Since I know Long Island the best out of all the sub-regions, and since I'm running a tourney there in two weeks, I suppose I'll offer my analysis of those teams and leave the others (NYC, North Jersey, Upstate, Westchester, PA, Etc.) to those who know them better.
West Egg: From the team that went t-13 at HSNCT last year, they return everyone except Jacqueilne; more importantly, the fearsome duo of Lucia and Allan are back and better than ever. I certainly see them being in championship contention at every tournament they attend this year, and hopefully they'll improve on last year's nationals finish.
Kellenberg: Matt York graduated, and we shall have to see who will step up to fill his shoes. I do predict this will be a rebuilding year for them, but they should still remain at least somewhat competitive nonetheless, as they still have many good (25-35 ppg) players in the wings, including... Matt's little brother
Port Jeff: The Eric Kilgore era is over. They have players that can at least put up points, but they have rebuilding to do since Eric was so dominant on the squad. Expect both their performance and tournament attendance to be significantly down this season.
North Babylon: As Haggai said, they return almost their entire squad, and while they'll miss Zach, they have Pat, Richard, or Ryan to replace him (unless they graduated and I'm not aware of this). They'll definitely do very well this year, and expect their performance to be significantly up.
Kings Park: TBH, I don't know all that much about their squad and its composition, mostly because I never have played them in my entire career (which is pretty dang ironic since our schools are half a mile apart on literally the same road). So I don't know who's out or in, but I do know that most of the graduation losses should be replaced and their performance should be somewhere between slightly and mildly down.
Wheatley: John Li is the future of this team, who have some serious rebuilding to do with basically their entire A team gone. The good news is that he alone is better than the rest of the graduating seniors combined! Okay, maybe not that good, but he still has the chance to do some serious damage, provided he can get some solid teammates. Until then, I suppose their performance will in fact be somewhat down from last year.
Hills East: Zach was ridiculously good. Dan and Chris also put up good numbers. All three have now graduated, so the club's future is bleak, at least for now. Time for some classic rebuilding.
Hills West: Brandon Epstein is gone, and so is this once-powerhouse team, bar a miracle.
Smithtown West: Because we haven't been analyzed in five years, and because we ain't that bad (but ain't that good either), I figured I'd throw my own team in here too. Cory and Bradley are good. Victoria is better. Cory and Bradley both have their finest strength in, of course, computational math, which never shows up. Victoria is more of a generalist. They all get good buzzes in science and lit, but they need a history and geo specialist. If they study, they'll do great. If they don't, they'll be in consolation all year long.
Smithtown East: I hear they will return to the circuit next year at... Harvard Fall. Oh god.
Other LI teams who went to a non-RQB tournament last year but can't quite be discussed as I know too little about them:
Plainedge (Kings Park)
Long Beach (Metro NY)
Commack (Col. Winter)
Valley Stream South (LIFT, KP)
Huntington (KP)
North Shore HS (LIFT)
But hey, props for showing up
So I think the teams can be ranked like this:
1) West Egg
2) North Babylon
3) Kellenberg
4) Kings Park
5) Valley Stream South
6) Smithtown West
7) Wheatley
8) Commack
9) Port Jefferson
10) Long Beach
11) Huntington
12) Plainedge
13) North Shore
14) Smithtown East
Did I get them right? Wrong? Blatantly, horribly wrong? I suppose we'll find out soon!
