The ISL podcast: All the teams and players to watch this season

Dylan Casillo of Belmont Hill, Tedy Frisoli of St. Sebastian's and Jack Czepiel of Tabor are among the ISL headliners this season.

On this episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, host Kyle Devitte talks with Seamans Media managing editor Mike Zhe, who joins the podcast to help tee up the upcoming season in the Independent School League.

The ISL is entering the fifth season of its championship tournament era, and there is no shortage of title hopefuls.

To go along with this podcast, which addresses all of the league’s 16 teams, there is plenty more detailed ISL coverage available at LaxJournal.com and will be throughout the season.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Kyle Devitte: All right, we move to No. 4 in our rankings. This is also a surprise. Milton Academy.

Mike Zhe: I think Milton is one of the most intriguing teams heading into the season that we’re going to see. I think we are in agreement on that, even if maybe we weren’t in exact lockstep about where they are. But this is a team we have picked for fourth. And one reason for that is two excellent upper classes. 

KD: Yes. We’ve got a couple of guys to talk about. I mean, I love Matty Ramos, dude. I’ve told this story a couple of times, but I was on the field when his commitment was announced to Army. And I literally just saw coaches close their email on their phone. I’m just like, “Oh wow, that’s awesome.” That’s that’s the reaction you want, right? Like that’s what you always want to see for a kid. Dion Kitsos is an excellent pole who can put the ball on the ground against pretty much anybody. They’ve got a lot of depth, and I think that’s why you have to put Milton Academy here. They’ve got a quarterback in Ramos. They’ve got a No. 1 pole in Kitsos. I think if we’re looking at anything it might be, “Who’s gonna be the goalie here?”

MZ: This is the team in the top tier, maybe in the whole league, that did not get hit hard by graduation. Natty Mason, yes, but not a ton of
impact players off last year’s team. This is a team that’s going to return to the field largely intact from where it was at the end of last year.

KD: Alright, let’s go to No. 2. I fought hard for this. I believe in it. I think the coach believes in it, too. And it’s Tabor. Grady Alger is a game-changing goalie. Dylan Franzen’s exceptional. Jack Czepiel is a straight-up shut-down pole; he might be the best pole in the league. I think that you could say that about either one of the Sebs guys, but they’re coming back from some injuries. I’m gonna say that Czepiel is definitely the best in his class. He was one of the first ‘D’ guys off the board to Princeton for a reason.

MZ: Yeah, it’s a complete team. It’s a complete team on the field. It’s a complete team on paper. And it’s been building, as you said. We referenced that in a magazine feature in the fall. This is a program that’s been growing, and they’re in the best position entering a season that they’ve been in since we’ve been doing this.

@TheKyleDevitte
kyle.devitte@laxjournal.com

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