The boys lacrosse season is underway for the private schools and the public schools will begin play on Friday, so it's time to start rolling out the projections for this season's top teams.
In the coming days, Varsity Letters will count down the top five teams. The area's preseason No. 1 team will be posted on Thursday. The entire Top 15 poll, along with the top players to watch, will be available online Thursday night and the entire preview package will be in Friday's print edition.
Here's a look at No. 5 St. Mary's:
St. Mary's
Coach: Ben Rubeor
Last season: 11-6, No. 6
Postseason: MIAA A quarterfinals
Outlook: Rubeor, in his third season, put it in simple terms when he said the Saints will go as far as the seniors take them. With 20 of them, it could be plenty far with the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference once again stacked but without one dominant team like Boys Latin last season. All-Metro second team midfielder Alex Woodall is the area's most dominating faceoff special (72 percent won last season) and he'll be asked to do more this season as a captain. Plenty of experienced talent is around him. Timmy Hardy will be the catalyst on attack and defenseman Hunter Smith and goalie Tim Troutner are the glues in back. Joining Woodall is a long list of seniors. In all, the Saints bring back 21 letterwinners from last year's plalyoff team. All the top teams in the MIAA A have a surplus of talent, so it often comes down to which team comes together when the games are biggest. Usually, it's seniors that make the difference. Can this be the Saints' year?