Quote from: Ejay on Yesterday at 08:20:46 PM

QuoteStephen Vilardo GK/F Case Western

Goalkeeper and Forward? Played a total of 20 minutes in goal and only 750 as a Forward with 0 goals and 2 shots.  I'm guessing the Academy definitely invites their alum.


Separately, if you're on the list does that mean they're not going back to college? I'm thinking specifically of Clemson Sophomore Ransford Gyan. He's going to be a legit pro, but I didn't know he was leaving early. 

I believe you can now declare and still decide to go back to college without losing eligibility.

The MLS Super Draft is being held tomorrow at 2 PM ET and MLS released a list of eligible players.  It looks like there are two players from DIII schools on the list

Owen Van Marter D Oglethorpe

Stephen Vilardo GK/F Case Western

Not sure what makes a player eligible, but neither of these players would be the first players I would pick from the DIII ranks to go to MLS (with all due respect).  If it was open to anyone, I would expect more DIII players on the list just to say that they gave it a shot.

Having said that, Van Marter played with Orlando City SC's MLS Academy and Vilardo played with Columbus Crew's MLS Academy, so perhaps those academies asked all of their alum whether they wanted to be placed on the list.

There's also at least one player on the list who played for a DIII team before finishing his career in DI

Kevin Box, GK, UCLA (and three years for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)

Good luck to all the dreamers!

Quote from: Ron Boerger on Yesterday at 09:45:09 AMUSC announced their Scholar-All Region teams.  Confusingly, they have combined the winners into four regions (East, North/Central, South, West) and named inconsistent numbers of players to each region.

The All-South team consists of a total of two players, K Cooper Cherry and F Max Albertson of Berry.  That's it.

The All-West team has three players on the first team:  F Samuel Thiess from Trinity, D Rex Karijan from Southwestern, D Raghav Sharma from Southwestern.  Seven players on the second team but I have to run to an appointment. 

United Soccer Coaches (or the coaches) has been mailing it in with these post-season awards this year.  Seems like either very few submitted nominations or the standards excluded most nominations


First Team

Samuel Theiss Jr. Trinity  Business Analytics 3.95
Rex Karjian  Sr.  Colorado College Political Science 3.85
Raghav Sharma Sr. Southwestern  Kinesiology  3.89

Second Team

Alex Wolter Jr. Colorado College Business, Economics, & Society 3.62
Jackson Changler Sr. UC Santa Cruz Environmental Science 3.76
Luke Chandler Sr. Trinity Neuroscience 3.59
Michael Braun Jr. UC Santa Cruz Engineering 3.83
Etienne Casanova Sr. Caltech Computer Science 3.81
Soren Groessl Jr. UC Santa Cruz  Psychology 3.77
Greyson Pinto Sr. Southwestern Business 3.70

Adam Knutson of Trinity (TX) named United Soccer Coaches Player of the Year

QuoteUnited Soccer Coaches announced the 2025 Player of the Year recipients across the senior college, junior college, high school, and youth levels on Tuesday.

Please note: The NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Players of the Year, which will be the MAC Hermann Trophy recipients, will be announced on January 9, 2026, in St. Louis, Mo.

Following is the list of the 16 players designated as 2025 Player of the Year recipients:

NCAA Division III Men

Adam Knutson

Trinity University (Texas)

Quote from: D3Navy on December 16, 2025, 07:16:03 PMTrinity's Adam Knutson selected by the coaches as the DIII Player of the Year.

Saw this coming from his freshman year.  Incredible ball skills, pitch awareness, and selfless play.

None finer and the coaches agree.

Well done, Adam!

Hear, Hear!  Congrats to Adam

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/united-soccer-coaches-announces-2025-players-of-the-year-across-all-levels/

Centenary (LA) posted a job listing for Head Men's Soccer coach today

Kevin White has been head coach since 2021 and the team's 7-9-2 record this season was its most wins since 2019.  I haven't seen any announcement about his departure or where he is going.

NCAA Soccer Plan May Benefit from MLS Shift

QuoteMLS announced last month it will move its playoffs to the spring, part of a calendar switch to a July-to-May season. That change, set for the 2027-28 season, puts the U.S. pro league more in line with the rest of the world and its playoffs safely outside the American football footprint.

It also dovetails with reforms proposed by U.S. Soccer's NextGen College Soccer Committee. In a white paper released in October, the committee recommends moving the men's game, and perhaps the women's, from the current fall-only schedule to one that covers the entire scholastic year and culminates in an April playoff festival.

If the committee's schedule plan earns NCAA approval, having the MLS move in sync will create complementary growth and marketing opportunities for college soccer and the sport as a whole, NextGen committee chair Dan Helfrich said in an interview.

"If the two calendars are in alignment, the late spring becomes a chance for a celebration of soccer in the U.S.," said Helfrich, a former Deloitte executive who will assume the role of chief operating officer at U.S. Soccer in January. "And if the right people get together, which I think they will, and align planning and marketing and broadcasting and those types of things, you can have a ton of synergy with high-stakes, postseason soccer in the springtime."

It's also a chance for teams in the College Cup playoffs to gain recognition, which is often in short supply—even when there's plenty of drama. "This year will be a good final four, with an unexpected champion, which makes for good storytelling," Helfrich said.

Interim Gettysburg Head Men's Soccer Coach, Dan Malone, Tabbed for the Permanent Job

QuoteAfter spending the 2025 season as interim head coach, Dan Malone has been tabbed with the permanent role, announced by Executive Director of Athletics and Recreation Troy Dell '95 on Friday.

Malone guided the Bullets to the No. 2 seed in the Centennial Conference (CC) in his first year at the helm and hosted a conference semifinal game.

"It was clear as we went through this process after the season that Dan has our program in a great position and should continue to lead our program into the future," Dell said. "His work on the field this past season spoke for itself. I am excited for him to continue to work with our athletes and continue to build our men's soccer program."

He mentored seven players to all-conference honors in 2025 – the most for Gettysburg in a single season since 1999. Four of those seven players were freshmen on the squad with three going on to claim all-region honors. The defense posted nine shutouts in 19 games last season while the offense was second in the conference, averaging 1.79 goals per game.

Malone joined the Bullets staff prior to the 2024 season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with eight years of experience coaching at the Division III level.

USC Regional Coaching Awards

I'm a little surprised that Trinity was left out, but given how inconsistent USC was in where to rank Trinity and Southwestern all season, I'm not sure if they lost out to Emory or Texas Lutheran.  Harder to make the latter case, but TLU did have a good season. 

NCAA Division III Men         
Category   Division - Region   School   Head Coach
NCAA   Division III - Region I   Tufts University   Head Coach: Kyle Dezotell
NCAA   Division III - Region II   Wheaton College (Mass.)   Head Coach: Bryan Waggoner
NCAA   Division III - Region III   Hobart College   Head Coach: Shawn Griffin
NCAA   Division III - Region IV   Rowan University   Head Coach: Scott Baker
NCAA   Division III - Region V   Dickinson College   Head Coach: Jorge Chapoy
NCAA   Division III - Region VI   Emory University   Head Coach: Corey Greiner
NCAA   Division III - Region VII   College of Wooster   Head Coach: Andy Zidron
NCAA   Division III - Region VIII   Washington University (Mo.)   Head Coach: Andrew Bordelon
NCAA   Division III - Region IX   St. Olaf College   Head Coach: Justin Oliver
NCAA   Division III - Region X   Texas Lutheran University   Head Coach: Eddie Salazar

Quote from: Sandon Mibut on December 11, 2025, 02:29:51 PMWell as a Tufts fan I sure hope Kyle Dezotell doesn't return to his native Vermont for the head coach position at University of Vermont. Rob Dow is officially leaving $200k/yr at UVM to head "south" to Penn State.

Although DIII coaches have definitely moved to DI schools before (e.g., Shapiro to Harvard), I think Vermont might be in a different class after winning the National Championship. 

Plus, Vermont promoted Dow when he was hired and the school's statement about Dow departing suggests they may do the same with Brad Cole, who has been an assistant at Portland and Cornell before becoming Associate Head Coach at Vermont the year before they won the title

Quote"We're fortunate to have someone of Brad Cole's ability to step in as our interim head coach effective immediately," stated Schulman. "A native Vermonter and UVM Soccer alum, Brad has accumulated experience at top programs throughout the country and has played an instrumental role in every aspect of our program since taking over as Associate Head Coach three years ago. Brad will be considered for the permanent head coaching position, and we look forward to making an announcement about the status of the search in the coming days."

Quote from: Gregory Sager on December 11, 2025, 01:20:58 PMSo we'd be calling these two athletics programs Northwest-Willamette (UNWW) and Northwest-Pacific (UNWP)?

It's a good question. The press release describes it as creating a "collegiate university," but with separate admissions and athletics where they maintain their "characters, identities, and historic campuses."

QuoteIf the merger is finalized and approved, the combined university would operate as a "collegiate university," where distinct schools and colleges maintain their character, identities, and historic campuses while unified under a shared administrative structure as a single institution.

The undergraduate colleges at Pacific, Willamette, and PNCA would continue to operate with their current names as colleges within the combined university on their historic campuses in Forest Grove, Salem and Portland and would maintain separate admissions requirements, academic programs and athletics. Existing graduate and professional programs would continue to offer students pathways toward their career goals.

That suggests they might not change the names at all for athletics purposes.  The overarching administrative structure sounds similar to the Claremont schools, which retain their separate names for admissions, rankings etc., but have different names for athletics because of the combined teams among the five undergraduate schools.  In this case, maybe the names for athletics would stay the same as they are now.  The other model would be like a state university system with a common name followed by a distinct name for the branch campus 

Big news out of the Northwest Conference

Pacific and Willamette have signed a letter of intent to merge and create the University of the Northwest

Facing an Enrollment Cliff, Two of Oregon's Oldest Colleges May Join Forces

QuoteTwo of Oregon's oldest nonprofit universities are exploring a merger, which would create the state's largest independent private university with more than 6,000 students enrolled across four separate campuses.

The presidents of Willamette University, which has its flagship campus in Salem, and Pacific University, which is based in Forest Grove, said that if approved by state and federal regulators, a process they expect could take at least two years, the two schools would be known as the University of the Northwest. The two have signed a letter of intent, which starts the clock on a cost-benefit analysis for both campuses.

QuoteSimilar mergers have been announced across the country with increasing frequency over the last decade, particularly among smaller liberal arts colleges and universities. Such schools are facing the one-two punch of public skepticism over the rising price of tuition and a smaller pool of applicants given a declining birth rate that stretches back to the Great Recession of 2008.

"We are at a defining moment where we need to be thinking about doing things differently," said Jenny Coyle, the president of Pacific University since 2022. "So can we have this larger university system that can navigate change and be more fluid, with greater resources, with more people power and more brain trust?"

QuoteBoth schools remain on solid financial footing, with balanced budgets, which is often not the case in such situations, Thorsett noted.

"The thing that is just different about this compared to almost any other merger going on at the moment nationally is that it is not a small failing institution or an institution that's concerned about its sustainability merging into a bigger institution," he said. "This is a merger of two equals. We believe that Oregon deserves a great private university, a university that the rest of the country can look at as a model for what could be built elsewhere."

They are currently contemplating each school having its own identity and sports teams, which is probably a relief for the NWC

QuoteWere the two campuses to join forces, Coyle and Thorsett said, they would maintain their own identities, including separate athletics programs as the schools have long been NCAA Division III rivals. Each school would have its own admissions and financial aid departments and its own set of course requirements, but would be governed by a single board of trustees overseeing both universities.

Here is the press release for the proposed merger

Pacific and Willamette have signed a letter of intent to merge and create the University of the Northwest

Facing an Enrollment Cliff, Two of Oregon's Oldest Colleges May Join Forces

QuoteTwo of Oregon's oldest nonprofit universities are exploring a merger, which would create the state's largest independent private university with more than 6,000 students enrolled across four separate campuses.

The presidents of Willamette University, which has its flagship campus in Salem, and Pacific University, which is based in Forest Grove, said that if approved by state and federal regulators, a process they expect could take at least two years, the two schools would be known as the University of the Northwest. The two have signed a letter of intent, which starts the clock on a cost-benefit analysis for both campuses.

QuoteSimilar mergers have been announced across the country with increasing frequency over the last decade, particularly among smaller liberal arts colleges and universities. Such schools are facing the one-two punch of public skepticism over the rising price of tuition and a smaller pool of applicants given a declining birth rate that stretches back to the Great Recession of 2008.

"We are at a defining moment where we need to be thinking about doing things differently," said Jenny Coyle, the president of Pacific University since 2022. "So can we have this larger university system that can navigate change and be more fluid, with greater resources, with more people power and more brain trust?"

QuoteBoth schools remain on solid financial footing, with balanced budgets, which is often not the case in such situations, Thorsett noted.

"The thing that is just different about this compared to almost any other merger going on at the moment nationally is that it is not a small failing institution or an institution that's concerned about its sustainability merging into a bigger institution," he said. "This is a merger of two equals. We believe that Oregon deserves a great private university, a university that the rest of the country can look at as a model for what could be built elsewhere."

They are currently contemplating each school having its own identity and sports teams, which is probably a relief for the NWC

QuoteWere the two campuses to join forces, Coyle and Thorsett said, they would maintain their own identities, including separate athletics programs as the schools have long been NCAA Division III rivals. Each school would have its own admissions and financial aid departments and its own set of course requirements, but would be governed by a single board of trustees overseeing both universities.

Here is the press release for the proposed merger

Quote from: Mr_November on December 11, 2025, 08:38:26 AMUniv of Lynchburg ranked 14th and also receiving votes...that's a first

Good catch! They can't even blame that error on cutting and pasting from the last poll.

Final United Soccer Coaches National Ranking (which just rank orders the top finishers from the NCAA tournament)

National - Poll 10 - December 9, 2025

Rank    School                   Prev    W-L-T

1    Tufts University    1    14-1-3
2    Trinity University (Texas)    5    15-1-1
3    St. Olaf College    4    16-2-3
4    Emory University    6    13-1-3
5    Bowdoin College    10    10-3-3
6    Dickinson College    RV    13-0-7
7    Wheaton College (Mass.)    8    15-0-4
8    Augsburg University    2    16-2-2
9    Connecticut College    7    10-3-5
10    Williams College    15    8-4-4
11    SUNY Cortland    9    12-1-5
12    Rowan University    RV    15-3-4
13    Macalester College    RV    15-4-0
14    Washington University (Mo.)    12    13-3-0
14    University of Lynchburg    13    17-1-2
16    Messiah University    NR    11-7-2
17    University of Scranton    17    12-0-6
18    Brandeis University    18    9-3-5
19    Middlebury College    14    9-5-2
20    University of Chicago    3    11-2-5
21    Denison University    25    14-2-3
22    University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire    21    12-2-4
23    University of Massachusetts-Boston    NR    12-3-4
24    Christopher Newport University    22    11-2-5
25    Luther College    NR    9-2-7

Records shown are final 2025 records.

Also receiving votes: Catholic University, Wesleyan University, University of Lynchburg, Babson College, Calvin University, Hampden-Sydney College, Edgewood University, Texas Lutheran University