CIF-CENTRAL COAST SECTION BOYS

The Team to Beat: St. Ignatius Prep

The Wildcats graduated 14 seniors off their 2009 team that went 21-1, including five who have moved on to NCAA Division I programs. But St. Ignatius Prep doesn’t rebuild. It reloads. And 2010 doesn’t appear to be any different.

Of the 109 players to qualify for Peter Worstell’s California Gold camp over the summer, 14 were St. Ignatius Prep students who will be back this season. The Wildcats have 12 seniors returning from last year’s varsity team and a handful of juniors as well. Leading the way will be Virginia-bound senior middie Rob Emery, the No. 1 ranked player in the Western United States.

Emery is a top player, according to everyone who has ever watched him in action, but St. Ignatius Prep has never been a one-man show and it won’t be this year. Joining Emery will be a deep roster that includes Providence-bound senior long-stick middie Giancarlo Sangiacomo, Duke-bound senior middie Dax Cohan and Kenyon College-bound senior middie Nick Alimam.

Contenders: Bellarmine Prep, Menlo, Robert L. Stevenson, Aptos

Bellarmine Prep has won the now-defunct Peninsula Athletic League championship three straight seasons, but it’s a whole new ballgame now that the Bells have moved to the West Catholic Athletic League. Bellarmine now must overcome the Central Coast Section’s colossus in St. Ignatius Prep, and that may be too much for the section’s second-best team.

Bellarmine Prep does bring back a lot, however. Five starters will return for a team that will excel offensively. Bellarmine Prep will be led by senior defenseman Alexander Cihla, a first-team All-PAL selection last season, and a returning second-team All-PAL player in junior attackman Kevin Weigand.

In the newly-formed Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, it will be all about Menlo this season. The Knights have reached the PAL championship game six straight years, winning the first three and losing the last three. Now that Bellarmine Prep is out its way, Menlo is ready to reclaim the top spot of its new conference. Menlo had six underclassmen garner some level of All-PAL honors in 2009. Senior middie Kyle Bullington was a first-team selection, and senior middie Nick Maruyama, senior attackman Chris Kvamme and senior middie David Lee all garnered second-team honors.

Robert L. Stevenson has won four consecutive league championships, starting with three straight Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League titles from 2006-08 and concluding with last season’s first Mission Trails Athletic League championship. The Pirates are favored to repeat in the MTAL and will be led by two top players in senior attackman Tyler Allen and senior middie Dylan Osborne.

In the aforementioned SCCAL, defending champion Scotts Valley graduated the league’s player of the year, four other first-team All-League selections and four more seniors who were named to the second team. That will open the door for 2009 runner-up Aptos, which brings back two first-team selections in senior attackman Luke Murtha and senior middie Zack Powell.

Sleeper: Watsonville

The Wildcatz could give Robert L. Stevenson all it can handle this year in the MTAL. Watsonville had just three seniors on its roster last season, and it returns its top scorer in senior middie Jacob Schekman. Last year, Schekman registered 80 points on 68 goals and 12 assists. Defensively, senior goalie Matt Juarez has started in the cage since his sophomore season.

NCAA Division I Recruits: Dax Cohan, MF, St. Ignatius Prep (Duke); Rob Emery, MF, St. Ignatius Prep (Virginia); Giancarlo Sangiacomo, LSM, St. Ignatius Prep (Providence).

It’s all in the genes for the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Emery, whose father was a three-sport athlete at NCAA Division III Amherst College and whose mother was an NCAA Division I swimmer at Stanford University.

Other Top Players: Nick Alimam, MF, St. Ignatius Prep (Kenyon); Tyler Allen, Att., Robert L. Stevenson; Brian Bashkar, Def., Robert L. Stevenson; Jack Bodine, Att., St. Ignatius Prep; Kyle Bullington, MF, Menlo; Chris Brown, MF, Menlo; Jack Butler, MF, San Mateo Serra; Alexander Cihla, Def., Bellarmine Prep; Collin Corbella, LSM, Scotts Valley; Ryan Donovan, Def., Los Gatos; Quinn Doud, Att., Harbor; Grant Evans, G, Menlo; Keegan Finn, G, St. Ignatius Prep; John Gibbons, MF, St. Ignatius Prep; Morgan Gramling, MF, Los Gatos; Bobby Gray, Att., St. Ignatius Prep; Chris Greenly, Att., San Lorenzo Valley; Sam Holton, Def., Archbishop Mitty; Blake Hurt, Att., Archbishop Mitty; Matt Juarez, G, Watsonville; Wesley Koenig, Att., Scotts Valley; Sam Koontz, Def., Carmel; Chris Kvamme, Att., Menlo; John Langlais, MF, Bellarmine Prep; Ryan Le, MF, Bellarmine Prep; Andrew Lee, MF, Saratoga; David Lee, MF, Menlo; Nick Maruyama, MF, Menlo; Andrew McGuinness, Def., St. Ignatius Prep; Colin McLarney, MF, Bellarmine Prep; Luke Murtha, Att., Aptos; Aubrey Myjer, Att., Mountain View; Will Naughton, MF, St. Ignatius Prep; Robert O’Hare, G, Harbor; Dylan Osborne, MF, Robert L. Stevenson; Gavin Peake, G, Saratoga; Zack Powell, MF, Aptos; Spencer Rosen, MF, St. Ignatius Prep; Jacob Schekman, MF, Watsonville; Jake Skeen, MF, Robert L. Stevenson; Cameron Smith, Att., Los Gatos; C.J. Toy, MF, Bellarmine Prep; A.J. Von Massenhausen, Att., Bellarmine Prep; Kevin Weigand, Att., Bellarmine Prep; Luke Westmoreland, MF, Mountain View; Mac Whims, MF, Bellarmine Prep; Andrew Yoon, G, Leland; Max Zeff, Att., St. Ignatius Prep.

Preseason Top 10: 1. St. Ignatius Prep, 2. Bellarmine Prep, 3. Menlo, 4. Robert L. Stevenson, 5. Menlo-Atherton, 6. Watsonville, 7. Archbishop Mitty, 8. San Mateo Serra, 9. Aptos, 10. Mountain View.

Notes: There will be no Central Coast Section postseason tournament once again in 2010, but plans are in the works for a playoff tournament as early as the 2011 season....The Central Coast Section has expanded from three leagues to four this year, and there will be 29 teams in all. The strongest conference will be the West Catholic Athletic League, which has four teams ranked in the preseason top eight. St. Ignatius Prep, Bellarmine Prep, Archbishop Mitty, San Mateo Serra and newcomer San Jose St. Francis make up the new league....Teams that comprised the old Peninsula Athletic League have been divided into two conferences. Those that didn’t go into the WCAL will now compete in the 12-team Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, which will be split into two divisions....Both the Mission Trails Athletic League and the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League remained unchanged from the 2009 season....Archbishop Mitty will have a lot to overcome in 2010. Not only did the Monarchs get stuck in the new WCAL with St. Ignatius Prep and Bellarmine Prep, they also graduated 18 seniors. Lefty senior attackman Blake Hurt is a returning first-team All-League pick, and he leads a group of five returning starters....Of the 23 players on San Mateo Serra’s varsity roster last season, 15 were underclassmen....Former Carmel head coach Bruce Dini has stepped down and is now an assistant coach under Jeff Young at Robert L. Stevenson....Former Sacramento Jesuit head coach Peter Winn has taken over the program at Pacific Grove....Mountain View brings back five starters from its 2009 team. It will be led by junior middie Luke Westmoreland and sophomore attackman Aubrey Myjer.