Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Ron Boerger]

Schreiner has posted its 2024 roster

I won't do this for every team most likely, but I took a closer look just because it's early.  A few observations:

-  Holy cow that's a big roster.  52 names listed!  Last year they had 48, though, so this isn't a new development.

Schreiner's undergraduate enrollment last year was 1062, so nearly 5% of their students play men's soccer.  Crazy.

[Kuiper]

University of Wisconsin River Falls has posted its 2024 Roster

A couple of observations:

-  Unlike Stout, River Falls recruited some transfers.  It has a grad student GK from Lakeland who has played in 47 games, starting 15, in his career and 6 transfers from Northland College.

- It also has a bunch of upperclassmen who are not listed as transfers.  They may be players who moved over from the club team.  That doesn't mean much in terms of their experience in the college game (it didn't help Lewis & Clark, for instance), but even if their age and body development doesn't help them, at least the coach isn't boxed in to recruit massively this year or four years from now when this class graduates (like Stout).

- It has 27 on the roster, which is 5 less than River Falls, but is a pretty reasonable number for a college team.

- River Falls went the int'l route far more than Stout.  They have two freshman from Spain, four from England, one from Iceland, and one from Belgium.  Stout had one from Mexico City and that was it.

-  Only 7 of the players are from Wisconsin.  There are the same number from Minnesota.  There are three from California and one from Texas, although they are all Northland transfers.

It will be interesting to see how River Falls and Stout do against each other and relative to each other given there very different tactics for roster construction.

[Kuiper]

Schreiner has posted its 2024 roster

I won't do this for every team most likely, but I took a closer look just because it's early.  A few observations:

-  Holy cow that's a big roster.  52 names listed!  Last year they had 48, though, so this isn't a new development.

Schreiner's undergraduate enrollment last year was 1062, so nearly 5% of their students play men's soccer.  Crazy.

Hendrix, which will be joining the SCAC next year, isn't much better.  Here is its 2024 roster.  A few observations:

- It has 48 players on its roster, including 22 newcomers (20 freshman and 2 transfers).  According to one source, it had an enrollment of 1,107 in Fall 2023, its men's soccer team constitutes 4.33% of its total enrollment assuming its 2024 enrollment didn't dip at all.

- Last year, they only had 32 on the roster and only 5 were listed as seniors.  So, unless they were really bad at projecting yield on their offers to recruits, this is an intentional massive increase in the size of the team.  That always worries me because it suggests that the school has put pressure on the athletic teams to increase enrollment, which could mean they are under financial pressure as an institution.

- Unlike Schreiner, I don't see any evidence that they have a reserve team, but I'm guessing they will be creating one now.  Hard to imagine having 48 on the roster and not having some way to get half the team playing opportunities.  If they are, however, it doesn't look like they have increased the coaching staff to accommodate the extra work.  They seem to be asking the coaches to just do more.

- one of its transfers is a GK who was on the roster as a freshman last year at Birmingham Southern (but did not see action).  Nice to see that at least one of their players found his way to another team.

[Ron Boerger]

Their last 990 (for the year ending May 2023) was remarkably positive, showing a gain of $13.2M after expenditures of $84.2M.  The previous year showed a profit of $10.8M on expenses of $87.6M.  The gain in 2022 was largely due to $27.2M in contributions; that in 2023, to $30.7M in investment income.  They have a about a 3:1 asset:liability ratio with $100.2M in liabilities offsetting 300.2M in total assets.  The only blotch on the 990 are $25.3M in unrealized investment losses.  They reported an endowment of $163M and appear to have the liquid assets to back up the majority of it. 

Basically, they seem to be in decent financial shape for school of this size but it would not be surprising if the athletic program is beating the bushes in all sports to keep enrollment up.  The 2023 freshman class was quite a bit smaller than 2022's (278 to 375).

[Kuiper]

Puget Sound has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 30 on the roster, which is exactly the same as last year

- 10 seniors last year, but only 7 newcomers this year.  The difference is that they have several seniors from last year returning as super seniors or grad students:  Ian Cameron (D), Jesus Gutierrez (M), and Liam Elliot (D and 2nd team all NWC).  Unfortunately, that does not include their top scorer and assist man from last year

- Since Steve Mohn was announced as coach in March, he likely did not have much, if any, impact on this recruiting class.  On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he got a transfer or two in the future from Highline College, a community college where he coached for a decade before moving to Puget Sound.

[westroadsf]

On a side note Puget Sound freshman goalie Alex Rhodes who also runs track (the 400) won the d3 silver medal in nationals and took 3rd in u20 world championships. And apparently was the only male athlete competing at the USATF U20s from a D3 college or university. Pretty amazing after taking up track late in high school. It's unclear what this portends for his future as a backup goalie on the soccer team though ;-)

https://loggerathletics.com/news/2024/6/14/track-and-field-freshman-alex-rhodes-stuns-at-the-usatf-u20-championships.aspx

[Kuiper]

On a side note Puget Sound freshman goalie Alex Rhodes who also runs track (the 400) won the d3 silver medal in nationals and took 3rd in u20 world championships. And apparently was the only male athlete competing at the USATF U20s from a D3 college or university. Pretty amazing after taking up track late in high school. It's unclear what this portends for his future as a backup goalie on the soccer team though ;-)

https://loggerathletics.com/news/2024/6/14/track-and-field-freshman-alex-rhodes-stuns-at-the-usatf-u20-championships.aspx

Wow!  According to this story, Rhodes went out for track "on a whim" in the spring of his senior year -- after playing GK his entire HS career and signing with Puget Sound in the fall of his senior year -- because he wanted to do some cardio to pass the beep test and found it out he was actually pretty good at it.  he also was named a DIII All American his freshman season.

Rhodes hadn't previously run track because he plays goalkeeper for the Cardinals soccer team — he has signed to play for Puget Sound next fall, and he turned out this spring only because he wanted to get in some cardio work before heading to college.

And now, he's heard, "I think they're going to take me for track, too."

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there aren't a lot of goalkeepers who are likely to attract the track and field coaches' attention at the fitness testing on the first day of practice in a couple of weeks.  And if there are, it would be more likely for a field event like high jump, long jump, or maybe shot put, discuss, or javelin than it would be for the 400m.

[Kuiper]

Whitman posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 25 on the roster, compared with 28 last year

- 6 first year players on the squad

- Starting GK Bernie Jones graduated, leaving only one GK on the roster (Lucas Haigh) who has played before and he had only 4 games and 2 starts last year.  They did recruit GK Tait Whittmore away from his hometown of Redlands, CA.  I wonder if they'll give him some playing time when Whitman travels to Southern California to play University of Redlands on 9/12.  Might be the only time his friends and family get to see him play in-person in his home town.

- Whitman's two leading goal scorers from last year have graduated, but the leading point getter, Lucas McAllister, returns, as does the leading assist man, Sawyer Valero.

[Falconer]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there aren't a lot of goalkeepers who are likely to attract the track and field coaches' attention at the fitness testing on the first day of practice in a couple of weeks.  And if there are, it would be more likely for a field event like high jump, long jump, or maybe shot put, discuss, or javelin than it would be for the 400m.

I entirely agree--and the part about field events is also spot on.

The AA GK on Messiah's first nattie (2000), Chris Boyles (https://gomessiah.com/honors/messiah-university-athletics-hall-of-honor/chris-boyles/26), was the D3 Decathlon champion and (for a few years) the all-time record holder in that event. His best event was the high jump. He went on to compete internationally and qualified for the Olympic trials in 2004 and 2008. On that basis, as I've said before, he is probably the greatest all-around athlete among D3 soccer players, not just GKers.

To the best of my knowledge, his best time in the 400 was about 5 seconds slower than Rhodes--who has serious speed.

[Kuiper]

Whitworth posted its 2024 roster

Here are a few observations:

- There are 33 players on this season's roster, compared with 28 last season

- They have 4 players returning for a COVID year as grad students, although only F Dominic Gusman was a regular starter

- They have 9 freshman in coach Kevin Moon's first recruiting class, including one player, Evan Garcia, who comes from the same town - Chula Vista, CA - and same club - Albion SC San Diego - as Whitworth returning star forward Cole Friesen.

- In addition to Friesen - who had 24 goals and 5 assists last year - important returning players include Arthur Beckett (as an aside, he went to Hellgate HS in Montana, which I gather got its name from a local canyon called Hellgate because it looked like the gates of hell after an ambush involving warring tribes, but might also reflect the view of the HS by many seniors after graduating!) and Clayton Crockett, who led the team in assists last year with 8 after transferring from DII Cal State Stanislaus.

[Kuiper]

Concordia (TX) posted its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 30 players on the roster, compared with 36 last season

- Forward Theo Givens and midfielders Marco Casulli and Gerardo Guevara return as grad students

- Defenders Devin Hammel and Santiago Martinez transferred in from UT Dallas and Illinois College, respectively, and midfielder Bryan Rios transferred from McMurry where he played 15 games and had 5 assists.

- only 5 freshman joined the roster, which is perhaps a consequence of the coaching change/uncertainty

[Kuiper]

UC Santa Cruz has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- I doubt this is the complete roster.  There are only 19 players listed.  Last season, they had 28 on the roster.  On the other hand, this isn't a returning player-only roster since there are freshman listed.  Not sure what is going on.  Maybe it has something to do with the quarter not starting until Sept. 21 and they are adding to this list as students register.

- Right now, only 3 freshman are listed

- Some of the regular starters/contributors, such as captain and D Max Beldner, M Jackson Chandler, D Michael Braun, and M Derek Uemura are listed, but others are not on the roster, including leading scorer Adrian Jacobs and leading assist man Tyler Allred, who were both sophomores last season.

- I'm going to refrain from saying more until I see a more complete roster.  With a school the size of UC Santa Cruz (19,173 in '23-'24), there's no way they would play the season with 19 on the roster.  They could announce open tryouts and find 10 more players who were star club/HS players.

[jcmatese]

- Some of the regular starters/contributors, such as captain and D Max Beldner, M Jackson Chandler, D Michael Braun, and M Derek Uemura are listed, but others are not on the roster

I believe Owen Deming (midfielder/sophomore last season) transferred to Washington University in St. Louis. [just part of the puzzle...]

[Kuiper]

Pacific University (not to be confused with DI University of the Pacific) has posted its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 34 on the roster, which is the same as last season

- 11 freshman

- One transfer - Hawkin Sweeney, who played with DII Western Oregon in 2022

- Only lose three players from last year to graduation and virtually all of their top offensive players return

[Kuiper]

Cal Tech has posted its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 30 players on the roster, compared with 27 players last season

- 10 Freshman on the roster.  As they said in the writeup on the incoming class:

One year after earning the program's highest win total in 53 years, the Caltech men's soccer team will bring in ten talented rookies as they take on 2024.

This is the first year in the history of the program that they are not coming off of a losing season (they went 6-6-4) and they do have some promising freshman coming in, including M Dean Yao from FC Delco MLS Next in PA and Quinn Hartman, a 6'3" defender from Slammers ECNL in SoCal who I expect will get some immediate playing time given what they have lost on the defensive side (plus, he provides an arial threat that might get them some goals on set plays).

- Speaking of what they have lost, the biggest losses are at GK and Striker.  Their two senior GKs graduated, including their main starter for the last three years, Derek Ing.  Ethan Hamel is the only returner with more than 1 game under his belt and he had a 5.43 GAA, which inflated by playing the entire game in Cal Tech's 8-0 loss to Occidental and a half each in their games against CMS and Redlands (although Ing held both of those teams scoreless in his half).  At striker, Rohan Iyer's departure leaves a gap.  He wasn't a prolific scorer, but he was decent at hold-up play and occupying defenders so that Etienne Casanova and Ishaan Mantripragada could do their thing (they scored 11 goals each).