Pre-Season Rankings

[FPTFAN]

Let me start by saying this is not intended to offend anyone team or players, and please do not take it personally. I am just stating my individual opinion based on what I have seen over the offseason, pre-season, last year and effects of graduations on this years teams:

1. Pittsford Sutherland - This team has played second fiddle to ER for years and this is their year to knock off the legendary ER team. Last years team lost 2 very close games to ER at the end of the year and they want revenge... They bring a strong core group of girls back led by Catherine Willard. They tied Fairport 0 - 0 in the Penfield tournament but beat them 5 - 4 in the Uof R summer league and recently beat them in a scrimmage, so the edge goes to Sutherland.

2. Fairport - Lost in sectional finals last year in OT to Webster Thomas and is on a mission this year to win Sectionals. Although they graduated a strong senior class from last year; Fairports JV team has been undefeated for 3 consecutive years and feeds the varsity a steady stream of replacement players. The team features a number of key players that should score a lot of goals this year. The midfield and attack are loaded with quality players such as Ally Martens and Colleen Dowling 5th and 8th leading scorers from last year. Courtney Collins, Mary Oheir and Melissa Newmark highlight the defensive midfield and Abby Leistra highlights the defense. The coach has been experimenting with various defensive lineups and eventually will find the right mix.

3. East Rochester - ER is no longer the team that everyone fears. In the past they were invincible, no one believed they could be beat, but last year 2 teams had close games with them Sutherland lost 2 games by one goal only and Fairport lost to them in OT, but Webster Thomas managed to beat them 2-0. The aura of invincibility is over, with their 3rd coaching change in as many years and the loss of arguably the top 2 players in the league, they have come back to the pack and are ripe to be taken over. They were very unimpressive in the Penfield tournament and have some work to do, but they still belong amongst the top 3 teams in the league. Ciara Condello was the 2nd leading scorer last year and Kristina Renner needs to develop into that connector position which ER runs so effectively to succeed.

4. Irondequoit - Kelly Hynes leads this team in the midfield and the addition of
Katie Burke provides more offense to this team. A great coach only adds to their strength.

5. Webster Thomas - Not sure where Shannon Hutteman plays whether defense or midfield but wherever she doesn't will be a question mark. They have a solid scorer up top in Kailey Suhr but need a connector to get her the ball.

6. Webster Schroeder - Mikaela and Shawna Thompson lead this team and this team is solid all the way through with no apparent weaknesses.

7. Pittsford Mendon - was hit heavy by graduations but has one of the best midfielders in the league in Sarah Plain. She will carry this team and they will go as far as she can carry them.

8. Hilton - Molly Westbrook is a sparkplug that gives every thing she's got. This team played very well in the scrimmage today.

9.Penfield - How the mighty have fallen... It wasn't too long ago that Penfield was the powerhouse in large school Field Hockey. There best player is their goalie Tara Lamberti, and she will keep the games close, but they have not developed a consistent scorer in the last few years.

10. Brighton - This team has improved and will be more competitive this year, but not enough to move into the middle of the pack.

11. Eastridge

12. Gates Chli

[adAms08]

Great idea for a new thread! This is my ranking... and like FPTFAN, I mean no offense to anyone! :) And by the way, this is much harder than it looks!

1) Sutherland - I firmly agree that Sutherland will probably be the top team this year. They have a few difficult teams scheduled for very early in the season - ER, Mendon, and Irondequoit are 3 of the first 4 games they have this year. Catherine Willard is solid and strong, and they are always a well-coached, well-conditioned team. They will be tough no matter who they are playing this year, in my opinion.

2) ER - This is one I went back and forth on, whether to put Fairport or ER at #2. I went with ER, and here's why - yes, they lost a lot of talent to graduation. Yes, they have their 3rd coach in 3 years. Yes, they had a rough time at the Penfield Tourney. But we all said the exact same thing last year (except replace 3rd coach with 2nd coach) - and they still had an excellent season and went to States where they lost in the semis by only 1 goal to perennial powerhouse and eventual state champion, Marathon. They still have some very strong players and I still expect them to be solid. I could be very wrong on this, of course, but this is where I think they might fall on this list.

3) Fairport - Again, I went back and forth on this. I chose to put them here for a couple of reasons - first, they lost more than half of their team from last year to graduation. I know they had a good JV team, so this might not matter TOO much, but still, losing that many people means a lot of re-tooling. Second, their defense is looking kind of rough at the moment. They'll have plenty of time to work out the kinks, of course, but I can see that this could potentially be an issue. Again - I could be very wrong, and Fairport might very well be #1 or #2 this year.

From here, I'm much more up in the air. My best guess is...

4) Mendon
5) Thomas
6) Irondequoit
7) Schroeder
8) Penfield
9) Brighton
10) Hilton
11) Eastridge
12) Gates Chili


By the way - purely from a numbers standpoint, I thought this was interesting:

Fairport is by far the biggest school in Section V with a FH team, with 1654 students - the next closest in numbers is Gates Chili, with 1274. That's a difference of 380 students. ER, by contrast, only has 266 students - a difference of 1388.

I can't find the break down of female to male in those schools - but let's assume it's half and half (which I know it isn't - I'd be willing to bet that both schools actually have more females than males.) But using half male and half female - Fairport would have 827 females, and ER would have 133. If you looked at the top 15% of the female athletes in each of those schools, then, ER would have about 19 girls fitting that criteria, and Fairport would have about 129. 19 girls is enough for a varsity field hockey team. 129 is more than enough for varsity soccer, FH, tennis, cross country, and then some. Fairport's top 15% is almost equal to ER's total number of girls. Mathematically speaking, they should do very well. :)

Of course Gates Chili proves that big #s don't always translate into success, but because one Fairport fan commented on here last year about how ER's success over the years could be attributed to the fact that they don't have girl's soccer to draw away the top athletes, I just thought it was interesting. :)

[SoccerFieldHockeyfan]

Still waiting on some info. on these scrimmages. I think I heard Mendon looked good in the scrimmages they hosted. I think I saw on Thomas' schedule they were scrimmaging a Syracuse team. How did they fare?

[110pct]

Great idea for a new thread! This is my ranking... and like FPTFAN, I mean no offense to anyone! :) And by the way, this is much harder than it looks!

1) Sutherland - I firmly agree that Sutherland will probably be the top team this year. They have a few difficult teams scheduled for very early in the season - ER, Mendon, and Irondequoit are 3 of the first 4 games they have this year. Catherine Willard is solid and strong, and they are always a well-coached, well-conditioned team. They will be tough no matter who they are playing this year, in my opinion.

2) ER - This is one I went back and forth on, whether to put Fairport or ER at #2. I went with ER, and here's why - yes, they lost a lot of talent to graduation. Yes, they have their 3rd coach in 3 years. Yes, they had a rough time at the Penfield Tourney. But we all said the exact same thing last year (except replace 3rd coach with 2nd coach) - and they still had an excellent season and went to States where they lost in the semis by only 1 goal to perennial powerhouse and eventual state champion, Marathon. They still have some very strong players and I still expect them to be solid. I could be very wrong on this, of course, but this is where I think they might fall on this list.

3) Fairport - Again, I went back and forth on this. I chose to put them here for a couple of reasons - first, they lost more than half of their team from last year to graduation. I know they had a good JV team, so this might not matter TOO much, but still, losing that many people means a lot of re-tooling. Second, their defense is looking kind of rough at the moment. They'll have plenty of time to work out the kinks, of course, but I can see that this could potentially be an issue. Again - I could be very wrong, and Fairport might very well be #1 or #2 this year.

From here, I'm much more up in the air. My best guess is...

4) Mendon
5) Thomas
6) Irondequoit
7) Schroeder
8) Penfield
9) Brighton
10) Hilton
11) Eastridge
12) Gates Chili


By the way - purely from a numbers standpoint, I thought this was interesting:

Fairport is by far the biggest school in Section V with a FH team, with 1654 students - the next closest in numbers is Gates Chili, with 1274. That's a difference of 380 students. ER, by contrast, only has 266 students - a difference of 1388.

I can't find the break down of female to male in those schools - but let's assume it's half and half (which I know it isn't - I'd be willing to bet that both schools actually have more females than males.) But using half male and half female - Fairport would have 827 females, and ER would have 133. If you looked at the top 15% of the female athletes in each of those schools, then, ER would have about 19 girls fitting that criteria, and Fairport would have about 129. 19 girls is enough for a varsity field hockey team. 129 is more than enough for varsity soccer, FH, tennis, cross country, and then some. Fairport's top 15% is almost equal to ER's total number of girls. Mathematically speaking, they should do very well. :)

Of course Gates Chili proves that big #s don't always translate into success, but because one Fairport fan commented on here last year about how ER's success over the years could be attributed to the fact that they don't have girl's soccer to draw away the top athletes, I just thought it was interesting. :)

I would agree with nearly everything including your rankings adAms, although we may be underestimating Irondequoit.

Very interesting reguarding the school sizes. At a glance you would expect Fairport to have a HUGE competitive advantage over a team like ER with a 6 to 1 student ratio.

[sec5champ]

I like Gates to win it all!

[highschoolcoach]

Any of these four teams will win it all:

ER
Irondequoit
Fairport
Sutherland

MY choice:

Small school: Sutherland

large school: Irondequoit

Overall best record: Irondequoit

[FPTFAN]

Great idea for a new thread! This is my ranking... and like FPTFAN, I mean no offense to anyone! :) And by the way, this is much harder than it looks!

1) Sutherland - I firmly agree that Sutherland will probably be the top team this year. They have a few difficult teams scheduled for very early in the season - ER, Mendon, and Irondequoit are 3 of the first 4 games they have this year. Catherine Willard is solid and strong, and they are always a well-coached, well-conditioned team. They will be tough no matter who they are playing this year, in my opinion.

2) ER - This is one I went back and forth on, whether to put Fairport or ER at #2. I went with ER, and here's why - yes, they lost a lot of talent to graduation. Yes, they have their 3rd coach in 3 years. Yes, they had a rough time at the Penfield Tourney. But we all said the exact same thing last year (except replace 3rd coach with 2nd coach) - and they still had an excellent season and went to States where they lost in the semis by only 1 goal to perennial powerhouse and eventual state champion, Marathon. They still have some very strong players and I still expect them to be solid. I could be very wrong on this, of course, but this is where I think they might fall on this list.

3) Fairport - Again, I went back and forth on this. I chose to put them here for a couple of reasons - first, they lost more than half of their team from last year to graduation. I know they had a good JV team, so this might not matter TOO much, but still, losing that many people means a lot of re-tooling. Second, their defense is looking kind of rough at the moment. They'll have plenty of time to work out the kinks, of course, but I can see that this could potentially be an issue. Again - I could be very wrong, and Fairport might very well be #1 or #2 this year.

From here, I'm much more up in the air. My best guess is...

4) Mendon
5) Thomas
6) Irondequoit
7) Schroeder
8) Penfield
9) Brighton
10) Hilton
11) Eastridge
12) Gates Chili


By the way - purely from a numbers standpoint, I thought this was interesting:

Fairport is by far the biggest school in Section V with a FH team, with 1654 students - the next closest in numbers is Gates Chili, with 1274. That's a difference of 380 students. ER, by contrast, only has 266 students - a difference of 1388.

I can't find the break down of female to male in those schools - but let's assume it's half and half (which I know it isn't - I'd be willing to bet that both schools actually have more females than males.) But using half male and half female - Fairport would have 827 females, and ER would have 133. If you looked at the top 15% of the female athletes in each of those schools, then, ER would have about 19 girls fitting that criteria, and Fairport would have about 129. 19 girls is enough for a varsity field hockey team. 129 is more than enough for varsity soccer, FH, tennis, cross country, and then some. Fairport's top 15% is almost equal to ER's total number of girls. Mathematically speaking, they should do very well. :)

Of course Gates Chili proves that big #s don't always translate into success, but because one Fairport fan commented on here last year about how ER's success over the years could be attributed to the fact that they don't have girl's soccer to draw away the top athletes, I just thought it was interesting. :)

I remember this post from last year... School size has nothing to do with the success of a program... You answered your own question! Look at Gates Chili!!! Need I say anymore! I believe it is mostly a combination of tradition and Great coaching... If your school has tradition and great coaching in that sport, then athletes tend to migrate towards those sports. Now lets discuss ER... For almost a decade you had the legendary coach Linda Michele guiding both the Field Hockey team and Lacrosse teams to state championships, in addition there is no alternative in the fall due to the fact you have no soccer. So therefore your program garnered the majority of those elite athletes due to your rich tradition and great coaching you probably get 10 - 15 elite level athletes playing Field Hockey per year. The top 15 % are not spread equally across all sports again, they migrate to those teams that are most successful. In Fairport it is soccer they played for the state championship 2 years ago... Most kids in this area play soccer there is no youth field hockey... That is where the majority of elite level athletes play in the fall at most schools other than ER... You give me your top 10 athletes in the school and combine it with great coaching and tradition and that is your recipe for success. So I am sorry, but I do not agree with you that Fairport should be a powerhouse because of their size... As they say size does not matter!!!

[adAms08]

I just said it was interesting, not that it proved anything. However, the fact that there IS, in fact, a potential tremendous competitive advantage for huge schools over tiny schools is the very reason why the different class sizes in sports exist. In field hockey it's kind of backwards because a tiny school dominated for many years, but mathematically speaking, the odds of that happening are really slim.

[highschoolcoach]

I remember this post from last year... School size has nothing to do with the success of a program... You answered your own question! Look at Gates Chili!!! Need I say anymore! I believe it is mostly a combination of tradition and Great coaching... If your school has tradition and great coaching in that sport, then athletes tend to migrate towards those sports. Now lets discuss ER... For almost a decade you had the legendary coach Linda Michele guiding both the Field Hockey team and Lacrosse teams to state championships, in addition there is no alternative in the fall due to the fact you have no soccer. So therefore your program garnered the majority of those elite athletes due to your rich tradition and great coaching you probably get 10 - 15 elite level athletes playing Field Hockey per year. The top 15 % are not spread equally across all sports again, they migrate to those teams that are most successful. In Fairport it is soccer they played for the state championship 2 years ago... Most kids in this area play soccer there is no youth field hockey... That is where the majority of elite level athletes play in the fall at most schools other than ER... You give me your top 10 athletes in the school and combine it with great coaching and tradition and that is your recipe for success. So I am sorry, but I do not agree with you that Fairport should be a powerhouse because of their size... As they say size does not matter!!!

When you compare to ER you have a valid point. When you compare to schools in the large school bracket, They all have soccor programs. you do have an advantage. In section five there are only two classes, small school and large school. other sports in section five have 8 classes. If you take the largest school, Fairport and compare to the smallest school in the large school class there is a big advantage to Fairport.

You can not include Gates Chili in you argument, because they are new to the sport. I believe this is there 4th year. Gates Chili hired Tori this year to run their field hockey program. With in the next four years Gates will climb the ladder fast.

I believe come sectional time we need one more division. Any thoughts? Is there any talk of any other school starting a field hockey program? Good discussion.

[adAms08]

When you compare to ER you have a valid point. When you compare to schools in the large school bracket, They all have soccor programs. you do have an advantage. In section five there are only two classes, small school and large school. other sports in section five have 8 classes. If you take the largest school, Fairport and compare to the smallest school in the large school class there is a big advantage to Fairport.

You can not include Gates Chili in you argument, because they are new to the sport. I believe this is there 4th year. Gates Chili hired Tori this year to run their field hockey program. With in the next four years Gates will climb the ladder fast.

I believe come sectional time we need one more division. Any thoughts? Is there any talk of any other school starting a field hockey program? Good discussion.

The smallest "big" school is Irondequoit, with 1017 students. Difference between them and Fairport = 637 students. The biggest "small" school is Brighton, with 894. Difference between them and ER = 628.

The difference between Irondequoit and ER (both the smallest in their divisions) is 751; the difference between the 2 biggest in their divisions (Brighton and Fairport) is 760.

For those who are not sold on the potential competitive difference between 19 "elite" (top 15%) athletes vs. 129 "elite" athletes, consider this. Take the top 10 from each school. In East Rochester, that's 10 girls out of 19, or 52%. For Fairport, the 10 girls represent just 7% of their "elite" athletes. 52% of their "elite" athletes would equal out to 67 girls. So sure, you can compare top 10 vs. top 10, but in reality, it would be more equal if you compared top 10 to top 67. I just think it's very interesting to look at the numbers behind these teams - but you're right, other factors like coaching and tradition do come into play. But there's a reason why tiny schools don't play huge schools in Sectionals and States. :)

And I agree with highschoolcoach, G-C is somewhat of an anomaly, because they are fairly new. Thomas's FH team also had very little success in their first years of existence, but they surged to the top in due time. Will the same thing happen for G-C? Only time will tell. :)

[fh2227]

When you compare to ER you have a valid point. When you compare to schools in the large school bracket, They all have soccor programs. you do have an advantage. In section five there are only two classes, small school and large school. other sports in section five have 8 classes. If you take the largest school, Fairport and compare to the smallest school in the large school class there is a big advantage to Fairport.

You can not include Gates Chili in you argument, because they are new to the sport. I believe this is there 4th year. Gates Chili hired Tori this year to run their field hockey program. With in the next four years Gates will climb the ladder fast.

I believe come sectional time we need one more division. Any thoughts? Is there any talk of any other school starting a field hockey program? Good discussion.

I agree.. you can't count Gates Chili in the argument. They are relatively new to the sport and I have never heard of them participating in any off-season tourney's. It looks like Tori has a lot of work a head of her. No disrespect to the previous coaches, but she basically has to start from scratch.

[highschoolcoach]

I agree.. you can't count Gates Chili in the argument. They are relatively new to the sport and I have never heard of them participating in any off-season tourney's. It looks like Tori has a lot of work a head of her. No disrespect to the previous coaches, but she basically has to start from scratch.

I belive Tori is up to the challenge. If there is anybody hungry to prove her self its Tori.

[fh2227]

I belive Tori is up to the challenge. If there is anybody hungry to prove her self its Tori.

I agree. It would be nice to see her turn that program around in the next few years.

Looking forward to seeing some local games this season. Lots of talent around here!

[SVFAN]

Does anyone still feel that mendon should finish out of 1st place this year. I saw their game at sutherland and they were better coached and faster than sutherland. Willard was a non-factor I think it was lindsay randalls little sister shutting her down. I think this year they will take the title. they can only get better with more action for the young players

[adAms08]

Does anyone still feel that mendon should finish out of 1st place this year. I saw their game at sutherland and they were better coached and faster than sutherland. Willard was a non-factor I think it was lindsay randalls little sister shutting her down. I think this year they will take the title. they can only get better with more action for the young players

I am definitely thinking Mendon belongs higher on the list, possibly at #1; the problem is I don't know who to move down. After seeing ER at Sutherland I would move ER down, but they were playing without Taylor Parker, and while I can't say that she would have changed the outcome of the game, she is definitely going to factor into any success they might have this year. I need to see ER at full strength before I can definitively say whether I would move them down on the list. But you're very right, Mendon looks great this year!

[S5FH]

Does anyone still feel that mendon should finish out of 1st place this year. I saw their game at sutherland and they were better coached and faster than sutherland. Willard was a non-factor I think it was lindsay randalls little sister shutting her down. I think this year they will take the title. they can only get better with more action for the young players
I don't think a 1-0 win over sutherland would justify mendon moving to #1. Let's wait to see how they fare against ER and Irond.

[FPTFAN]

I am definitely thinking Mendon belongs higher on the list, possibly at #1; the problem is I don't know who to move down. After seeing ER at Sutherland I would move ER down, but they were playing without Taylor Parker, and while I can't say that she would have changed the outcome of the game, she is definitely going to factor into any success they might have this year. I need to see ER at full strength before I can definitively say whether I would move them down on the list. But you're very right, Mendon looks great this year!

I think once all the teams play once through in their respective divisions, you will have a clearer picture on who are the top teams... Based on the talent pool it seems to be spread rather evenly with regard to premier players with no team having more than 1 - 2 players... I think the difference may be depth of starting players and the quality of your starters 1-11... I have not seen all of the top teams play yet, but after the first weeks worth of scores your top 5 in no particular order are Fairport, Mendon, Sutherland, Irondequois and ER. Without more head to head play it is hard to rank them 1 - 5...

[adAms08]

Well, it's still early in the season, but here's my assessment as of today. ER has had a tough schedule so far, and they are off to a rough start this season, being 1-2 and facing Mendon next. Some of the top teams haven't faced much tough competition yet, with the exception being Sutherland, who played ER and Mendon already and they're still looking pretty good. Mendon, Irondequoit, Schroeder, Fairport, and Thomas haven't lost a game yet, but it's still early. At this early juncture, I am liking Sutherland, Mendon and Fairport to potentially be the top 3 (in no particular order), but there's still a lot of FH to be played. Like FPTFAN said, it will be much more telling after each team has played through once.

Prior to the season starting, when I was looking at ER to determine where I thought they would fall on the list, I didn't realize what a young team they are! They only have 2 seniors. The rest of the team is 7 juniors (one of whom is out and will be for a while with an injury), 7 sophomores, and 3 freshmen. More than half of their team is freshmen and sophomores! It looks like most of the defense is sophomores, one of whom has never played FH before. Their starting rotation has varied in each game, but it's been about half and half as far as upperclassmen and underclassmen who have been starting so far. So yeah, looking at depth, ER isn't as deep as a lot of other teams this year. They might wind up lower on the list than I thought for that very reason.

Some of the top teams in the league haven't beaten ER in a long, long time - not sure if it's accurate but someone said that last night was the first time in about 10 years that Irondequoit has beaten ER - so this could be a great year for some of these other teams to avenge some losses and show everyone that Section V FH is the real deal.

Looking forward to the games today - Fairport vs. Thomas should be fun since it's a rematch of last year's Sectionals, and Schroeder vs. Penfield could be interesting as well. I haven't seen Schroeder yet this year so I don't know what to expect.

[FHFH]

I don't think a 1-0 win over sutherland would justify mendon moving to #1. Let's wait to see how they fare against ER and Irond.

How does Mendon look now with a 2-0 win over ER and a 3-1 win over Irondequoit? They definitely controlled the ER game. The Irondequoit game was more evenly matched, but they still came out on top. The difference is that Mendon has both a strong defense and a strong offense, with a lot of quick players. And though there are a lot of seniors, the younger kids are quite a factor - their center offensive mid is only in 8th grade!

[fh2227]

How does Mendon look now with a 2-0 win over ER and a 3-1 win over Irondequoit? They definitely controlled the ER game. The Irondequoit game was more evenly matched, but they still came out on top. The difference is that Mendon has both a strong defense and a strong offense, with a lot of quick players. And though there are a lot of seniors, the younger kids are quite a factor - their center offensive mid is only in 8th grade!

They just lost to Hilton!

[HiltonCadet]

They just lost to Hilton!

hilton played very well, they're definatly on a roll

[fh2227]

hilton played very well, they're definatly on a roll

Who scored in overtime?

[HiltonCadet]

Who scored in overtime?

Rachel Berg, Sophmore, on a corner
i believe she etheir plays blizzards or biddies