Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[PaulNewman]

Ah, the Duquesne-CMS pipeline strikes again!

I'm sure circumstances and reasons vary wildly (and perhaps quite unpredictably), but I sometimes find these D1 to D3 combos interesting.  I bet there have not been more than five (or less) undergrad-level transfers of any type (athletic/non-athletic) in either direction between these two schools over the past 50 years.

I may be just making this up but off the top of my head the D3 to D1 moves often seem a little more no-brainerish at least in terms of first blush impressions of some type of symmetry between the two instititutions. 

One quick thought on why this might make some sense...Again, keep in mind that I am thinking in very general, broad terms, but when someone is intent on playing D1 and especially as a D1 scholarship player, the soccer variable is going to carry the day even more so than for D3 athletes who make soccer an important part of his or her decision.  So the player is even more dependent on being chosen rather than choosing, and if fortunate enough to receive D1 scholarship offers, those offers may come from places one wouldn't necessarily have been thinking about.  So, for example, your daughter may be in love with UVA and get a D1 offer from UVA.  But in another scenario, that same UVA loving daughter only gets D1 offers from say BYU, Duquesne, Cleveland State, Kentucky, and Texas Tech.  Unless she abandons the dream of playing D1 and/or a D1 scholarship that she's been working her butt off for well over a half-decade, she's going to end up going to one of the other schools listed.  That of course doesn't mean she might not end up being far happier and thrive more at the place that found her (to play soccer) more so than a place she would have picked if she had held all the cards, but that is a far longer discussion....and includes analysis of the power of the drug called "elite education" that has such a hold on so many of us (like me) and all too often guides the college selection process particularly for those of us who feel some affiliation with that "club" and/or are hungry to gain entry into that club.

Sorry, I didn't realize Duquesne to CMS was gonna take me that far down a road...

[EnmoreCat]

As someone intimately involved with a D1 to D3 transfer, one that can only really be considered highly unlikely given the respective academic standings of the colleges involved, I would say it comes after a student athlete at that point better understands what life is actually like and how expectations get re-calibrated.  I would like to think that the decisions we made would have been completely different had we known all the things about this process that we know now (thanks to Simple Coach and the coaches he interviews, plus everyone in here for that), but I also know that the day dream gets in the way at the start.  There are a whole heaps of things we have learnt on this journey, but the one takeaway that is the most important, is that you can play D1 soccer, but quite easily not also get a D1 education and given the practically zero likelihood of making a proper living out of the game after graduating, the pragmatist in me says that  that should send you in a certain direction.   

[Kuiper]

I actually thought about the oddity of the Duquesne to CMS transfer when I posted the news, but I thought a little about the flip side of the coin from what Paul Newman said.  This is a kid born and raised in Pittsburgh who went to a D1 school in his hometown.  So, from that perspective, this wasn't a random choice dictated solely by being D1.  Having said that, once it was clear he wasn't getting the soccer experience he wanted from the school (he had 10 minutes of playing time in two years), and had the academic ability to go somewhere like CMS, then it makes a lot more sense.  He might have taken literally Paul Newman's title for this thread and decided to "Go WEST young man!"  (no disrespect to Pittsburgh, which I have heard described as "The Budapest of the Midwest")

There's another angle to this story.  He might have put his name in the transfer portal, which, as I understand it is much larger than normal this year for a variety of reasons.  That increase has left a lot of players without a chair to sit on in the D1 game of musical chairs.  A new coach like Edward Cartee at CMS, who is entering a program too late to recruit a new class and may not have everyone returning because of last year's hazing suspensions, may have taken advantage of that excess of players in the transfer portal and found someone with the grades to get into CMS and the willingness to move to D3.  If so, that's probably a smart move.

[Gregory Sager]

I actually thought about the oddity of the Duquesne to CMS transfer when I posted the news, but I thought a little about the flip side of the coin from what Paul Newman said.  This is a kid born and raised in Pittsburgh who went to a D1 school in his hometown.  So, from that perspective, this wasn't a random choice dictated solely by being D1.  Having said that, once it was clear he wasn't getting the soccer experience he wanted from the school (he had 10 minutes of playing time in two years), and had the academic ability to go somewhere like CMS, then it makes a lot more sense.  He might have taken literally Paul Newman's title for this thread and decided to "Go WEST young man!"  (no disrespect to Pittsburgh, which I have heard described as "The Budapest of the Midwest")

... thereby putting to rest the theory that "yinz" is a word of Indo-European origin.

[PaulNewman]

Yes, Kuiper, that makes sense.  I didn't know anything about him or being from Pittsburgh.  Hearing that now, sounds like he might have been a nice pickup for Kenyon  ....or Denison...or F&M/Dickinson, etc.

The twist/irony re: my response above is that I lived in Pittsburgh for five years....and better....earned my Ph.D. at Duquesne.

I shouldn't be tying up the "Out West" thread with a Pittsburgh plug but if you're on the coast of the East Coast Pittsburgh does seem out west.  At any rate, imho Pittsburgh is one of the country's best under the radar cities...much of the educational, cultural, and business strengths of Northeast/New England cities minus some of the arrogance.

[Gregory Sager]

I love Pittsburgh. It's one of my favorite cities. I even have a nephew who lives there (and he's a grad of a nearby D3 school, to boot).

As much as I like the "Budapest of the Midwest" moniker (which I'm guessing is strictly a Kuiperism), Pittsburgh's not a midwestern city. But for D3 purposes it is quasi-midwestern, because the three D3 schools located within the Steel City (Carlow, Carnegie Mellon, and Chatham) are in Region 7, as are all of the D3 schools in western Pennsylvania. The two non-UAA leagues in Region 7 that are represented in western Pennsylvania (the AMCC and the PAC) share that region with the MIAA, the NCAC, and the OAC, which are 100% midwestern (Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan).

[Kuiper]

For what it's worth, the person who described Pittsburgh to me as the "Budapest of the Midwest" was from Iowa.  I think she was taking geographical license for purposes of the rhyme, but perhaps she was attempting to speak it into existence while the coastal elites weren't looking.

In any event, now I feel a certain measure of responsibility to personally welcome this Pttsburgher to the West Coast when he plays for CMS this fall.

[Gregory Sager]

For what it's worth, the person who described Pittsburgh to me as the "Budapest of the Midwest" was from Iowa.  I think she was taking geographical license for purposes of the rhyme, but perhaps she was attempting to speak it into existence while the coastal elites weren't looking.

Brilliant! I love that!

[Kuiper]

Since people are starting to post Massey conference pre-season ratings, I figure I might as well do it too for at least the SCIAC:

https://masseyratings.com/csoc2023/14051

34 Redlands
39 CMS
49 Chapman
54 Occidental
65 Cal Lutheran
107 Pomona-Pitzer
171 Whittier
191 La Verne
220 Cal Tech

From the perspective of at least recent history, it's usually safe to start with Redlands/CMS at the top in some order and Whittier/La Verne/Cal Tech at the bottom in some order and then go from there.  Nevertheless, I think you could quibble with the order of the Chapman/Oxy/Cal Lu/P-P group.  If (a big if) P-P can replace leading scorer Matty Carlson (Region X 2d team; SCIAC 1st team) in the center of the midfield, they have a lot of young players coming up through the ranks that could help them jump a few teams.  Freshman D Nic Ulrich and Freshman F Giri Mase, as well as Junior MF Alex Bonville, were each on the SCIAC 2d team.  Plus, Kyle Lau, a SCIAC 1st teamer in 2021-22 who had a bit of an off year last fall, made the Hong Kong U23 team and has been playing with them over the summer in int'l play after being called up to a senior nat'l Hong Kong team camp in the March window this year.  Oxy has some strong returning players who could push them over the top too.  Juniors Evan Karp (Region X 2d team; SCIAC 1st team) and Lukas Howlett (SCIAC 1st team) helped anchored the defense last year and freshman Tyler Na-Nakornpanon (SCIAC 2d team) finished 4th in the conference in goals. Vicente Navarrao, another freshman, also was a strong contributor last year in the midfield.  Chapman, on the other hand, is losing a lot of goal scoring in Aidan Wall (Region X 1st team; SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year) and Tobi Howe (Region X 3rd team; SCIAC first team), as well as its 1st team all SCIAC GK Chandler Siemonsma, so it might be a rebuilding year for them.  Similarly, Cal Lutheran loses Tyler Sherard, who was SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year as well as fellow SCIAC first teamer in Chris Palaez and 2d teamer in Erick Meija, although they do return MF JP Malgoza (SCIAC 1st team).

By the way, one caveat to everything is that last year's rankings, plus even last year's SCIAC teams and the performance of players in the last half of the season, were all to some measure influenced by CMS' suspension for the last part of the season.  P-P lost two games they would have played against CMS, and Redlands, Cal Lu, and Cal Tech each lost one (which might have affected W-L records and player stats and performances positively or negatively), plus all teams lost the games they actually did play against CMS in the conference standings.  So, if pre-season rankings and predictions about performance are wonky, then this year's are even wonkier.  After all, CMS was predicted to finish first in the SCIAC last year in the coach's poll.

The most surprising aspect of the Massey pre-season ratings, at least to me, might be that they rate the SCIAC as the 4th best DIII men's conference, behind only NESCAC, UAA, and the Centennial.  I guess that's a testament to the strength and balance of the middle of the conference. So many conferences have severe rich-poor gaps, whereas the SCIAC may not have any teams in the top 30, but it has 5 in the top 65.  The Northwest and the SCAC, by contrast, only have two each in the top 65 (Northwest: Pac Lutheran and Willamette; SCAC: Trinity and St. Thomas), even though three of those four teams are higher ranked than the highest ranked SCIAC team.  The American Southwest Conference, the only other conference in Region X, only has 1 team in the top 65 (Mary Hardin-Baylor).

[Ron Boerger]

I'm surprised Massey has Trinity(TX) ranked higher than St. Thomas (TX) who has owned them the last couple of seasons.   StT is 3-1-1 against Trinity in that time with the loss in OT the first of those encounters in early 2021.  But you're right, the SCAC is five pretty good teams and four pretty bad ones.

21 Trinity TX
23 St Thomas TX
69 Texas Lutheran
77 Colorado College
85 Southwestern
==== THE CHASM ====
285 Centenary
286 Austin
294 Schreiner
300 Dallas

[bubbabeans]

And now for the Northwest Massey Rankings:

28   Pac Lutheran
53   Willamette
96   Whitman
128   Puget Sound
163   Whitworth
231   George Fox
242   Pacific OR
260   Linfield

I can't say I am surprised by the order of teams -- the Lutes have been consistently good for a few years now. One exciting feature of this season is how many cross-conference games we will have between Northwest, SCIAC, and SCAC teams due to Trinity hosting a couple of early-season tournaments. It'll be an authentic wild west shootout!

[Kuiper]

I'm surprised Massey has Trinity(TX) ranked higher than St. Thomas (TX) who has owned them the last couple of seasons.   StT is 3-1-1 against Trinity in that time with the loss in OT the first of those encounters in early 2021.  But you're right, the SCAC is five pretty good teams and four pretty bad ones.

21 Trinity TX
23 St Thomas TX
69 Texas Lutheran
77 Colorado College
85 Southwestern
==== THE CHASM ====
285 Centenary
286 Austin
294 Schreiner
300 Dallas

I agree with you about St. Thomas.  They have both Aleman (USC 1st team All American) and Castro (USC 3rd team All American) returning.  That's 37 goals and 9 assists between them coming back.  They probably will lose Salako (10 goals and 8 assists), but he was literally the only senior on the team last year who was a regular starter/contributor.  They should be the team to beat in the SCAC.  I'm sure Trinity will be strong as usual, but assuming they don't have any Covid 5th year players, they're going to need a new GK and to replace their leading scorer in Sommerville.  If Michael Meese is back, that will help a ton, but I'm still not really sure what happened to him last year.  Trinity also have a number of seniors they have to replace who were regular starters last year, like Burns, Davis, Blank and especially JonConnor Rule, who was a first team all conference defender and 2d team all Region.

[Ron Boerger]

Meese was injured (again, sadly) early last season.

[jaysoccer]

For ALL you Trinity fans:
1. Meese was hurt last season; had surgery and hopefully 100 percent for this season
2. Pietr Blank and JC Rule both back for this season--taking advantage of extra covid year
3. On the sidelines, pretty longtime assistant Edward Cartee is the head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (good luck! he was great in my son's dealings with him)

[Kuiper]

Two departures upcoming for DIII soccer in Texas.

UT Dallas, which has been playing in the American Southwest Conference, announced it is moving to DII in all sports (and will be upgrading its soccer facilities, as part of a $30 million facility upgrade), starting with a three-year provisional period in Fall 2025.

https://news.utdallas.edu/campus-community/comet-sports-ncaa-division-2-2023/

https://utdcomets.com/news/2023/7/19/baseball-ut-dallas-accepts-invitation-to-join-lone-star-conference.aspx

Sul Ross State, another member of the American Southwest Conference, had applied for DII status back in January and their application was just approved last week.  They will start their provisional period of play in DII in Fall 2024

https://www.newswest9.com/article/sports/sul-ross-state-university-to-move-into-division-ii-athletic-competition/513-b902fdd5-bfee-4112-a8c3-2c7d491586fb

I expect there will be more departures because there are some big football schools in the American Southwest Conference in DIII that may be left without enough DIII competition if they don't move to DII (or NAIA)