Taking a look at Harford County's UCBAC field hockey teams

As I sit here typing this on Wednesday, the rain is coming down in torrents outside, assuring me that there will be plenty of games canceled this afternoon, making it feel more like the beginning of the spring sports season, which is almost always hampered by precipitation, and less like the late-summer beginnings of fall athletics, which, at least during my time here at The Aegis, have been blessed with lovely weather almost as a rule.

Anyway, I feel like I'm on an awkward date, blathering about the weather, so let's switch it up and talk about something more juicy, something that you, my companion for the next 10 minutes, won't find so boring you have to stare at your food. Let's do some early-season power rankings. Field hockey won the coin flip, so that's the sport I'm going with this week. Stay tuned for a girls soccer installment.

1. Patterson Mill: The Huskies pulled off the improbable last year, winning the Chesapeake (upper) Division in their first try after being promoted from the Susquehanna (I'm pretty sure Havre de Grace boys basketball is the only other team to do that, but I'm not entirely sure), and snatching the UCBAC crown from Fallston, which had taken it the previous two seasons. But, that was 2010, and the Huskies are going to have to come correct this season to stay atop the pile. They lost the conference's best goalkeeper, Gabby Brooks, to graduation, but they come back with seven players from last year's regional championship and state 1A runnerup team, so they're well prepared for a tough campaign, which is what they're going to get. Yes, they lost their first game of the season, but they were playing River Hill, the reigning 3A champs, so I'm cutting them some slack.

2. Fallston: Harford County's most successful high school sports program ever, the Fallston field hockey team missed a chance at a fourth straight state title last year, when the Cougars were bounced out of the 2A tournament in the semifinals by eventual champ Glenelg. Like Patterson Mill, the Cougars come back with seven players from last year's team, and if time has proven anything to me, it's that Fallston doesn't even need that much experience to win a state final. The Cougars matchups with Patterson Mill will decide who walks away with the upper division crown, if you ask me.

3. North Harford: The team that's most likely to cause trouble for the top two squads in this poll, North Harford, last season's 3A runnerup and North regional champ, began its 2011 schedule with an 10-0 drubbing of Aberdeen. Though they lost most of their defense to graduation, the Hawks have enough returning talent to make a run at the upper division's top spot, and another trip deep into the 3A tournament.

4. C. Milton Wright: With an 8-0 victory over Wilde Lake in their season opener last Friday, the Mustangs got off to a fine start, especially considering they had some troubles putting the ball away last year. I'm really hoping that CMW gets back to where it was when I started at The Aegis, when the Mustangs were having epic overtime battles with Fallston just about every time the two teams met.

5. Bel Air: The Bobcats won more games than any team in the UCBAC last year (11), but a bad second half of the season doomed them to a fourth-place upper division finish. Like North Harford, they're rebuilding the defense, but could make waves in the Chesapeake.

6. Harford Tech: Probably the least affected of any county team by departing seniors, the Cobras will have the same problem as every Susquehanna Division team this year, that being the powerhouse Rising Sun team, which got booted down from the Chesapeake after a disappointing 2010 season. As I'm betting that Rising Sun finishes 7-0 in lower division play, the best Tech can hope for is a second-place showing, but they'll have to deal with Perryville as well, and the Panthers are no pushovers.

7. Joppatowne: The Mariners bring back a lot of last year's varsity team, but they're very young, and the lower division is going to be tough to navigate this season (as if it was easy in past years). An improvement on their 2010 mark of 4-7 would be an attainable goal.

8. Aberdeen: The Eagles, who finished tied with Joppatowne and Edgewood at fourth place in the lower division with matching 2-5 Susquehanna records, kicked things off last Friday with a 10-0 loss to North Harford.

9. Edgewood: The Rams also began their 2011 campaign with a shutout defeat, losing 6-0 to last year's Susquehanna champ North East last Friday.

10. Havre de Grace: I don't think things can get much worse for the Warriors, who haven't won a game in the past two seasons.