2018 High School Season

Elder bounced back with a win over St X last night. Interested to see how the Moeller-X matches go in a few weeks.
 
State and Regional Rankings - Week Ending in 4/15/18

Division I

1. - Archbishop Moeller (18) - 198
2. - St. Xavier (2) - 160
3. - Elder - 156
4. - Olentangy - 121
5. - Hilliard Darby - 114
6. - Beavercreek - 101
7. - St. Ignatius - 94
8. - Northmont - 42
9. - Centerville - 23
10- Lakota East - 22
..... Mt. Vernon - 22
..... Jackson - 21
..... Hilliard Davidson - 8
..... Gahanna Lincoln - 5

Division II

1. - Archbishop Alter (20) - 200
2. - St. Charles - 175
3. - Archbishop Hoban - 150
4. - Bishop Fenwick - 132
5. - Walsh Jesuit - 91
6. - LaSalle - 56
7. - Carroll - 54
8. - Archbishop McNicholas - 50
9. - Chaminade-Julienne - 42
10- Worthington Kilbourne - 41
..... St. Francis DeSales - 25
..... Bishop Watterson - 23
..... Kent Roosevelt - 21
..... Villa Angela - St. Joseph - 12

East

1. - Hilliard Darby - 57
2. - Olentangy - 56
3. - St. Charles - 48
4. - Hilliard Davidson - 35
5. - Gahanna Lincoln - 33
6. - Mt. Vernon - 33
7. - Upper Arlington - 12
8. - Olentangy Liberty - 11
9. - Pickerington North - 11
10- Worthington Kilbourne - 8

North

1. - St. Ignatius - 50
2. - Archbishop Hoban - 43
3. - Walsh Jesuit - 39
4. - Jackson - 31
5. - Brecksville-Broadview Hts. - 27
6. - Kent Roosevelt - 23
7. - Brunswick - 18
8. - Stow - Munroe Falls - 13
9. - St. Edward - 12
10- Villa Angela - St. Joseph - 11

South

1. - Archbishop Moeller - 30
2. - Elder - 26
3. - St. Xavier - 25
4. - Oak Hills - 17
5. - Loveland - 16
6. - Fairfield - 13
7. - LaSalle - 13
8. - Mason - 10
9. - Milford - 4
10- Sycamore - 4

West

1. - Beavercreek - 57
2. - Archbishop Alter - 56
3. - Northmont - 40
4. - Lakota East - 39
5. - Bishop Fenwick - 38
6. - Centerville - 34
7. - Carroll - 26
8. - Kettering Fairmont - 17
9. - Chaminade-Julienne - 16
10- Edgewood - 3
 
Now that the seaon is well underway I wanted to revisit some of my old predictions for D1 All State. This is what I had previously:

POY - Mikesch, Beavercreek
Pung, X
Huber, X
Daeschner, Elder
Walker, Northmont
Catanzaro, Ignatius
Buelow, Darby

2nd Team
Kiser, Moeller
Albers, Elder
Giller, Upper Arlington
Skerl, Centerville
Foy, Northmont
Burke, Gahanna
*TBD from North Region*


With the Mikesch injury, he will get bumped out. I'm not sure anyone else from Beavercreek gets a 1st team nod.
Pung has been outplayed by McCarthy and Huber at St X thus far.
Daeschner and Albers are far and away the standouts at Elder this year. One of them will be 1st team, one will be 2nd team.
Chris Kiser has been dominant for a thus far undefeated Moeller team. He could have competition from the 6 rotation players on his own team, Peed and Devolve.
The only other team I can speak to this year is Northmont. One of Foy or Walker will be 1st team. The other is likely 2nd team.
 
A few thoughts on the season so far. I've seen almost every top 10 team and filled in pieces talking to other coaches and knowledgeable fans. It seems like it is a bit hard to get an assessment based on all the injuries or incomplete teams. So far most of the preseason 1st team is hurt.

Moeller is 7-0 but they've played Elder when Elder pulled Albers because of "attitude" in the first set. They beat Beavercreek in 4 after Creek lost Mikesch in the first set.

St X beat St I without Catanzaro(vacation) and Beavercreek without Mikesch both in easy 3. On the other hand Pung has been really limited due to tight hamstring and only played parts of 4 matches against the better teams. He pulled himself out of every match after getting the team in a comfortable spot. Except Elder when he pulled himself out visibly limping early 4th.

Regarding the play of Mcarthy and Huber, have you watched X or are you reading stats? So far the better teams have camped 2+ blockers on Pung. X is running Mcarthy OPP which leaves him 0 and maybe 1 blocker as the setter is really comfortable running back sets as opposed to running tempo to the pin.

I would also watch Huber's receiving. A couple of top HS coaches are chomping to serve his hands as he is averaging about a 2 on reception passing ofter passing behind the 10 ft line. Ferris seems to be getting annoyed at free lancing on the defensive coverage.
 
Haven’t seen the teams from the Cinci area play this year (yet),however am very aware of their respective talents via Cinci Attack. I will say that the multiple OCC and city leagues in the greater Cbus area are way down this year, as they were last year. Olentangy is very strong as is Mt Vernon. I think the difference is Olentangy has the edge regarding additional/extra talent via the Club circuit. Regarding Darby, they may be a sleeper at this time. This team played really well in Chicago against terrific teams and went 2-3 for the weekend. Since then have crushed all of their opponents (albeit OCC). Their schedule will get much tougher in Centerville, a match with Olentangy, and a tri including Elder in the coming weeks. Overall a young team with 9 sophomores, of which 3 start and 5-6 play regularly. Just my 2 cents. Personally looking forward to the “tougher” matches, win or lose.


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Pung has been outplayed by McCarthy and Huber at St X thus far.

When you watch St. X play, Pung is clearly the dominant player on that team. His ability to get well above the net provides an intimidating block and gives him the advantage on hits. He decisively kills balls. His passing is consistent and gives the setter an easy ball to work with. Most of their in-system balls come from Pung's passes.
Stats don't always tell the whole story. Other than their match against Elder, their opponents have lacked height and skill. Pung plays the first set and then sits. This gets playing time for Ferris' second string hitters to play with either McCarthy or Hilvert. Pung's skill level is so far above most opponents that it would be pointless to allow him to dominate every set and not give other players a chance to learn.
 
I understand stats don't tell the whole story. I have seen St X twice this year and Pung has not played up to his high standards. By my eye test, McCarthy has been St X best player with Huber, Pung, and Hilvert close behind.

Even last year, St X relied more on Pung yet he was more effective. Look at the stats on the league website to compare. So far this year he is 10th out of the 11 players in Kill Efficiency for St X.
http://gcls.gclsports.com/statsPage.aspx?satc=251&div=-1&v=a&stat=a
This year, he is 3rd on the team in total attempts. Last year, he had almost double (725 vs 398) to attempts than anyone else on St X's team.

I understand that teams are keying on him, as teams ALWAYS do against other teams best players, but this year unlike last year he hasn't risen to the occasion YET (keyword: YET).
 
Jefdar, you might think the teams are down in Central Ohio but the player talent pool is there.
I have seen the following players play and have helped their team to successful starts to the season.
Watterson has two players helping them off to a good start in Jake Maziaz (SP) and Jack Brinkman.

Briggs has Justin Sharfenaker, saw him play against DeSales and Watterson where he had about 20 kills in both close matches. He is their go to guy.

Mt. Vernon has Spencer Stanley, who is getting it done in the middle.

Darby has 4 players playing well and are looking for another title in Noah Platfoot, who is such a great setter, Adam Ansel, Colin Buelow, and Dom Mechiorine (SP), who is playing awesome.

St. Charles is off to a hot start with Kevin Gallagher at Libero, Saw him play against Watterson and DeSales and he had about 20+ digs.

Olentangy is having a season to remember with Eric Gossat and Jamer Brunton

Olentangy Orange has two young players leaving their mark in Luke Little and Lawton Hinley

Jerome has a solid Libero in Tommy Pool

And Coffman has a setter in Jack Procter leading their way.

Other teams I have seen play and don’t know players names are Davidson, Westerville Central and North.
Central Ohio has had the following teams ranked in the State Poll at some point this season
Olentangy, Darby, St. Charles, Briggs, Davidson, Mt. Vernon, DeSales, Watterson, Worthington Kilbourne, and Gahanna.
Going to be fun to watch, come tournament time in Central Ohio
 
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Some of the early round matches up may be fun/tight but I think Darby and Olentangy are better than the rest. Davidson has made a nice push of late, Mount Vernon has lost to every top tier team they've played, as has St Charles.
 
I understand stats don't tell the whole story. I have seen St X twice this year and Pung has not played up to his high standards. By my eye test, McCarthy has been St X best player with Huber, Pung, and Hilvert close behind.

Even last year, St X relied more on Pung yet he was more effective. Look at the stats on the league website to compare. So far this year he is 10th out of the 11 players in Kill Efficiency for St X.
http://gcls.gclsports.com/statsPage.aspx?satc=251&div=-1&v=a&stat=a
This year, he is 3rd on the team in total attempts. Last year, he had almost double (725 vs 398) to attempts than anyone else on St X's team.

I understand that teams are keying on him, as teams ALWAYS do against other teams best players, but this year unlike last year he hasn't risen to the occasion YET (keyword: YET).

I think it's more that the other top teams have figured Pung out. He never hits line and he never looks to bounce balls straight down, regardless of the block or the set. He either bangs hard cross, splits the hole and aims for deep corner, or just aims for high hands to tool the middle. The better teams have been keying on Pung for years, as he's been a focal point of X (and his club teams, for that matter) for 3 years now. In the Elder match, the defenders in 1 played Pung almost at the end line and completely took away his high-hands tool shot. Kastner doesn't deliver him the ball fast enough to prevent the defenses from shifting entirely to defend his limited shots, so he's got much tighter windows than he had a year ago.


McCarthy and Hilvert have a lot more unorthodox swings and have more shots in their respective repertoires, so they're able to be more consistently effective against top-tier competition. McCarthy gets 2-3 kills per match on crafty tips off the blockers hands alone. Pung gets up higher, hits harder, and obviously has the much higher ceiling going forward; but his present game is better suited to beating up on weak competition than it is being effective, much less dominant, against good players that know how to defend him.


That being said, Pung's defense is on a whole other level. As others have pointed out, his passes are almost always in system and his digging out of 6 has been the key to X's defense. His serve receive is arguably better than Huber's at this point. I think McCarthy for sure, and potentially Hilvert and Mauch may have passed him by in terms of "effective hitters against the top teams in the state", but his defense alone keeps him in the 1st team all-state conversation. He's still one of the best 5-10 players in the state, no matter what criteria you choose.
 
Well said. That is the point I was trying to get across, you just explained it much better :thumb:

I think it's more that the other top teams have figured Pung out. He never hits line and he never looks to bounce balls straight down, regardless of the block or the set. He either bangs hard cross, splits the hole and aims for deep corner, or just aims for high hands to tool the middle. The better teams have been keying on Pung for years, as he's been a focal point of X (and his club teams, for that matter) for 3 years now. In the Elder match, the defenders in 1 played Pung almost at the end line and completely took away his high-hands tool shot. Kastner doesn't deliver him the ball fast enough to prevent the defenses from shifting entirely to defend his limited shots, so he's got much tighter windows than he had a year ago.


McCarthy and Hilvert have a lot more unorthodox swings and have more shots in their respective repertoires, so they're able to be more consistently effective against top-tier competition. McCarthy gets 2-3 kills per match on crafty tips off the blockers hands alone. Pung gets up higher, hits harder, and obviously has the much higher ceiling going forward; but his present game is better suited to beating up on weak competition than it is being effective, much less dominant, against good players that know how to defend him.


That being said, Pung's defense is on a whole other level. As others have pointed out, his passes are almost always in system and his digging out of 6 has been the key to X's defense. His serve receive is arguably better than Huber's at this point. I think McCarthy for sure, and potentially Hilvert and Mauch may have passed him by in terms of "effective hitters against the top teams in the state", but his defense alone keeps him in the 1st team all-state conversation. He's still one of the best 5-10 players in the state, no matter what criteria you choose.
 
Jefdar, you might think the teams are down in Central Ohio but the player talents pool is there.
I have seen the following players play and have helped their team to successful starts to the season.
Watterson has two players helping them off to a good start in Jake Maziaz (SP) and Jack Brinkman.

Briggs has Justin Sharfenaker, saw him play against DeSales and Watterson where he had about 20 kills in both close matches. He is their go to guy.

Mt. Vernon has Spencer Stanley, who is getting it done in the middle.

Darby has 4 players playing well and are looking for another title in Noah Platfoot, who is such a great setter, Adam Ansel, Colin Buelow, and Dom Mechiorine (SP), who is playing awesome.

St. Charles is off to a hot start with Kevin Gallagher at Libero, Saw him play against Watterson and DeSales and he had about 20+ digs.

Olentangy is having a season to remember with Eric Gossat and Jamer Brunton

Olentangy Orange has two young players leaving their mark in Luke Little and Lawton Hinley

Jerome has a solid Libero in Tommy Pool

And Coffman has a setter in Jack Procter leading their way.

Other teams I have seen play and don’t know players names are Davidson, Westerville Central and North.
Central Ohio has had the following teams ranked in the State Poll at some point this season
Olentangy, Darby, St. Charles, Briggs, Davidson, Mt. Vernon, DeSales, Watterson, Worthington Kilbourne, and Gahanna.
Going to be fun to watch, come tournament time in Central Ohio



Well said and I do agree completely. Lots of talent. Thanks.


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Jefdar, you might think the teams are down in Central Ohio but the player talents pool is there.
I have seen the following players play and have helped their team to successful starts to the season.
Watterson has two players helping them off to a good start in Jake Maziaz (SP) and Jack Brinkman.

Briggs has Justin Sharfenaker, saw him play against DeSales and Watterson where he had about 20 kills in both close matches. He is their go to guy.

Mt. Vernon has Spencer Stanley, who is getting it done in the middle.

Darby has 4 players playing well and are looking for another title in Noah Platfoot, who is such a great setter, Adam Ansel, Colin Buelow, and Dom Mechiorine (SP), who is playing awesome.

St. Charles is off to a hot start with Kevin Gallagher at Libero, Saw him play against Watterson and DeSales and he had about 20+ digs.

Olentangy is having a season to remember with Eric Gossat and Jamer Brunton

Olentangy Orange has two young players leaving their mark in Luke Little and Lawton Hinley

Jerome has a solid Libero in Tommy Pool

And Coffman has a setter in Jack Procter leading their way.

Other teams I have seen play and don’t know players names are Davidson, Westerville Central and North.
Central Ohio has had the following teams ranked in the State Poll at some point this season
Olentangy, Darby, St. Charles, Briggs, Davidson, Mt. Vernon, DeSales, Watterson, Worthington Kilbourne, and Gahanna.
Going to be fun to watch, come tournament time in Central Ohio

You're not really making a good argument, here.
You basically just explained that the talent is very spread out the East region, which shows why the TEAM play has been down this year. So you're basically making Jefdar's point for him.

For example, I recently saw Briggs and Sharfenaker play. The kid can clearly ball, and I suspect with other decent-good players around him he would excel, but he has nothing around him, so any decent team can key on just stopping him and Briggs then falls apart. Also, he really only had two shots as an outisde hitter (as a lefty), but I could see him being great playing right side on a better team (club, for instance).

I suspect it is much of the same for several of the other teams listed - not enough talent on any 1 particular team this year.
 
Falcon11, I never said Jefdar was wrong nor was I trying to make an argument. I said Jefdar, you might think the teams are down in Central Ohio but the player talent pool is there. My post was to mention some of the players I have seen play that I thought were having good years.
I was told the kid from Briggs does play right side for Vanguards 18 Gold Team. I saw them Play Watterson and DeSales, both teams were not that bad and they could not stop him. Now if they played a team like X, Elder, Darby, or Olentangy then I could see that happening. They did have another kid #3, I think that was not bad. As Jefdar said teams are down, but it is nice to see teams having some good players on them.
 
Falcon11, I never said Jefdar was wrong nor was I trying to make an argument. I said Jefdar, you might think the teams are down in Central Ohio but the player talent pool is there. My post was to mention some of the players I have seen play that I thought were having good years.
I was told the kid from Briggs does play right side for Vanguards 18 Gold Team. I saw them Play Watterson and DeSales, both teams were not that bad and they could not stop him. Now if they played a team like X, Elder, Darby, or Olentangy then I could see that happening. They did have another kid #3, I think that was not bad. As Jefdar said teams are down, but it is nice to see teams having some good players on them.

My bad, not trying to start anything. Just the way your post was worded seemed like you were trying to contradict what jefdar said. My apologies.

In regards to Sharfenaker (sp?), maybe he had an off day when I saw him - because he didn't play all that well (in my opinion) once the blockers started keying on him. If #3 was the other outside hitter, he struggled too. But then again, Briggs passing wasn't very consistent, so hard to get in a groove as a hitter when the sets are coming from different places each time.
 
Sorry, I see central Ohio as down in both individual talent and team quality.

This will be the worst Darby team to advance in a long time.
This will be the worst East D2 rep to States in a long time.

Most of the hitters mentioned above are nice, but their attacks are crossing the plane just over the tape.

I don’t see a Kelso, Clark, Feltz, Eichel, Storc type player out there.
The type of player that can carry a match against a quality block / quality opponent.

Still fun to watch, and glad the number of teams is up. These boys love the game and compete hard. Just my observation on athleticism of the 2018 / 19 classes.
 
Centerville Elite is this Saturday - looks like the 3 GCL schools will be there, along with Centerville. I'd imagine St Ignatius and Darby will join them - anyone know if any of these teams Olentangy, Beavercreek or Northmont will be there either?
 
Centerville Elite is this Saturday - looks like the 3 GCL schools will be there, along with Centerville. I'd imagine St Ignatius and Darby will join them - anyone know if any of these teams Olentangy, Beavercreek or Northmont will be there either?



Heard that Hilliard Davidson will be attending.


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In addition to Hilliard Davidson and Darby, I believe Olentangy and Beavercreek are attending as well.


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That's one team too many. There are only 8 that will be there.
Elder
X
Moeller
Centerville
Darby

If no St Ignatius then three of Olentangy, Davidson, Beavercreek and Northmont will attend but not all 4.
 
Ha! You’re correct. I guess we will let the suspense build and find out Saturday. Have no idea regarding Northmont and St. Ig. I thought it unusual that Hilliard Davidson attending.


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Well the seeding is based on the state rankings, so we can assume the top 4 will be:

#1 Moeller
#2 St Xavier
#3 Elder
#4 Olentangy - if they aren't there it'll be Darby
 
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There we go. Thanks High Line. Anyone have any predictions? We get a State rematch in Darby-Ignatius, possible Elder-X rematch in Round 2.
 
If that's the case, who is Darby's backup setter?

As far as predictions for the Centerville Elite, I'll throw my poor guesses out.

Moeller in 3 over Davidson
Darby in 5 over Ignatius (Blind guess due to apparent injury)
Elder in 5 over Northmont
St X in 4 over Centerville

Moeller in 4 over Darby
Elder in 5 over St X

Ignatius in 3 over Davidson
Northmont in 3 over Centerville

1st Place - Moeller in 4 over Elder
3rd Place - X in 3 over Darby
5th Place - Northmont in 4 over Ignatius
7th Place - Centerville in 4 over Davidson
 
Moeller in 3 over Davidson
Iggy in 4 over Darby
Elder in 3 over Northmont
St X in 3 over Centerville

Moeller in 4 over Iggy
Elder in 5 over St X
Davidson in 4 over Darby
Northmont in 3 over Centerville

1st Place - Elder in 4 over Moeller
3rd Place - X in 3 over Iggy
5th Place - Northmont in 4 over Davidson
7th Place - Darby in 4 over Centerville
 
Wanted to see how the Elder-Moeller match ended last night before I made some predictions (Moe won all three 25-22 so Elder is close, just can't get over that hump).

Moeller over Davidson in 3
Ignatius over Darby in 5
Elder over Northmont in 4
St Xavier over Centerville in 3

Moeller over Ignatius in 3
St Xavier over Elder in 4
Darby over Davidson in 4
Northmont over Centerville in 4

Moeller over St Xavier in 4
Elder over St Ignatius in 4
Northmont over Darby in 4
Davdison over Centerville in 4
 
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