Defending state Champ CovCath graduated a lot of scoring punch in Bryce Day and Jacob Litzler, but returns a top scorer in Griffin Lamb and has a host of others ready to step up. Can Lamb increase production this year against the prospect of added attention without Day/Litzler?

 

Adam Snow will be a treat to watch again at Cooper. Is there another scoring threat at Cooper to take some heat off Snow? DJ Sanders will be back with a lot of returning Varsity support from (pre-season Region 9 favorite?) St Henry.

 

Below are top returning stats leaders in Region 8. Who will top the leader boards next fall for Region 9 offensive production? Any new names to float?

 

Adam Snow, Cooper (29 goals/13 assists)

DJ Sanders, St Henry (23/7)

Griffin Lamb, CovCath (18/13)

Ethan Mills, Highlands (14/5)

Thomas Schutzman, Villa Madonna (12/3)

Ulises Martinez, Boone County (10/3)

Moses Bawibiklian, Beechwood (9/4), is another who could put up some impressive offensive numbers. I believe that he led the Tigers in points last season, while only playing in about half their matches.

Agreed. And Bogdan Shoyat could be a nice power/finesse pairing with Moses. Beechwood making Regionals this fall is a real possibility as I think Holy Cross is going to be a bit down.

Adam Snow is the answer to this question and everyone else is jockeying for 2nd...and he is a better kid than he is player (which says a LOT). A bigger fan of Adam you won't find.

Given the disparity in competition I'm not a big stat fan but clearly to me Adam Snow is the top returning offensive player. How much his supporting cast can help him out I don't know. If I'm an opposing coach, he gets a lot of attention. I think you'll see pretty balanced scoring from a fairly young CCH team but Lamb probably leads the pack for them. Scoring chances may be a bit harder to come by than they were on last year's squad. St. Henry returns a pretty experienced team and that should help Sanders put a lot of goals in the net. At the end of the year, the offensive player of the year may not be the stat leader in goals/assists, much like this past season.

I shouldn't have used the word "top" - or at least I should have used "some of the top." No doubt stats have to be taken in context. Not only is there a difference in who the goal was scored on, but which goal it was. I played in college with an All-American who led the team in scoring but was probably 3rd or 4th on the team in terms of game winners. He had a knack for getting the 3rd or 4th (or 3rd and 4th) goals in games we won by 3 or 4. Not 5hat it's not valuable to bury a team when you have them down, it's just that those goals just don't mean as much as the lone goal that puts you over a tough opponent for a 1-0 win.

 

But I digress... I'd like to hear about players to watch even if they didn't put up numbers last year. For Region 9, here are a couple examples:

 

Stephen Schutt, CovCath - Schutt was one of 4 or 5 Juniors who got significant time on Varsity last year. I expect Schutt to be a big part of the offensive engine at CCH this fall. I'm sure there are others at CovCath ready to step up as well.

 

Nick Tolbert, St. Henry - If Tolbert plays in the hole behind Sanders I'd expect him to be involved in a lot of St. Henry scoring.

 

David Renouil, Ryle - athletic and moves well off the ball. Will he feature this fall or am I off base?

 

Solomon Farris, Highlands - he creates a lot of chances by putting opposing backs under a ton of pressure. And he has a finishers touch.

 

Eddie Schultz, NCC - If NCC played Schultz up top I could easily see him being their top scorer - not super technical, but super athletic.

 

Who else? Come on... if we can fill multiple pages on time keeping surely we can talk about players we look forward to watching play in the fall.

Another player who should score some goals for CCH will be senior Cole Stava and of the talented rising junior class, Jacob Blom will make some noise as well for CCH. Stava will be more of a target player for CovCath, which they haven't really utilized recently.

I agree with the comments groinpull made in terms of Lamb leading the scoring for CCH, and those Sir! made about Schutt. I think the biggest unknown will be how Cole is used, he has the ability to create scoring chances for himself, or others.

 

I think that St Henry will really miss what Jack Neltner did on the offensive end last season. His work rate was very high and I felt that his ability to pressure the opposing defenses into a turnover created at least a few offensive chances in most matches. Sanders will need someone to team up with in order to duplicate his offensive output next year. I can see N. Tolbert lending support but I think Ian Manahan (7/4), and Josh Bisbee (2/7), will post even better offensive numbers than they did last season.

 

Not familiar with Renioull, I would expect Hoffman to have another solid year, I think he recorded (8/7) last season, as a Junior.

 

No reason to think Schultz wouldn't be played as a forward for NCC, he did well at putting the ball in the net last season and I believe that for their returning players, he was their highest point producer in 2015.

Snow is obviously top dog in region 9 but really not sure what Cooper have to compliment him. Cov Cath. graduated a lot of seniors but they just reload so I'm sure they will have a couple options up top. Schultz at NCC is very fast but hope he has worked on his technical skills. Sir! Just wait till the handling thread is posted.

Can someone list all of the offers Snow has.

It is still too early for Snow to receive any official offers. This is a list of schools that have been visited and both parties have shown a mutual interest, some of which have communicated that an offer will be forthcoming.

 

Bowling Green State University

Northern Kentucky University

University of Cincinnati

University of Evansville

University of Kentucky

Xavier University

It is still too early for Snow to receive any official offers. This is a list of schools that have been visited and both parties have shown a mutual interest, some of which have communicated that an offer will be forthcoming.

 

Bowling Green State University

Northern Kentucky University

University of Cincinnati

University of Evansville

University of Kentucky

Xavier University

 

Not too shabby. Gotta be very exciting.

What about Kerry Nolasco from Holmes??

What about Kerry Nolasco from Holmes??

 

If he's pushed up and allowed to focus on playing the #10 role he could have a nice season. Last year when I saw Holmes play he was playing midfield, but going back to take goal kicks, which was... curious.

Yellow ......rest easy...Adam's stats shouldn't be affected because even though OTB has a year of eligibility left.....the rumor that he is considering using it this year to return to claim the DPOY is not true. Still not down to playing weight yet.......and that "no alcohol" rule is a deal breaker !