Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

St. Scholastica has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 25 players, compared with 21 last season

- only 1 freshman listed (1 other is identified as a freshman, but played last year)

- 1 GK transfer from Northland College

- leading scorer and All-MIAC midfielder Keegan Chastey returns for his Covid super senior year

[SKUD]

Thank you for introducing me to a school I had never heard of before.

[Kuiper]

Colorado College has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 27 on the roster, compared with 29 last season

- 4 freshman

- One very glaring absence from the 2024 roster is All-SCAC first team GK Jasper Broad, who started all but one game for the Tigers last year.  He was only a sophomore, but he had started 37 games for the team his first two seasons of college.  It looks like he has transferred to Pomona-Pitzer based on this "back-door" page on the P-P site and his LinkedIn page, but they haven't officially posted their 2024 roster yet.  He's listed as a freshman, when that can't be right, but he's identified as a GK and the jersey number of #35 is the same as he wore at Colorado College.  Very interesting move.  Pitzer is a good school and it looks like he is doing the double major in Public Policy with Claremont-McKenna, plus he wouldn't have the travel burden at Pomona-Pitzer he would at Colorado College.  Still, as a soccer move it's got to be considered a downgrade.  It also creates an interesting situation for Pomona-Pitzer, which now has 6 GKs on a not very big roster, but I'll save that for a discussion of their team.

- Broad's transfer leaves Colorado College very thin and inexperienced at GK. They will have only two sophomore GKs, one of whom played 19 minutes last season and the other did not play at all.  Broad saved the defense quite a bit with acrobatic stops, especially against top opposition in the NCAA tournament

- Other than losing Broad, Colorado College is really stacked with returners. They have a strong defense returning, with All Region IX first team defender Curtis Hale and honorable mention All-SCAC defender Rex Karjian both back.  On offense, All-SCAC 2nd team midfielder Alexander Ward is a super senior, and Region X 2nd team midfielder Will Bavier and Region X 3rd team forward, and leading scorer, Oscar Ramirez reurn.

-

[Kuiper]

Southwestern has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 30 on the roster, compared with 29 last season

- 12 freshman

- With All-SCAC honorable mention GK Brendan Prather graduated, Southwestern returns three very inexperienced GKs. Junior Scott Johnson has played 21 minutes in his first two seasons and Sophomore Jackson Tucker has played 15 minutes.  Sophomore Fernando Olivero didn't play last year.  They also have a freshman GK from San Diego coming in. So, a position of strength becomes a question mark for the Pirates.

- They lose second team All-SCAC defender Reagan Fortner and honorable mention all conference offensive players Mofe Ariyo, Nathanial Blake, and Ashton Bynum, but they do get 2nd team All SCAC defender Raghav Sharma back, who actually led the team in both goals and shots, likely from coming up on set piece plays.  They also return leading playmaker Michael Grimm, who was third team all Region X last season.

[Kuiper]

Willamette has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 27 on the roster, compared with 31 last season

- 7 freshman

- F Sean Kim who was 2nd team all Region X in 2022, but only played 4 games last season, returns as a grad student for a Covid Year

- They lose offensive star Jett Starr (although he returns as a coach), but forward Lucas Carballo, who was second team all NWC in his freshman season, returns.

- Other notable departures include GK Pierluca Carnovale and F/M Fernando Bitelli.

[westroadsf]

And looks like after moving to the east coast former Willamette HC Sam Adelman has landed at Brandeis as an assistant.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity (TX) frustratingly still hasn't posted their roster, but from an IG story of their media day it appears that Aidan Roy, who made a very brief appearance in one game last season is back at keeper this season.  There is a second keeper shown but no details were provided.

Joshua Lynch (who would be a senior) is the only possible returnee in goal and was featured a few months ago in a "studying abroad" reel (in Rome).  He saw limited action last season, culminating with being forced into action in the team's second round playoff game against Occidental, a 1-4 loss after starting keeper Willman was sent off after a red card in the 16th minute.   

[Kuiper]

Texas Lutheran has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 55 on the roster, compared with 51 last season

- 15 freshman

- Tons of players are back for a super senior season, including some of its best players: 2nd team All-SCAC GK Noel Pena, USC 1st team All-American midfielder Jack Manke, and other contributors D Nathan Roy, MF Jorge Ugaz, D Kaden Adam, D Isaac Salazar Vargas, and M Cal McCausland. 

- Other important returning players include Cole Sixkiller, a player who pops up in a variety of positions, co-leading scorer Preston Huff, M Erick Lopez, and defenders Diego Roman, Louis Hart, and Noah Harris.  In fact, I think that virtually the entire starting lineup returns.  The only contributor of any sort that departs is F Santiago Quinonez, who played 17 games, starting 6, and had 2 assists, 15 shots, and 4 shots on goal.

[jaysoccer]

Josh Lynch expected to be the starter at GK
Also lost Jack Eubank, starting LB/LCB, who didn't take 5th year. He led the team the past 4 years in minutes played and second in assists.

Possibly another big roster move TBD

[D3Navy]

Josh Lynch expected to be the starter at GK
Also lost Jack Eubank, starting LB/LCB, who didn't take 5th year. He led the team the past 4 years in minutes played and second in assists.

Possibly another big roster move TBD

Intriguing...

[Gregory Sager]

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.

The irony is that the revived six-team WIAC men's soccer circuit will not include the largest of the WIAC schools, UW-Oshkosh, which also happens to be the WIAC school with by far the most storied soccer tradition. The Titans made the D3 tourney 14 times under head coaches Toby Bares and Wytse Molenaar, including three Final Four appearances -- but UWO deep-sixed its men's soccer program after the 2015-16 school year, and I haven't heard anything about it coming back.

[Kuiper]

American Rivers Conference has released its 2024 preseason coaches poll

Apparently, the coaches think its a battle between Loras and Wartburg

Complete Poll:
2024 American Rivers Conference Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll
Rank   School (1st place votes)   Points
1.   Loras College (6)   62
2.   Wartburg College (3)   58
3.   Luther College    48
4.   University of Dubuque   43
T-5.   Nebraska Wesleyan University   33
T-5.   Simpson College   33
7.   Central College   24
8.   Coe College   15
9.   Buena Vista University   8

[Kuiper]

SCIAC coaches preseason poll is up

No surprise that Oxy is predicted to win again.  Whittier is a real wildcard in my opinion.  They have something like 26 new players, many of whom are international

2024 SCIAC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
1. Occidental, 77 points (6 first-place votes)
2. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 68 pts (2)
3. Redlands, 64 pts
4. California Lutheran, 53 pts
5. Chapman, 49 pts (1)
6. Pomona-Pitzer, 30 pts
7. Caltech, 26 pts
8. La Verne, 24 pts
9. Whittier, 14 pts

[SKUD]

I guess the coaches don't see what you see

[Gray Fox]

I guess the coaches don't see what you see

They will, soon.