Sure, it's only September of 2008, but it's time to start talking about next year. The WCAC surely cannot be as good next spring as it was last spring, given the departure of stud players from PVI, St. John's, and DeMatha. Still, it should be a strong conference that produces quite a few Division I players and a ton of competition. Predicted order of finish:

St. John's
DeMatha
PVI
Good Counsel
Gonzaga
BI
Ryken
McNamara

Pitching MVP: Reed (StJ) or Costello (PVI)
Position player MVP: Leemhuis (StJ)

The conference should be pretty competitive next year. PVI and St. Johns lost a lot of talent, they should have some nice young players coming up through the program. Good Counsel returns alot of starters from last year and DeMatha has two D1 commits already. Congrats to Jimmy Reed (SJC) for committing to Maryland and Josh Leehmius (SJC) for doing the same to North Carolina!

Where are the two DeMatha guys committed?

Chris Cook (George Mason) and Daniel Dragos(Temple)

St John's will be very good, as always. DeMatha should also be good with so many players returning. PVI will surprise, as they have added not just rising juniors to the mix, but also several transfers from NDA. Gonzaga is still a year away. BI--they will be very interesting given Coach Gallagher's success last year at the end of the season--can they keep getting better? Good Counsel is going to be good, too, I think, as they seem always to hit the ball so well. Leemhuis and Reed will be hard to beat out as the WCAC's top players, with exception of Chad Morgan from PVI who could, conceivably, hit 8-12 homeruns.

Can the NDA transfers play varsity at PVI this year? I am not sure of the rules of transfer when kids come from far away. Is NDA far enough away so that kids can go directly to varsity?

rhobbs--PVI will return about 7 seniors (plus 2 seniors who transferred from NDA), only 2 juniors (who played varsity last year), and one soph (who played varsity last year). I agree that they will be better than some people think. Chad Morgan is All-World and can play about anywhere. Costello is their ace, but add Pat McDonald, Lansing Veeder, Torey Mancari, Eric McGee to the mix and you have four pretty darned good additional starters. The infield should be good, too, with Dan Savage, Lem Zeigler, and Tyler Costello (when not pitching or recovering) as returning anchors. Veeder and Zeigler can both play infield or outfield, and PVI will probably mix them up that way, so they have great flexibility to fill behind pitchers. Reeves will bring alot to the outfield and the batting order this spring. Heck, at 1B, Coach Emerson can use Costello, Morgan, Ruffin, and Mancari interchangeably. They are all good there. I think Coach Emerson will have a lineup that can hit, from one through nine or ten. This team will be good, especially if they find another pitcher or two. Will they beat StJ, DeMatha, and Good Counsel? We can only wait and see.

gamefan--as I understand it, yes, the NDA kids can play because they reside in Loudon, not Fairfax, County. I think the rule is that a student cannot play at the school to which he transfers anytime after his freshman year if there is a WCAC school in the county in which he resides. Therefore, because they are from Loudon Co, they can play.

Mancari and Reeves are from Faquier County.

Also, the reason they can play at PVI this year is because NDA is a VA Independent Private High School. Therefor they do not fall under the same rules for transfer as what would happen from a private to public, or WCAC private to WCAC private.

Prescedence set when Brian Short spent all of one season at NDA back in 2001-2002 (??) and transferred to PVI the next year.

That is wrong. The reason that they can, is where the live. Because Faquier County does not have a WCAC team living in a county that borders it then a player can transfer without penalty.

The only other way a player could transfer to a new school is if a player moves, not with a aunt, then you can play without sitting out a year.

Redstags-

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It would if NDA was a WCAC team, but not in the current situation. NDA is a CAC team, which is a 3 team VA Independent private school conference (NDA, Benedictine, and Blue Ridge). What bearing does that have on the availability of a WCAC school? Are you saying that the only reason they can transfer is because they don't have a private school in Faquier?

I'm not arguing that it couldn't be right, I just want some clarification. My understanding (as told by someone who has been dealing with all of these kids leaving NDA) was that since NDA was a non Archdioses school/WCAC school, you could transfer anywhere without penalty. At least that's the understanding I gained from those kids and their parents.

Obviously by know you have figured out that I was one of the coaches that NDA kept in the dark for all of a year before this incident occurred.

I understood the WCAC transfer rule to allow such transfers provided it was not from an adjacent county. Thus, since Fauquier Co is not adjacent to Fairfax Co, the NDA kids could transfer to PVI. But that is simply what I had heard before or read on this website before.

In any case, it must be permissible, since Cody Reeves and Torey Mancari are at PVI. They are good players who will fit in well and help PVI this year.

Anyone know if they have college offers?

isaacvanwart said it right except it is where the kid lives and has nothing to do with what school he goes too.

If NDA was in Fairfax County or even better if Anne Arundel County then the kids would not be allowed to play this year at the varsity level. I hope this make sense.

Anybody have a list (or want to start one) of WCAC 2009 guys who have signed already .... and let's add it here as they sign.

St J

Leemhuis--UNC
Reed--Maryland

PVI

Morgan--VT

quote:

Prescedence set when Brian Short spent all of one season at NDA back in 2001-2002 (??) and transferred to PVI the next year.

Not sure about the wcac rules but we lived in va and attended NDA during this time frame. The year Brian Short transferred to PVI he began that year at NDA and attended for a couple of months if my memory is correct. He was not allowed to play on the varsity at PVI that year but he did play on the JV team

The PVI website lists Cody Reeves as a player who signed with Towson St.

Who is the 'real deal' in Maryland, in 2009?

Mike Trionfo, a Calvert Hall prospect, also signed with Towson.

OBTW: Towson State changed their name to Towson Univ......., eons ago.

= Edited by Moderator - MN-Mom =

Back to the WCAC for 2009. It appears that it is up for grabs. DeMatha, StJ, PVI, Good Counsel, Gonzaga, and BI will all be tough. PVI is young and maybe a year away, and Gonzaga and BI will likely falter through lack of pitching and lack of depth. DeMatha, StJ, and Good Counsel should be awfully tough to beat. The typical WCAC schedule will be brutal, with just about any team having about an even chance of winning on any give night. I also notice that the nonconference schedules tend to be brutal, with WCAC teams playing tournaments out-of-state and rolling into nonconference games against outstanding area teams. Pitching will be a premium.

I still think Reed and Leemhuis are favorites for Pitcher of the Year and Player of the Year in the conference.