sp?) player. They have had a tremendous couple of years and have some dominating players.

I think most of the traditional power houses don't need to beat the mess out of teams. They use their subs and work with their younger players in game situations. These schools have good soccer programs, not just the occasional strong team. Some of the scores have been horrible this year. What makes it worse is when you see the box scores and find out that the main starters, ODP and top players are scoring 3,4,5 goals even when they are the 8th, 9th, 10th, and even 11th goals for their team in an 11-0 romp. It is just stat building and the better schools and the better coaches don't play in that fashion.

Pretty good game. Game was scoreless after the first half. Briarcrest scored off a really nice free kick by Zach Ballard that was just out of reach from the MUS keeper and then finished by Nathan West on the far side of the goal with a one touch shot. They held the lead until the final 6 seconds, when MUS knotted the score off an equally as nice corner kick by Colin Lourens and a beautiful header by Matt Baker, just out of the reach of the Briarcrest keeper. Both teams get well deserved byes in the first round and a little time to rest and study for finals before their next games. State play-offs could be really interesting. Father Ryan has wins over BCHS and a tie with CBHS, but they lost to MBA and McCallie. MUS has beaten MBA and CBHS, but lost and tied Briarcrest. Briarcrest has beaten a lot of really good teams this year and has really battled in all but their Father Ryan game ( 1st game of the season) and their 2nd CBHS game. Of course, even that game was scoreless until the 20 minute mark in the second half. Then again, BCHS also lost to ST. Benedict. MUS has been in each and every game and only has 1 loss on the season, along with something like 8 ties. CBHS started slowly, but I think they are hitting their stride at the right time, but MUS has had their number this year and they are on the same side of the bracket. Should be fun.

This could be a really good game. Briarcrest has a chance to finish first in the region for the first time ever and MUS is on a roll. MUS has a really solid team with great size around the field. Things have fallen into place for them this year, with the exception of all their ties. (playing MUS without Banks and Gardea in their first meeting at MUS and then getting to play CBHS again at MUS because of CBHS's field being unplayable). No matter the outcome of this game, this has to be one of Briarcrest's best season's ever. They have wins over the likes of CBHS, MUS, Germantown, Collierville, Houston, Kingsbury(scrimmage), USJ, and a tie with Independence among others. They have also played an unreasonably tough schedule for a team without much depth. Especially considering the fact that their coach chooses and almost has to sit players that have any kind of injury to save them for region games. Smart move, but tough on the other players. I think Coach Beck has done a great job working with his talent as well. Early in the season, he gave all his upperclassmen their chance to shine. Most took advantage of the situation, but he has slowly weeded the under preforming players off the field and given some of the younger more, talented players their shot. These players have responded and the team is playing really well. In the last couple weeks they have wins over, Collierville, MBA, and CBHS. Coach Beck seems to always be willing to move players around until he finds the right combination.