Depauw

[cciw83]

Depauw has always been been a competitive program. The score of their game last night a 9-0 loss to Centre College and a 1-3 start to the season caught my attention. Is there a rash of injuries, players that did not come back, COVID quarantines, coach leaving or some reason for the drastic dropoff?

[PlaySimple]

I noticed that as well. It's always difficult to say what's going on, particularly with covid being a thing. DePauw's coach is beginning her 3rd year but is the 3rd coach since 2017. It is difficult to develop continuity at a program when there are a lot of coaching changes.

With your cciw name, I assume that you might know some of what is going on in the league. As a whole, women's soccer appears to be down in the CCIW up to this point. Wheaton and IWU, traditionally the top programs in the conference for women's soccer, have gotten off to rough starts. Chicago blasted Wheaton a few nights ago, 4-0 while outshooting the Thunder, 32-2. Felske is gone from Wheaton but the impact shouldn't be felt to that extent. IWU has also struggled early on. There is word suggesting that the coach previous to the one that started this year was mostly ineffective and put almost no effort into recruiting or his job. I suspect that the struggle that IWU is now having is a result of his time with the program and it is starting to show. The new coach that started this season will have some work to do to right the ship. The previous coach was mostly successful due to what he inherited from Dave Barrett.

The remainder of the CCIW also seems to be down also. North Central may be the best in the conference this season.

[Ron Boerger]

I had a quick look at the rosters and it looked like they retained almost all their juniors and only lost three seniors to graduation.   They had a pretty mediocre Spring 2021 and didn't play much against NCAA competition, which probably put them behind starting the season.   Centre is a good side (top 20) but 0-9 is a pretty crazy result nonetheless. 

[cciw83]

The CCIW looks slow to get back to normal. North Central is a solid, organized bunch, but may have trouble scoring. They would seem to be a third place team. I have to believe Wheaton will turn it around post- Felske, as they have too much talent. I have seen enough times where a new coach comes in and inherits talent and does not realize the effort the prior coach put in to recruiting. I'll take a wait and see on IWU as the school offers a lot of things to attract players and I have not seen this group yet. .