The All-Coyne Team: MCLA Divisions I and II
by Jac Coyne |
Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne
Archive
It’s that time of year. Preseason’s greetings!
Lacrosse Magazine will release its preseason rankings in the
January issue, but one of the things we don’t do is preseason
All-Americans – we limit ourselves to Preseason Players of
the Year, which, to be honest, is tough enough to deliberate and
find a consensus.
(Look no further than LMO’s
fan poll that ended Monday, the results of which will also be
published in January.)
As an experiment, Jac Coyne and Matt DaSilva have developed their
own preseason All-American teams – with a twist. We’re
not looking for the best player at every position. Rather,
we’re trying to construct the best team, blending styles and
strengths. We want to devise a team that cannot be defeated in a
15-minute game with any combination of the remaining players in
their division.
We’ll call them the All-Coyne and All-DaSilva teams, so as
not to be confused with those other preseason All-Americans.
Think we’ve erred? Think you can do better? You can try to
whip up a different combination of players at their designated
positions (and post them in the comments section below) without
using ours, but we promise, you won’t win.
Check back to LMO this week and next to see our unbeatable squads from the MCLA ranks up through NCAA Division I men and women.
MCLA DIVISION I ALL-COYNE TEAM
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A – Connor Martin (Chapman)
A – Trevor Yealy (Michigan)
A – Adam Foss (Simon Fraser)
M – Elliot Grow (BYU)
M – Dan Pitzl (Minnesota-Duluth)
M – Ryan Westfall (Arizona State)
FO – Dave Reinhard (Michigan)
LSM – Britt Cone (BYU)
D – Harry Freid (Michigan)
D – Andrew Stein (Colo. State)
D – Andrew Salcido (Chapman)
G – Rob Ventura (Boston College)
Why you can’t beat me
First of all, I own faceoffs. My squad has Reinhard doing the
majority of the dirty work, so you can bank on him ripping at least
60 percent of the draws by himself. Throw in Cone and Grow on the
wings, both of whom go after loose balls with bad intentions, and
the All-Coyne Team is looking more like 90 percent.
Now, I know what you’re thinking when you look at my attack.
How can I have Foss instead of SFU teammate Ben Towner? Well, first
of all, Foss is no slouch. Secondly, Towner, while a stud,
wasn’t the right fit for what I want to do. I want a box guy
who can make the pinpoint feed to Yealy, Martin or Westfall, so
Foss ended up being my pick.
I love the fact that I have Westfall hovering at midfield up top,
waiting for a late slide to unleash a bomb.
Pitzl’s my wild card. Honestly, I could roll out a sack of
doorknobs alongside Grow and Westfall at midfield and the All-Coyne
Team could still win by 10, but Pitzl’s my insurance policy
in case you field a defense of hatchet-wielding cyborgs (read:
Pitlz’s good).
Stein seems like a nice enough guy while he shuts your top
attackman down, but Fried and Salcido are soulless. One look at
those two and your attackmen will be calling for a sub with no one
on the sidelines. Throw in Cone, who’s not afraid to mix it
up, at long pole, and your boys will beg for a 10-second call.
Ventura, who had a nice year in 2009, is just gravy.
Lastly, Grow and Westfall give the Coyners a transition game so
scary, it will make small children in the stands cry.
MCLA DIVISION II ALL-COYNE TEAM
A – Chris Perkins (Northern Colorado)
A – Josh Condas (Westminster)
A – Calvin Davis (Western Oregon)
M – Joe Costello (St. Thomas)
M – Jordy Sayers (Davenport)
M – Ian Bohince (Western Oregon)
FO – Andy Larson (St. Thomas)
LSM – Adam Bowers (Davenport)
D – Derek Michalski (St. Thomas)
D – Brian Kubovec (St. John’s)
D – Steve Hurst (Dayton)
G – Dallas McLellan (Westminster)
Why you can’t beat me
The All-Coyne Team is solid, top-to-bottom. But where it’ll
really excel is in the midfield. Costello and Sayers are smooth
customers who will abuse any shorty trying to guard them. Bohince
gives me a nails player who can get me the gritty goal in traffic
if I need it. And while he may not be the best faceoff man in the
country, Larson is good enough and gives me a quality scorer off
the bench, if needed.
My defense is a blend of solid positional players and takeaway
guys, maximizing McLellan’s ability to do his thing in the
cage. Bowers gives me a leg up on the faceoff wings as well as
being the fourth pole. The All-Coyne Team could have trouble with a
top-drawer faceoff man, so my defense will probably see a lot more
action than other All-Coyne squads, but Michalski’s
intangibles level the playing field.
I kept with my attack style of combining a couple of players who
can create on their own (Condas and Davis) with a high-end feeder
(Perkins) who will make them and the midfielders more dangerous.
Technically, Costello is going to spend a majority of his time on
attack in 2010, but that’s because of the glut of talented
middies at St. Thomas. He’s a middie at heart, so he’ll
stay there on my squad, much to your chagrin.
