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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.

I heard they had to move the game to the MUS field. Nice for MUS, two home games against CBHS. I couldn't make the game, Briarcrest senior night vs Houston. Any details on the MUS game? Briarcrest won 2-1 over Houston in their game. Game could have gone either way. Briarcrest had what seemed to be 100 fouls called on them. Same story for Briarcrest, Ballard and Davis doing most of the scoring and assisting. Briarcrest's Goin did get the game winner tonight though. Wonderful sight for Saint fans. His first goal of the season.

I agree that it should be a good one. MUS is scoring better in the last couple games and their defense is very experienced. CBHS will have both Gardea and Banks back for this one, as they had to sit out the first meeting. The game is at CBHS. They should play better at home. I know CBHS looked really strong at practice on Sunday. I think I am going to go the other way and take CBHS to come out on top in this one.

I will share a few of my favorites in the Memphis area. Let's start with the public schools. Will Vaughn- central - leading Central to a great year Kevin Dee- Houston-solid at defense Jeffery Vandenberg-Houston- moved to sweeper, playing very solid Sebastian Simota- Houston- looks good at goal Ethan felsenthal- white Station- playing very hard Eddie Argote- Arlington- leading team in scoring Private Schools Paul Banks- cbhs- missed most of the season, but great talent Matt Roberts- cbhs- solid defender that can be a threat up the wing Zach Ballard- Briarcrest- leads team in goals and assists Matt Montsinger- MUS- has moved to sweeper, keeping the owls defense very organized Emmanuel Wilson- ECS- huge threat up front Chandler Gagnon- ECS- playing solid I'm sure I missed some great players, but these are the ones I think are the best.

Agreed. It does help to have a large pool of students to choose from when you just need a couple great athletes to compliment your club players. This year the older club players, 92s and 93s are spread across the board much better than in the past. MUS and CBHS will be a handful in the next couple years though, as they have gotten the majority of the strong club players in 94 and 95 age groups.

Sure, it's not ECS's fault. No harm meant. It's purely numbers. The cut off for the smaller and larger private schools was just over the ECS enrollment. I think with an enrollment of around 500 or so, they are going to have a huge advantage over most of their competition in the area. Look at the enrollment of their competition in the area. Coach T has it on each team's site. St. Georges is around 200 (I was very surprised it was this small), some Of the school's are in the 100s. So if you figure half are girls. Ecs has around 250 boys, the larger schools; Briarcrest around 300 boys, St. Benedict around 350 boys, Mus around 400 boys, and CBHS at about 900 boys. The smaller schoolls, now in ECS's division: St. Georges around 115 boys, Harding 200 boys, laussane 100 boys, tipton rosemark 80 boys, bishop bryne 80 boys, FAC 115 boys. That all I meant. The enrollment makes it easier to understand the CBHS dominace in most every sport over the years. Of course each school has had those special teams here and there, but CBHS and now ECS in their division should always be a force. Anyway, good for ECS. They didn't make the rules.

ECS has a very good team. Lots of club players litter their lineup. You are correct about their schedule. Some of the schools they have played this year have very little enrollment and ECS has been destroying them (10-0, 11-1, 7-0, 7-1). CBHS has been playing without their best player for the last two weeks. They are not the same team without him stretching the field for them. Still, it is always nice to beat a team with access to that many club players and a WIN is a WIN. With only Collierville (center back out for a while with a knee issue) Kingsbury (suffering from red card problems) and Memphis Central left as tough games, I look for ECS to finish without a loss. ECS dropping to the smaller private school division is kind of a joke. They are closer to the enrollment at Briarcrest then they are to the other schools in their division. Too bad, they obviously could have been right in the thick of things with the bigger private schools this year. Of course, winning a state title is definitely in the cards for ECS now.

Mr. Boyd, Thanks for the comments. I love watching the boys play. I have watched so many of the players the last 10 years compete with or against my son. I really have enjoyed watching them grow as young men and as soccer players. It looks like you have the Dandy Dozen under control. I will tell you that Memphis Central is making some noise. Might want to give them a look. I heard they had a ton of players try out. Lots of excitement with their soccer program this year. I know their record is impressive as was their win against White Station. Of course, White Station might have had a bit of a hangover after their win against Collierville.

Fun weekend here in Memphis. Watched part of the Bearden vs Houston game today. Only caught the second half. I heard Houston played well in the first, but the second was all Bearden. I think the score ended 1-0 Bearden, but it could have been worse. Houston defense made some great scrambles to keep Bearden out of the net all but the one time. Houston players didn't feel they played well, but I think Bearden had a lot to do with Houston's play. Very impressed with the improvement of the Houston squad. They were pretty raw at the beginning of the year. Houston is playing much better and I'm sure will continue to improve as the season goes on. Bearden had a great weekend. Probably the best team at the tournament. Indy vs Briarcrest game was a battle. Referee was very sensitive to sportsmanship and talking back. Lots of yellows, not sure if any were for rough play. Indy scored first on a PK. The Indy player, I believe it was Kyle Mcgehee (sp?) was fouled in the box. He knocked home the PK as well. Indy took a 1-0 lead into the half. Both teams continued to apply pressure. With about ten minutes left, Briarcrest got a free kick from midfield. BCHS's Zach Ballard was able to time his jump and headed the free kick over the Indy keeper. Both teams stretched the field a couple more times before the final whistle. Both teams were playing with missing links, Indy's Dykes and BCHS's Goin. On a huge positive note for Briarcrest, Their keeper bounced back from his performance yesterday and played really well. I also heard CBHS defeated West 2-0.

Independence vs Bearden game was a good game. Bearden was very organized and controlled the game especially in the second half. They spread the field well and neutralized the Independence central midfield that had played so well last night against MUS. Indy looked a little tired. It looked like they only had 4 players on the bench and the CBHS field is very hot. Bearden on the other hand has both the varsity and JV teams in Memphis. Don't know if they played a lot of their bench, it just looked funny to see one team with almost as many coaches as players and the other team with so many players. The Bearden team had so many players, there wasn't enough space on the bench for everyone to sit. Nice effort by both teams. Congrats to the Bearden squad. The West vs Briarcrest game saw West go up 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game with aggressive play by West and maybe a little lack of focus on the part of the Briarcrest defense. Down 2-0, Briarcrest responded with 2 goals to knot the score. In what seemed like seconds, West scored again to go up 3-2. BCHS again responded with a beautiful long kick sent into the box by a BCHS defender. A Briarcrest midfielder flew in from the outside and in full stride, volleyed the ball past the West keeper. Second half was pretty uneventful, with the exception of frustration and fouls. Both teams had chances, West was able to convert when the BCHS keeper called for the ball, ran out and completely misjudged it. The ball sailed over his head, bounced and went into the goal. I'm not even sure if anyone touched the ball in the box. BCHS benefitted on such a play in the CBHS game earlier this year, so I guess it was their turn for a costly keeper miss play. That being said, the keeper for Briarcrest, Jared Pacileo, has played exceptionally well all season, probably better than any goalie in Memphis. He just had an off game. He will bounce back though. Congrats to West. Nice comeback after last night's game and the long bus ride.

MUS vs Independence was a tough, hard fought game. Both teams had a couple quality chances. MUS on a set play, where the Independence keeper made a wonderful save. Both defenses were very organized. Matt Montsinger for MUS and Blake Farmer for Independence played well at center back. Both teams had missing links as Independence was without Dykes and MUS rearranged their lineup to replace their injured Keeper. Briarcrest vs Henry County was a game of opportunities missed. Briarcrest seemed to be making runs at the Henry County box time after time only to be turned away by an off touch or a nice defensive effort. Henry County countered a couple time very well to stay dangerous. Davis, Carr, and Ballard each had loads of shots. Davis was finally able to convert for the Saints. Goligthly and freshman Nathan West played well on the defensive end. Dobyns-Bennett just overwhelmed SBA. Too many good players for SBA to handle.