Who are the best players in the Southeast region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
Vanderbilt’s coach here. Couple of thoughts just based on teams we’ve played, as well as some of the bigger contributors on our squad. I’m biased obv on the Vandy picks, but think we have some great players that no-one had really heard about until this year. I wasn’t there when we played Jojah at regionals, but they’ve got some excellent players too in Ryan Flick, Adam Miller, Scotty Whitley, Aiden Downey, etc.
-Luke Thomas for Auburn. Rock solid with the disc and a good leader for a relatively raw Auburn squad
-Justin Burnett for Emory. He’s a huge matchup problem for whoever Emory plays, especially if he’s playing D
-Brad Fleming for UAH. Super smooth on offense and a plus defender in that zone of theirs.
-Adam Grossberg for G. Tech. FOTY candidate, really smooth, good defender, very fast. Gonna be really good, and is already really good.
-David Atwood for Vandy. David’s a beast and is just as potent as a thrower as he is downfield. Great leader that was a huge part of Vanderbilt’s success this year. One of the more complete players in the southeast IMO.
-Kai Mehra for Vandy. Squirrelly defender and a great athlete off of the turn. Also, a lefty.
-Ben Walton for Vandy. We call him the “genetic jackhammer”. Super fast and athletic, really reliable as a thrower and great in isolation space as a cutter.
-Tim Jacob for Vandy. FOTY candidate, really well rounded and a strong cutter. Another guy to keep an eye on in coming years.
2 Likes
For All-Freshman
Scotty Whitley has got to be in the discussion for All-Freshman, if not SE FOTY; he’s taken on a huge role on the Jojah starting D line, come up with massive plays in critical games, and is a wonderful competitor and teammate.
For All-Region
UGA - Since I’m biased I’ll limit it to 1 guy that gets overlooked: Isaac Huntington. He’s a great puller, the go-to matchup for their best guy, and runs a wild mark in a zone. You can’t ask for much more from a defensive standpoint.
UAH - Bradley Fleming. Dude spends all game running the mark in a zone, and then turns around and is an every-other handler. A nightmare to guard and a stellar thrower.
Florida - You could game plan around most things - but you can’t game plan around Logan Diehl coming down with every jump ball at the tournament. The wind can stunt a thrower’s toolbag, but an elite receiver is an elite receiver no matter the conditions, and UF steamrolling though opponents at SE Regionals was clearly made possible in part to his ability to get open, and furthermore to close on a catch even when he wasn’t.
(Bias - UGA Coach)
Emory - Justin Burnett, huge playmaker for Emory. There’s also this Freshman that I don’t know the name of, we nicknamed him “Waldo” because of his trademark Red and White hat. He was making plays up and down the field and expect to see him being a dominant force for Emory in coming years.
Florida - Didn’t play them in Spring but Michael Arbutine was still there and was still their playmaker.
Vanderbilt - David Atwood, strong player, throwing huge hucks for Vandy when it got windy.
Georgia Tech - Adam Grossberg FOTY candidate. Unsung heroes in the form of Nick Huffman and Chris Zuo working hard out there.
Georgia - Adam Miller was a rock behind the ball. Scotty Whitley was also an impressive freshman taking on a large role for Jojah.
Bias - GT Captain
I am going to be biased towards Florida as I play for them. I will talk about the best players that I feel we played against this season.
Auburn- Luke Thomas
Their whole offense ran through him and he also played almost every defensive point. Obviously would be tough stepping into bigger role with all the guys Auburn lost and he seemed to fill their shoes very well.
Emory- Justin Burnett
Crazy athletic, he was a lockdown defender in man. He also could operate successfully as a hybrid.
Emory’s freshman who skied us a bunch also deserves recognition. Idk his name but after he skied us they chanted he’s a freshman so I know that he will be skying people for years to come.
Tulane- Charlie Smith and Kai Durvasula
Tulanes two main guys, Charlie crashed our zone well and Kai was great on defense and is also a great offensive weapon. I think he got hurt Saturday which sucks because he is also a super cool dude.
UGA- Aidan Downey and Adam Miller
Downey obviously is just a great athlete and can do it all, but I was impressed by his hammers in the wind on Sunday. Miller’s insides were so good against our zone and he also had great defense at the 5. I guarded him off of a turn and he always seemed calm cool and collected, even when he didn’t have the disc he was operating the offense.
UF- Michael Arbutine, Logan Diehl, JC Cox
Arbutine deserves consideration for the Callahan in my opinion as he played literally every point for us all season and probably accounted for about 75-90% of our scores by either assisting or scoring. He was the best player on the field for most of the games we played.
Diehl is the best receiver I have seen, just skying everyone and contorting his body all sorts of ways. He bailed out bad throws countless times.
Cox was insanely reliable all season as our center handler, and can break the mark at ease. He also had great defense in the zone.
UAH- Bradley Fleming
Was a great mark and a great handler. Very tough to play against.
GT- Adam Grossberg
FOTY candidate he is going to be sick.
FSU- August Specht
Excellent defender and is super quick.
UCF- Alex Nelson
Great handler and could go every other on their offense. Also could get open cutting.
Andrew Ohrberg #0 on Mississippi State - huge playmaker that played on both their O and D line. Came in clutch every time we play them.
Daniel Grisham #5 on Mississippi State - highlight machine, 2 Callahans back to back against Tulane at Sectionals, and no one wanted to go up with him.
Luke Thomas on Auburn played well every time we played him.
Scott Evans was a threat deep and prevented the deep look too.
All of UAH’s O Line Handlers was rough to play against as well.
Hey everyone, LSU Head coach here. I wanted to chime in on a couple players and coaches for some of these awards. Maybe a bit bias on the our end, but some definitely need the recognition.
Coach Awards: Start off with the Vandy crew, very overlooked and were downplayed, but they managed to make it to Regional Semis and I think that a lot of it has to do with their leadership. Next I want to suggest the UCF coaching staff, very positive, high spirited, and great crew of guys. I hate to nominate myself and our staff, but I am, because we had a great leadership of coaches and captains. We were considered to be out of the running of sectionals by multiple people. At the end we managed to break seed by 5, going from 15th to 10th in regionals.
All Freshman: Ryan Ripley (LSU) (Pre Sectionals and Regionals 278 points played, 21 goals, 6 assists, and 33 D’s) a defensive machine and made huge plays for us on D-line. Other guys on the LSU crew are Caleb Franklin and Kade Cannizzaro. Both of these players came in mainly in the Spring semester and were very efficient on our D-Line. Adam Grossberg (G Tech), Only saw several plays in regionals, but man another great defender who can read the disc very well.
All Region: Collin Casseri (LSU) (Pre Sectionals and Regionals 317 points played, 26 goals, 53 assists, and 38 D’s) someone over looked, but he played both O-line and D-line, captain, and grinded through several injuries throughout the year. Other names that I agree with are Brad Flemming, Logan Diehl, David Alwood, David Miller, Luke Thomas, and Charlie Smith.
Bias - LSU Head Coach