Division D2 Preseason Hype

 

On the eve of my own first game of the season, I’m having trouble sleeping. No better way to prepare for the season than to put my final touches on the article.

There will be a lot of teams to cover in D-1 and D-2 and I will do my best to equally cover all of them, however my apologies if you feel like you or your team are not getting enough spotlight.

Feel free to message me at any time on Facebook for whatever reason you like – to call me out, challenge one of my opinions or the occasional compliment is always appreciated.

Best of luck on the season!

 

Conference A

 

Team Ethnik

A squad made up of a few FPF veterans in David De Andrade and Jean-Christophe Ferland, when you add in a young up and comer in Alexi Dubois and some role players, you get a pretty solid group. The majority of these guys just finished 5-5 in the Winter and will look to use that experience to finish with a better record this season. It looks like Benoit Lawler will replace Francois Martin at QB and he has enough experience to lead the group. He’ll need to have his best season yet and try to break the 100.0 QB rating this time around and limit the turnovers for them to have success.

Players to watch: David De Andrade, Jean-Christophe Ferland

 

Ball So Hard U.

Great name, but to be blunt, I’m not sure they have put together a group with enough weapons to win them close games. Anthony Lazzara will have to carry these guys most of the way unless Joseph Buffone, Justin Fraraccio or Dominic Mangione can step up and provide support. The obvious direction would be right at Buffone who is coming off a season where he finished with a QBR of 116.5 and finished 8-2. That being said, that was in Division 6 and they will be faced with a ton of new challenges in Division D this spring.

Players to watch: Joseph Buffone, Anthony Lazzara

 

Tough Lungs

Besides Lerner and Migdesyan, this team was made up almost entirely of players new to FPF a season ago. They managed to play .500 football and gain a lot of experience in the process. They eventually lost in the Quarter-Finals, but they showed us that they are here to ball and taking it seriously. With Lerner and Migdesyan leading the way, that’s no surprise to anybody. The competition gets a little bit tougher, but I expect their game to follow suit and compete in the higher division. Look for them to hang around come playoff time.

Players to watch: Justin Lerner, Daron Migdesyan

 

Voodoo

Tough defense and ball out quick on offense is the name of the game for Voodoo. We all know what kind of damage Patrick St-Armand can do on both sides of the ball and Frank Kaye has more experience than a bunch of us combined. While he may not be physically over-bearing, I’ve learned never to take Frank Kaye lightly or the teams he assembles. If I had to make a crazy comparison, St-Armand is the Wolverine to Kaye’s Professor X. The rest of the squad does not have a weak link and to beat them, you’ll have to simply out work them which isn’t always easy.

Players to watch: Frank Kaye, Patrick St-Armand, Kevin Marcil

 

Mutation

I’m not quite sure how this team didn’t end up in D1 at the very least. They are fresh off a season where they finished 6-3-1 in Division 4A this past winter and got knocked out of the playoffs by a very good TOPSZN team. These guys have a high FPF pedigree and one of my favorites heading into the season. The downside? Besides Marquis who can’t throw a pass, it doesn’t look like they have a veteran QB on the squad. If Jubinville or Vincent Marquis end up throwing, it take away a play maker on the offensive side of the ball and suddenly they don’t looke like the same powerhouse.

Players to watch: Alexandre Jubinville, Jean-Felix Marquis, Vincent Marquis

 

CheatCode

This team looks to be the Mogadishu Pirates revamped, and instead of Josh White they added Patrice Lindor who has just as must talent but less of a rating. The duo of Kano and Papich look to get revenge for an early playoff exit in the Winter and if they can play smart defense, split up Papich and Lindor who can both be ball hawks, they should have a shot. There’s a huge drop after those two, so they will need to avoid being predictable on offense. I have a lot of confidence in this group, so I look forward to seeing how it all comes together.

Players to watch: Nikki Papich, Patrice Lindor, Joseph Kano

 

Grabuge

It looks like the trend in D2 is that we are seeing a lot of teams entering their second season of FPF. Grabuge has a few guys who have been around FPF for a while now, however it’s now going to be their second season as a unit. Their first season did not go as planned, but they may have been playing slightly above the rim in 4B and I think D2 should be much better suited for them. Alex Campeau and Nicholas Emmanuel-Pierre are two solid players and a lot of the pressure will be on whoever plays QB to get them the ball.

Players to watch: Both I just mentioned.

 

Browns de Boucherville

As I just mentioned, season 2 is a popular thing for this division. I present to you, the Browns. Not sure they are giving themselves any luck by calling themselves that, they seemed to follow in the footsteps of the NFL team by going winless in the winter. That said, it was their first season together as a team in FPF and I believe it was a first time in FPF for every player as well. Expectations won’t be high this season, so they may surprise us. It doesn’t look like they have added a playmaker, though. That’s a bold strategy, Cotton.

Players to watch: We will see.

 

Thunder Buddies

One of my votes for best team names in the division, this seems to be a mish mash of players from other teams molded into this fine squad. Brad Evans, Kevin St-Pierre and Myles Keiller are all very capable football players and Evans has done well at QB in the past. As it usually is for most, the secret to their success will be creating some chemistry early and not making too many mistakes. I’m curious to see if KSP will rush or play corner. Random thought – I wonder if this is the team that got created at the combine?

Players to watch: KSP, Brad Evans, Myles Keiller

 

Touched by An Angeletti

Kudos to Alex Angeletti for letting this name fly, he’ll have his work cut out for him with this team, I believe. They have some play makers, most notably Gordon Hogan, but I am not sure that they have the depth to succeed. I can see this team finishing in the middle of the pack as there are definitely weaker rosters out there, but it will be difficult for them to play against teams with more top options. Who knows, maybe they will have a little bit of Angeletti in the outfield… That was bad, I apologize.

Players to watch: Alex Angeletti – the Team name gives him all of the spotlight.

 

Les Blues Branleurs

This is a team that we have not seen since the Winter of 2017 and it looks like they have put together almost a brand new roster. The staples remain as we will see Olivier Pilotto back at QB and looking to improve on his 77.0 QBR from that season and Olivier Laberge looks to be his go-to-guy. Although, they do have two other players on the team with the same last name, so this team could very easily take us all by surprise. There’s something about adding a team of guys who have never played before. It could lead to absolute brilliance, but it more often than not means a lot of growing pains.

Players to watch: Olivier Laberge, Olivier Pilotto.

 

Conference B

 

Full Senders

Firstly, I’m not sure I get the name. Hopefully somebody explains it to me soon enough. Secondly, it looks like Emilio Cecere and Joseph Cecere haven’t been around in 3 season, so there may be some rust to shake off. They will be the center pieces of a team full of a lot of new players however I believe they have enough experience to show them the way. Still, as I have mentioned before, it can be tough for a new group to gel together quickly and it can lead to a long season.

Players to watch: Joseph Cecere, Emilio Cecere

 

Adonis A’s

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love Adonis. Let me follow up by saying that while I hate to be that guy, it’s tough to envision a lot of success for these guys based solely on looking at their ratings before the season starts. It may just be their saving grace that they have a winnable matchup in their first game of the season and hopefully it starts a winning trend. That being said, Raoul Baroudi is an excellent player who I’ve played against on Monstars and Laval’s Finest in the past and hopefully he can bring his winning ways with him as well.

Players to watch: Raoul Baroudi and whoever plays QB.

 

Blazed and Confuzed

As if Dazed and Confused wasn’t direct enough, these guys took it a step further. Another name that makes me smile when thinking about just how liberal the league is. Besides Angelo Mourelatos, this looks to be a brand new team. They even registered 6 different QBs interestingly enough. Is that a strategy to throw off their opponents? By the way, I’m officially dubbing this Conference the Supermarket Conference.

Players to watch: No idea

 

Sunday Touch Boys

Hahahaha and I thought Blazed and Confuzed was bad? I won’t even comment on this one, although it will make me feel very dirty every time I write about this team. The best part about this team is that their QB, David Roaldi and I played together in High-School. We were the equivalent of Josh McCown and Terrelle Pryor. Dave was much more reliable, stronger arm, however I took more chances and it sometimes led to more success. As a team, we were better with him at QB and me at receiver and I can’t say it didn’t work out as I ended up on the All-Star team and a scholarship to the US. Enough about me – Dave can take a decent roster and make them good. It’ll be all on him.

Players to watch: Dave Roaldi, Mark Bellini, Enzo Bellini

 

Baby Kangaroos

It looks like Eric Maiorino will be quarterbacking this squad which is great for them because that means he has a lot of weapons to throw to. Joey Taylor, Greg Kristselas and Zach Zwirn should make plays on both sides of the ball which leads me to conclude that this team will go as far as Maiorino will take them. Man, it’s tough to type his name, I’ll have to come up with a nickname. Just by looking at their roster alone, it’ll be championship or bust for these guys.

Players to watch: You should know if you were paying attention

 

Green Lantern Corps

Two words. Quarterback controversy. Hai Minh Luong is probably the day 1 starter here and is more than capable, however with two other QBs on the roster who can also get the job done, I imagine there will be a short leash. I would also imagine that Jerson Previllon would be the next man up because I don’t think they will want to lose out on Mendy Cardichon playing wide receiver. He and Riccardo Resrosiers should make a great dynamic duo for whoever keeps the role of QB and I can see this team having success either way.

Players to watch: Riccardo Desrosiers, Mendy Cardichon, Hai Minh Luong

 

Hot Boys Hotline

I wonder what happens in the off-season while teams are figuring things out and end up registering with an 11-man roster. Are all players aware that they will only play 50% of the time? Is it irrelevant because it’s all about the team? Either way, they have two studs and a decent support cast and Tom Gatehouse is a very capable quarterback so there is always hope with these guys. For Hot Boys, their reputation of imploding at the worst possible time will follow and they will have to shed that to be successful.

Players to watch: Vadim Chernyak, Shawn Haney

 

Dream Breakers

Another team that I do not know much about, which makes sense because they are composed of mostly new players. One player who is not new is Pierre-Alexandre Tache and he had a very good season offensively last season in Division 5B which is why his rating has been adjusted positively. I won’t pretend to know how this team will do, but we play in a quarterback driven league so a lot of it will come down to who takes the ball from center.

Players to watch: Pierre-Alexandre Tache

 

Vick in a Box

Is this a reference to SNL or Michael Vick? Or both? Either way, just like Vick on trial, they look to face an uphill battle. Cap wise, they are at the lower end of the spectrum for the division and Max Burah will have his work cut out for him. It looks like Styles Trudeau will be their QB based on his rating but I think he will have difficulty getting the offense going without a secondary threat to Burah. I worry about these guys.

Players to watch: Burah and Trudeau

 

Longhorns

One of my favorite teams, they should be penciled in as one of the favorites in the division. They are coming off an excellent season in Division 5 in the winter and Jon Moodie looks to build off that momentum. You have your studs in Adam Rosen, Chris Rosen and Patrick Jazon and the rest of the squad just has so much experience that they will surprise the newer, younger teams in the league. Let this be a warning to those who don’t know, the Longhorns will be challenging for a Championship come season’s end. No pressure guys, honest.

Players to watch: Jon Moodie, Adam Rosen, Patrick Jazon

 

Wrecking Crew

Wait, after playing in the finals just a season ago, they are able to field the same team AND add Kevin Smuda? That hardly seems fair. I think Stephen Harripersaud made his greatest QB leap last season and he has really found his rhythm in FPF. He will have weapons galore in Smuda, Stewart and Josh Levine and these guys really know how to play as a team. I think you will see them in the top 3 along with the Longhorns and the Baby Kangaroos when the dust settles on this season.

Players to watch: Stephen Harripersaud, Josh Levine, Kevin Smuda