NESCAC

[Little Giant 89]

Is he a hockey fan?  Traditionally a lot of hockey goalies have worn numbers in the thirties.  Maybe he's a Martin Brodeur fan.

[Kuiper]

Tufts has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 36 on the roster, compared with 33 last season

- 7 freshman.  I have to note that the bio for Freshman Will Nicholas, a recruit from Pacific Palisades, CA is hilariously incorrect in one respect.  After recounting his honors and achievements in HS soccer (all true), it adds that he "Also surfed for Santa Monica Surf."  While Will might be a surfer - the Palisades area he's listed as from looks right out onto the Pacific Ocean after all - and you can certainly surf off the beaches of Santa Monica as long as your aren't too close to the pier, "Santa Monica Surf" is a soccer club that used to be known as "Santa Monica United" before it was "assimilated" by the Borg-like entity known as Surf Soccer Nation.  So, while the Surf moniker might make sense in a place like Santa Monica, it now exists all over, including in Idaho, Western Iowa, and even in places close to Tufts like New England Surf and Rhode Island Surf.  I'm guessing the SID's office intern who wrote this wasn't familiar with it, but it's a whole phenomenon worthy of a Simple Coach podcast - the commercialization and private equity-influenced M&A boom in youth soccer clubs and youth sports generally!

- Several grad students using a Covid year, including 1st Team All-American D Max Clivio, 2nd team All Region F Max Brady, and regular starters M Liam Gerken, and D Gibson Campbell

- Notable departure is 3rd Team All Region F and leading scorer Sean Traynor, but otherwise most of the main cogs of the team return, including a transfer from D1 Northeastern last season, Nikola Antic.

[Kuiper]

Connecticut College has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 37 on the roster, which is the same as last year

- 5 freshman

- A bunch of players returning for a grad year, including USC 2nd Team All-American forward Matt Scoffone, 2nd Team All-NESCAC and 3rd Team All-Region forward Jake Creus, and regular starters/contributors midfielders Brendan Clare and Rye Jaran, and defenders Sam Boehm and Alessandro Horvath Diano.

- Only notable departure, although it's a big one, is 2nd Team All-Region defender Marco Cerezco, but they have plenty of regular starters on defense who will be back, plus Peter Silvester at GK

[stlawus]

Connecticut College has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 37 on the roster, which is the same as last year

- 5 freshman

- A bunch of players returning for a grad year, including USC 2nd Team All-American forward Matt Scoffone, 2nd Team All-NESCAC and 3rd Team All-Region forward Jake Creus, and regular starters/contributors midfielders Brendan Clare and Rye Jaran, and defenders Sam Boehm and Alessandro Horvath Diano.

- Only notable departure, although it's a big one, is 2nd Team All-Region defender Marco Cerezco, but they have plenty of regular starters on defense who will be back, plus Peter Silvester at GK

Pretty good transfer in Marco Perugini. Scored 6 goals for Union last year as a freshman. Highly likely a coaching change casualty.

[College Soccer Observer]

Re jersey numbers:

My son was the youngest GK his freshman year, so he got last pick of the GK jerseys.  He wound up with 33.  He decided to keep it for his entire career.

[Kuiper]

Re jersey numbers:

My son was the youngest GK his freshman year, so he got last pick of the GK jerseys.  He wound up with 33.  He decided to keep it for his entire career.

I totally understand that phenomenon (and have seen it myself).  And some prominent Euro GKs have numbers like 31 now for instance.  I just haven't seen a GK move from a traditional GK number to a low number very often if at all, which makes me wonder if the coaches assign numbers and this says something about relative position.  I suspect that would be very un-Wesleyan like though, based on the little I know about the school.

[SKUD]

I saw goal tenders swap #s caused by size of jersey vs size of players

[Kuiper]

Amherst has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 32 players on the roster, compared with 28 last season

- 7 freshman.  Ironically, Michael Cherico, a 6'5" forward/midfielder from Pateadores and Mater Dei in Southern California, is listed at #17, which was Shawn Rapal's number.  Cherico, who played F in HS and often played at the DM position in club, is a guy who I could see assuming the Rapal role at some point.

- A couple of players who were listed as seniors last season return for what is presumably a Covid year: regular starting GK Max Landa and regular contributing M Wyatt McCarthy

[EnmoreCat]

It's definitely not exaggerating to say that very good players graduated, of course, that gives opportunity for others, but it will feel that bit different.  For those with purple in their hearts it is a time to get to know new names and faces and start to appreciate what they bring to what is already a strong group.

I will be able to attend six games, starting with the El Classico encounter with Midd and get to visit a few new places, Bates and Colby, which will be pretty cool.  Sadly, I will only get two games at the billiard table that is Hitchcock Field, but will do my best to soak up the atmosphere there and enjoy what will be the Enmore Kitten's final season.     

[MediumTime]

Does anyone have any news related to pre-season scrimmages? Traditionally, most teams would have played a friendly match over the past few days in the lead up to matchday 1.

[FootyFetish]

I saw goal tenders swap #s caused by size of jersey vs size of players

It seems that less and less programs are issuing GK numbers per traditional means (1 being starter, 0 backup, etc).  Especially in D3 ranks - you get what is available, or sized to you, and kids are picking more and more from a non traditional format.  This is a bit of an extension from their club teams where they wear what they pick.  There are some programs that are issuing the one, but last season, I saw "1" in goal very infrequently. 

[Kuiper]

I saw goal tenders swap #s caused by size of jersey vs size of players

It seems that less and less programs are issuing GK numbers per traditional means (1 being starter, 0 backup, etc).  Especially in D3 ranks - you get what is available, or sized to you, and kids are picking more and more from a non traditional format.  This is a bit of an extension from their club teams where they wear what they pick.  There are some programs that are issuing the one, but last season, I saw "1" in goal very infrequently. 

My very anecdotal impression is that in D3 many, if not most, teams give out numbers long before players arrive on campus and a pecking order can be established because they have to adjust for sizes and the preseason is too short to do that after they arrive.  Plus, a keeper who holds over from a prior year may stick with what he got when he arrived, which was basically what was available.  Sometimes an upperclassmen moves to a traditional GK number in the offseason before the freshman arrive, but otherwise there are underclassmen at 1 or 0 who may not be the starters.  And even if a newcomer is likely to start because the starter and backup graduated, the coaches will allow the players to pick, meaning the #1 may simply be the person who responded first to the email.  What I thought was odd about the Wesleyan situation was that the keeper moved out of the traditional GK number he got when he arrived down to a non-traditional number.  As you say, however, that may simply be that players aren't as conditioned to have traditional position numbers anymore in club and that carries over to college.

[SierraFD3soccer]

I saw goal tenders swap #s caused by size of jersey vs size of players

It seems that less and less programs are issuing GK numbers per traditional means (1 being starter, 0 backup, etc).  Especially in D3 ranks - you get what is available, or sized to you, and kids are picking more and more from a non traditional format.  This is a bit of an extension from their club teams where they wear what they pick.  There are some programs that are issuing the one, but last season, I saw "1" in goal very infrequently. 

My very anecdotal impression is that in D3 many, if not most, teams give out numbers long before players arrive on campus and a pecking order can be established because they have to adjust for sizes and the preseason is too short to do that after they arrive.  Plus, a keeper who holds over from a prior year may stick with what he got when he arrived, which was basically what was available.  Sometimes an upperclassmen moves to a traditional GK number in the offseason before the freshman arrive, but otherwise there are underclassmen at 1 or 0 who may not be the starters.  And even if a newcomer is likely to start because the starter and backup graduated, the coaches will allow the players to pick, meaning the #1 may simply be the person who responded first to the email.  What I thought was odd about the Wesleyan situation was that the keeper moved out of the traditional GK number he got when he arrived down to a non-traditional number.  As you say, however, that may simply be that players aren't as conditioned to have traditional position numbers anymore in club and that carries over to college.

Both are true. Junior year son was the starter all year and the 1.  Second year, they got new uniforms and the 1 jersey did not fit him (XLarge) so he had to go with 0 his senior year.

That being the case, many teams carry 4 keepers which means 00, 0, and 1. The fourth is usually in the 20s or beyond.  Some keepers stick with the number they were assigned freshman year throughout their careers.  Example - Anthony Pinto from Wash College, started most of junior year, all of his senior and now is a 5th year and he has been 36 the entire time.

Huge example, Tim Howard was never "1" at Everton, but "24" for his over 300 starts. Apparently, when came over from Man U, 1 was taken and he requested 24. He was fan of Deon Sanders and the Atlanta Braves. Howard was 1 in the USMNT though.

[Kuiper]

Williams 3 - Wheaton (MA) 1

This was a tighter game than the final score might indicate, but first year Alex Bethencourt (from Manhattan Beach, CA and LA Surf MLS Next) came on in the second half and scored two goals in limited minutes, one on a scrambled ball that fell to him in the box and the second on a beautiful left-footed free kick that beat the Wheaton GK to the far post.  Interestingly, Bethencourt was sent running to the far post on the free kick originally, but the ref called it back because he hadn't blown his whistle yet.  At that point, a coach called from the bench for Alex to take the kick instead and he calmly put it in the net.  One instance where coaching may have made that goal, because I think the first free kick play was called by one of the players on the field since it happened so quickly.  Bethencourt played pretty well outside the goals by the way.  He was a forward in most of the games I saw him at club, but he played center mid when he came on for Williams and was decent defensively too.

Wheaton has a good team, but they were frustrated by Williams' pressing at the top and couldn't quite get untracked.  They did bother Williams' GK Ben Diffley on several occasions though.  In addition to their goal, which was scored on a great cross by Aidan Doyle that was flicked over Diffley to the far post, Diffley went out for a cross from the other side, missed it entirely and Williams was lucky that no Wheaton player was able to put it home because it rebounded back across the goal.

[SimpleCoach]

Conn looks legit.  Some rust and dust, but overall, one of the top teams in my mind.

SC.