Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Pomona-Pitzer put its Spring scrimmages on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/C356WqoyODM/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C356EZ3SsHL/

As is their custom, they are taking advantage of the single game day to have two games (presumably to get everybody on their roster playing time during the single game day).  Both games are at home on their grass field.

Sunday March 3

11 am v. Santa Monica College (JC)

3:00 pm v. Cal State San Marcos (D2)

Looks like Ditta has stepped away from the program. Any idea if Swartz is back from sabbatical?

I saw that too, but I don't know anything more than he is simply not on the website anymore.  Swartz is still listed as on sabbatical and I tend to doubt he is back.  The team has definitely been practicing based upon what they've been showing on instagram, but I don't know who is running those practices.

[Kuiper]

Pomona-Pitzer put its Spring scrimmages on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/C356WqoyODM/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C356EZ3SsHL/

As is their custom, they are taking advantage of the single game day to have two games (presumably to get everybody on their roster playing time during the single game day).  Both games are at home on their grass field.

Sunday March 3

11 am v. Santa Monica College (JC)

3:00 pm v. Cal State San Marcos (D2)

Looks like Ditta has stepped away from the program. Any idea if Swartz is back from sabbatical?

I saw that too, but I don't know anything more than he is simply not on the website anymore.  Swartz is still listed as on sabbatical and I tend to doubt he is back.  The team has definitely been practicing based upon what they've been showing on instagram, but I don't know who is running those practices.

Looks like I was wrong about Swartz.  The Pomona-Pitzer men's soccer page updated its coaches and Bill Swartz is back up top and the sabbatical parenthetical has been removed from his name.  Also, more significantly, Jen Clark, who has a very long coaching resume in women's college soccer, including HC at Christopher Newport in the late 1990s, assistant coach at Colby and Middlebury during two different stints, HC at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps from both 2000-2004 and 2017-2022, and HC at Cal Tech in 2022, has joined Pomona-Pitzer men's soccer as an assistant coach.  She was an assistant to Swartz there in Spring 2022 before taking the Cal Tech women's job for a season and now apparently is back.  My guess is she is doing more of the day-to-day coaching Ditta was doing while Swartz is overseeing the program, although it's possible one of the other assistants is the lead.  Should be interesting to watch when games start.

 

[Kuiper]

I like Cal Tech and Pasadena as much as the next guy, but anyone who picks Cal Tech because they think it's a great college town is in for a rude awakening.

https://x.com/D3Direct/status/1767248973793013928?s=20

The Top 5 D3 College Towns in 2024

1. Ithaca, NY - @BomberSports

2. Cambridge, MA - @MITAthletics

3. Lincoln, NE - @NWUSports

4. Pasadena, CA - @CaltechBeavers

5. Amherst, MA - @AmherstMammoths

I mean they do have a great college stadium, but the Rose Bowl is UCLA's home field and UCLA's campus is like 45 minutes away on a good day.  Although Old town Pasadena is kind of quaint, I'm just not sure the kids are really doing much in the local neighborhood.  Maybe they mean the college town is great because you won't be bothered in the isotope handling laboratory (conveniently located near the athletic fields) by a lot of loud partying in the neighborhood?

In the other four towns, it seems like the D3 school may be free-riding on some other, bigger, universities nearby.  Nothing of that sort in Pasadena, although Pasadena City College, a community college, is right next door to Cal Tech. I bet those two student populations mingle a lot .

[Kuiper]

A bit of Northwest Conference (now somewhat old) news:

Kevin Moon, a Whitworth soccer alum and former assistant coach for both the men and women's teams on four separate occasions, was promoted from interim to head coach at Whitworth.

https://whitworthpirates.com/news/2023/12/7/mens-soccer-moon-elevated-to-full-time-head-coach.aspx

His team went 12-4-4 and finished second in the Northwest conference.

Here's a link to some photos of spring practices

Cole Friesen had a breakout sophomore season last year under Moon, scoring 24 goals and 5 assists.

[mngopher]

Bob Quillman, host of a D# hoops podcast, is reporting that the remaining members of the American Southwest Conference are discussing moving to the Coast-to-Coast Conference for all sports except football:  Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, LeTourneau, and East Texas Baptist (it was already announced that UTD is going DII, and Concordia, McMurry, and Ozarks are going to the SCAC).

Hearing talks are heating up re: UMHB, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, ETBU, and LeTourneau joining the Coast-to-Coast conference. This would be for all sports except football. Football would be played via local scheduling alliances.

Coast-to-Coast conference will be like a set of pods during the regular season, with a pod in the Mid-Atlantic playing each other (e.g., Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Salisbury), one in Wisconsin (Platteville and Whitewater) one in Texas, and then UC Santa Cruz all by its lonesome effectively playing as an affiliate of the SCIAC.  The conference tournament could be pretty competitive.  The Texas teams will pick up some serious strength-of-schedule playing teams from the SCAC, teams from the SAA (where Trinity and Southwestern are going), and then the teams from all over the country in the C2C tournament.  That's a heck of a lot of cross-pollination.

The demise of the ASC would also presumably mean one less automatic bid and one more Pool C bid available.  That would also have implications for Region X's typical pod in the tournament.  If only the three conference champions qualified, one team from another region would have to play in Region X's pod, which could be a pretty significant disadvantage depending upon where the pod is held and the length of travel.  On the other hand, it might put the thumb on the scale for a Region X Pool C bid to complete the pod and avoid the significant travel burden.

The WIAC has a few schools (Stevens Point, River Falls, Stout) adding men's soccer starting in Fall 2024 so the WI schools in C2C will be re-joining the WIAC. Not sure what is going to happen with C2C, but the Wisconsin schools are out.

[Kuiper]

Bob Quillman, host of a D# hoops podcast, is reporting that the remaining members of the American Southwest Conference are discussing moving to the Coast-to-Coast Conference for all sports except football:  Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, LeTourneau, and East Texas Baptist (it was already announced that UTD is going DII, and Concordia, McMurry, and Ozarks are going to the SCAC).

Hearing talks are heating up re: UMHB, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, ETBU, and LeTourneau joining the Coast-to-Coast conference. This would be for all sports except football. Football would be played via local scheduling alliances.

Coast-to-Coast conference will be like a set of pods during the regular season, with a pod in the Mid-Atlantic playing each other (e.g., Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Salisbury), one in Wisconsin (Platteville and Whitewater) one in Texas, and then UC Santa Cruz all by its lonesome effectively playing as an affiliate of the SCIAC.  The conference tournament could be pretty competitive.  The Texas teams will pick up some serious strength-of-schedule playing teams from the SCAC, teams from the SAA (where Trinity and Southwestern are going), and then the teams from all over the country in the C2C tournament.  That's a heck of a lot of cross-pollination.

The demise of the ASC would also presumably mean one less automatic bid and one more Pool C bid available.  That would also have implications for Region X's typical pod in the tournament.  If only the three conference champions qualified, one team from another region would have to play in Region X's pod, which could be a pretty significant disadvantage depending upon where the pod is held and the length of travel.  On the other hand, it might put the thumb on the scale for a Region X Pool C bid to complete the pod and avoid the significant travel burden.

The WIAC has a few schools (Stevens Point, River Falls, Stout) adding men's soccer starting in Fall 2024 so the WI schools in C2C will be re-joining the WIAC. Not sure what is going to happen with C2C, but the Wisconsin schools are out.

Thanks!  I knew Stout was starting up, but I didn't know about the others or that the Wisconsin schools were leaving as of Fall 2024.  That's great for Wisconsin, although not so great for the new teams trying to compete with Platteville,, Whitewater, and Eau Claire.

As a practical matter, the Texas guys haven't heard anything more than this report about the ASC schools going to the C2C, so it's not clear it will still happen.

[Ron Boerger]

Neither the Texas guys (of which I am one) or the media that cover Texas D3 sports (primarily American football and basketball) have gotten a whiff of this C2C possibility, and C2C also doesn't solve for the elephant in the room which is football.  It's hard to imagine Mary Hardin-Baylor or Hardin-Simmons taking any option that doesn't give their football program a home - and having to schedule basically a full season of games (the C2C doesn't play in-conference much, if at all, during the regular season) would be a huge logistical and financial challenge. 

A bizarre thing is there are now (supposedly) at least two of the four ASC schools that have resorted to putting a very decidedly non-D3 opponent on their football schedule next season; both ETBU (announced) and UMHB (rumor on this site, but others have heard something similar) will play an online-only, non-accredited "Westgate Christian" of Houston.  Scuttlebutt says the ASC tried (is trying?) to get them to go D3 and join the conference, which would truly be a sign of desperation if true given the hurdles the school faces to get a D3 exploratory invite from the NCAA. 

[Kuiper]

With regular decision acceptances posting in many places, Fall 2024 recruit announcements are starting to trickle in on social media and the recruits themselves have been posting it for awhile.   I figured I would start a Region X commitment list that I/we can keep adding to over the spring.

Here's what I have thus far (I know more about SCIAC commitments, so I will lead with them):

SCIAC

Cal Tech:

Dean Yao (M)  FC Delco MLS Next

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps:

Heiko Schultz (M/F)  LA Surf MLS Next

La Verne:

Jeffrey Grijalva (RB)  San Rafael HS (Richmond, CA)

Occidental:

Andrew Lee (D)  LA Surf MLS Next

Pomona-Pitzer:

Charlie Leonard (D) Chicago Fire Youth SC/Latin HS

Josh Goldhaber (GK) FC United (E64)/Latin HS

Gavin Honey (GK) Eastside FC (WA)/Liberty HS

Sammy Faham (M/F) De Anza Force MLS Next/Burlingame HS

Nolan Todd (D/M) Seattle United ECNL/Lincoln

Gabe Anca (D) Palo Alto SC (NPL)/Nueva School

Redlands:

Ronaldo Fernandez (F) City SC MLS Next/Murrieta Valley HS

Ryan Hubbard (D) Laguna United FC (EA)/Aliso Niguel HS

Jared Keyvan (M) Laguna United FC (EA)/Mater Dei

Whittier:

Anthony Dolce (D/DM)  Impact United/East HS (Salt Lake City, UT)

SCAC

Texas Lutheran:

Romario Salazar (Wingback/winger) FC Westlake Elite (previously San Antonio FC DA/MLS Next)/Jefferson HS

Schreiner:

Mason Szymanski (GK) Sting SC ECRL/Panther Creek (TX)

Trinity:

Jason Sukow (MF) Transfer from D1 Loyola Chicago

Joey Perryman (F) Transfer from D1 Central Connecticut State University

Cade Dougan (D/M) Transfer from D1 UNC Wilmington

ASC

Mary Hardin-Baylor:

Evan Ruiz MF Solar SC/Allen

Northwest Conference

Pacific Lutheran:

Ian Reckling (GK) Pacific NW/Sumner (WA)

[Kuiper]

If anyone is up and interested in watching some D3 soccer players, Redlands FC, (USL2 (tier 4), is playing LA Force (NISA (tier 3) right now:

https://www.ussoccer.com/us-open-cup/watch?matchId=f4c39116-fb07-4d8e-acb1-ae1e9bcb3f61

Because Redlands FC is coached by University of Redlands assistant coach Cody Carlson, and most of the players they will be playing during the season are D1 and D2 players who aren't out yet, Carlson has brought in several players from Carlson's Redlands college team who have finished their eligibility, including Jarette Barajas, Skyler Darwen, and Gabriel Martinez, as well as Ethan Kovach, who played 4 years at Redlands and played his Covid season last fall at D1 Utah Valley

UPDATE:  Former 2d team All West region and 1st team all SCIAC player Kovach scores a great goal right before halftime to equalize 1-1

FINAL:  LA Force 2 - Redlands FC 1.  Great effort by the D3 alums, but they come up short.

[Kuiper]

Willamette hired Matt Corti-Young as its new head soccer coach

https://www.wubearcats.com/sports/msoc/2023-24/releases/202403192ikdl0

This is a big time get for Willamette.  Corti-Young was an assistant coach at DI UC San Diego for the last few years, but before that he was head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, where he was West Region coach of the year in 2019 when he led CMS to the NCAA tournament.  He also did a great job as head coach at Knox College before that, taking a team that was 1-16 the year before he was hired and improving them to 15-4 within two years, winning their first conference title in 26 years and being named conference coach of the year.  He started his coaching career as an assistant at Amherst in the NESCAC, so he really has National DIII experience.

In another bit of Willamette news, Jake Oetinger, a sophomore defender is transferring to D1 Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo.  Oetinger was a locked in starter as a freshman, named Honorable Mention All-NWC, and starting 19 out of 20 games, but I think he was injured or otherwise unavailable after the first 8 games in 2023 (all of which he started) because he didn't play at all the rest of the season.  Oetinger is from Gilroy, CA, which is a couple of hours north of San Luis Obisbo, so this is much closer to home for him.

[westroadsf]

Willamette hired Matt Corti-Young as its new head soccer coach

https://www.wubearcats.com/sports/msoc/2023-24/releases/202403192ikdl0

This is a big time get for Willamette.  Corti-Young was an assistant coach at DI UC San Diego for the last few years, but before that he was head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, where he was West Region coach of the year in 2019 when he led CMS to the NCAA tournament.  He also did a great job as head coach at Knox College before that, taking a team that was 1-16 the year before he was hired and improving them to 15-4 within two years, winning their first conference title in 26 years and being named conference coach of the year.  He started his coaching career as an assistant at Amherst in the NESCAC, so he really has National DIII experience.

In another bit of Willamette news, Jake Oetinger, a sophomore defender is transferring to D1 Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo.  Oetinger was a locked in starter as a freshman, named Honorable Mention All-NWC, and starting 19 out of 20 games, but I think he was injured or otherwise unavailable after the first 8 games in 2023 (all of which he started) because he didn't play at all the rest of the season.  Oetinger is from Gilroy, CA, which is a couple of hours north of San Luis Obisbo, so this is much closer to home for him.

Great to see NWC making some solid HC hires.

[Kuiper]

Cross-posting this from the 2024 schedules thread because it may be of interest to NWC/SCIAC fans eager for hints about their schedules:

UC Santa Cruz

Always interesting because they have no conference games and are 6+ hours away from the nearest D3 schools.  The positive to offset that is that they have the advantage of being on the quarter system, which means classes don't even start until 9/21.  So, they are bringing Pacific Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer to Santa Cruz the Friday and Saturday of the first weekend of the season (which likely means Pacific Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer are playing each other on Sunday in Santa Cruz) and then they travel to LA to play Occidental the next weekend, travel to Oregon to play weekday (W/F) games against Pacific and Willamette, and then back to LA to play weekday (W/F) games against La Verne and Redlands, all before their classes begin.  After that, they play home or nearby games against DII or NAIA opponents, except for three more weekend trips to LA to play Chapman, Cal Lutheran, and CMS.  The only SCIAC teams they don't play this year are Whittier and Cal Tech.

[D3Navy]

With regular decision acceptances posting in many places, Fall 2024 recruit announcements are starting to trickle in on social media and the recruits themselves have been posting it for awhile.   I figured I would start a Region X commitment list that I/we can keep adding to over the spring.

Here's what I have thus far (I know more about SCIAC commitments, so I will lead with them):

SCIAC

Cal Tech:

Dean Yao (M)  FC Delco MLS Next

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps:

Heiko Schultz (M/F)  LA Surf MLS Next

La Verne:

Jeffrey Grijalva (RB)  San Rafael HS (Richmond, CA)

Occidental:

Andrew Lee (D)  LA Surf MLS Next

Pomona-Pitzer:

Charlie Leonard (D) Chicago Fire Youth SC/Latin HS

Josh Goldhaber (GK) FC United (E64)/Latin HS

Gavin Honey (GK) Eastside FC (WA)/Liberty HS

Sammy Faham (M/F) De Anza Force MLS Next/Burlingame HS

Nolan Todd (D/M) Seattle United ECNL/Lincoln

Gabe Anca (D) Palo Alto SC (NPL)/Nueva School

Redlands:

Ronaldo Fernandez (F) City SC MLS Next/Murrieta Valley HS

Ryan Hubbard (D) Laguna United FC (EA)/Aliso Niguel HS

Jared Keyvan (M) Laguna United FC (EA)/Mater Dei

Whittier:

Anthony Dolce (D/DM)  Impact United/East HS (Salt Lake City, UT)

SCAC

Texas Lutheran:

Romario Salazar (Wingback/winger) FC Westlake Elite (previously San Antonio FC DA/MLS Next)/Jefferson HS

Schreiner:

Mason Szymanski (GK) Sting SC ECRL/Panther Creek (TX)

Trinity:

Jason Sukow (MF) Transfer from D1 Loyola Chicago

Joey Perryman (F) Transfer from D1 Central Connecticut State University

Cade Dougan (D/M) Transfer from D1 UNC Wilmington

ASC

Mary Hardin-Baylor:

Evan Ruiz MF Solar SC/Allen

Northwest Conference

Pacific Lutheran:

Ian Reckling (GK) Pacific NW/Sumner (WA)

Nice to see the additions to Trinity.  Some local boys coming home to Texas! 

[Kuiper]

A couple of updates in recruiting for a few schools (new listings in red):

Occidental:

Andrew Lee (D)  LA Surf MLS Next

Aryan Amin (D) Baltimore Armour MLS Next

Devin Benning (F/M) LA Surf MLS Next

Willamette

Evan Bierman (GK) Colorado Edge ECRL/Ralston Valley

[Kuiper]

Bob Quillman, host of a D# hoops podcast, is reporting that the remaining members of the American Southwest Conference are discussing moving to the Coast-to-Coast Conference for all sports except football:  Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, LeTourneau, and East Texas Baptist (it was already announced that UTD is going DII, and Concordia, McMurry, and Ozarks are going to the SCAC).

Hearing talks are heating up re: UMHB, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, ETBU, and LeTourneau joining the Coast-to-Coast conference. This would be for all sports except football. Football would be played via local scheduling alliances.

Coast-to-Coast conference will be like a set of pods during the regular season, with a pod in the Mid-Atlantic playing each other (e.g., Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Salisbury), one in Wisconsin (Platteville and Whitewater) one in Texas, and then UC Santa Cruz all by its lonesome effectively playing as an affiliate of the SCIAC.  The conference tournament could be pretty competitive.  The Texas teams will pick up some serious strength-of-schedule playing teams from the SCAC, teams from the SAA (where Trinity and Southwestern are going), and then the teams from all over the country in the C2C tournament.  That's a heck of a lot of cross-pollination.

The demise of the ASC would also presumably mean one less automatic bid and one more Pool C bid available.  That would also have implications for Region X's typical pod in the tournament.  If only the three conference champions qualified, one team from another region would have to play in Region X's pod, which could be a pretty significant disadvantage depending upon where the pod is held and the length of travel.  On the other hand, it might put the thumb on the scale for a Region X Pool C bid to complete the pod and avoid the significant travel burden.

Bob Quillman is now reporting that the ASC "merger" with the Coast-to-Coast conference is now a done deal for all sports EXCEPT football

https://x.com/iwuhoopscom/status/1772820626576650552?s=46&t=uXiupHZfR0TxrRyWF9BmRg

I'll wait for an official announcement, but it makes sense for soccer at least given the lack of other options and the departure of the Wisconsin schools from the C2C