Lou Munro - MVP - Mike Stone - This is the second year in a row that Mike has won this award and it is well deserved with the kind of season he had this year. After finishing the last two years with 29 goals each year he nearly doubled that output this year finishing with 57 goals and 16 assists. It's also worth noting that he was very close to being the only one nominated for this award, there was five or six seconds of silence after someone nominated Mike before another player nominated Pete Britt as well.
Ric Rospeck - MIP - Skyler Hopkins - Another well deserved honor and capped a remarkable season for Sky. As I've mentioned a number of times on this listserve, Skyler's transformation from the end of his junior year to this year is one of the most impressive turnarounds I've seen in all my year's of coaching. Skyler's skills may have marginally improved since last year but it was the way he approached the season mentally that made all the difference. It's always nice to see a number of people nominated for this award as it's a sign of how hard the team has worked in the off season and we had some other guys worth mentioning. Jack Masur and David Hild at attack as well as Mike Quinn and Zach Dayno on defense all were nominated for the award by their teammates. Two players who I think were deserving of nominations were Tom Petty and Tyler Lovas as well, both came a long way from where they were last year.
Baggattaway - Mike Stone - It's rare to see a player win two of our team awards but Mike was the clear winner of this award as well. We were fortunate to have excellent senior leadership this year and it was impressive to hear some of those seniors speak about Mike and why he deserved this award.
Finally, our captain's for next year will be Jeff Begin and Pete Smith. I expected to see those two names on a bunch of ballots and that's how it turned out, both of these guys are great leaders and will be the focal point of another large and very close senior class.
Looking forward to next year the team is pretty balanced again in terms of numbers in each class. As of now we'll have 11 seniors, 11 juniors, 12 sophomores, and 17 first years trying out. For the first time in a few years we're graduating some significant numbers on offense and it will be interesting to see who steps up to fill those roles. After the season we just had I think there are a number of guys who are hungry to be difference makers for us down the road. The obvious guys who you can expect to see more from next year will be Pete Smith, David Hild, and Jack Masur at attack but there are some other who will be nipping at their heels. A few names to know are Darren Scheufele who has a unique skill set as a lefty finisher and is one sneaky player, the other is Jack Balaban. Jack didn't play any significant minutes for us this year as a freshman but let's just say he gave our starting defense all they could handle when he was running with the scout offense. "Bala" as the guys all call him is a baller and I'd be shocked if he wasn't in the mix next year.
In the midfield we have probably 10 or so guys who all bring something different to the table but I wouldn't say that any have a leg up at this point. Some new names to look out for will be Andrew Conner, Brooks Toth, and Jon Beek. Hopefully Jeff Begin and Alex Giammarco will also be able to run some offense for us next year.
On defense we only graduate Mike Quinn and hope to see some significant improvement from this group by next February. Athletically I don't see anyone passing Matt Rayner but beyond that it will be interesting to see who steps up next season.
In the cage we are going to have a battle on our hands with Charles Ward and Ryan Deane in the junior class and then Jack Reilly as a sophomore. These guys have all shown flashes of brilliance and wouldn't be shocked to see a real star emerge here, stay tuned.