Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity dumped a batch of new commits on their IG page today:

• Jayden Schnell, 6'3" GK, Plano TX, JR - apparently was at Birmingham-Southern in '23, started 12 matches, 1.79 GA/60.4% Sv; Spring Hill College in '24, 1 start, 1.00 GA/80.0% Sv
• Hodge MacDonald, MF, "England" - other than a highlight reel, no details
• Diego Vidales, 6'0" MF, Laredo TX - brother of former TU GK Juan Carlos Vidales '23
• Luis Yunta Bernabeu, GK, Madrid, Spain - played at Vermont Academy (HS) '23-'25
• Jack Madsen, 6'1" GK, Dallas TX - played at Highland Park, which won the 5A DII state championship before being stripped of it for using an ineligible player.  Interestingly he appears listed as a D on MaxPreps and had a SOG in that championship match.  In '23-'24 he did play parts of eight matches in goal.
• Matt Lim, 5'10" D, Davao City, Phillipines - announced a couple weeks ago, played for his national team when not attending Montverde Academy in Florida.
• Noah Crane, MF, Palo Alto CA - announced three weeks ago

It appears that after several years wandering in the keeper wilderness, McGinlay was determined not to have that problem again. 

[Kuiper]

Cross-posted from the Coaching Carousel thread

Wonder where he's going, assuming the other opportunity is in soccer.  He kind of worked miracles in getting his team to consistently improve over the season each year so that they were able to advance farther in the ASC tournament than the record suggested they would.  That kind of thing often happens when your coaching brings added value to a school that isn't attracting naturally strong talent.

Van Holland Steps Down as Head Men's Soccer Coach at LeTourneau

LeTourneau head men's soccer coach Brady Van Holland announced his decision to step down from the position, as his family pursues other career opportunities.

"My wife and I have enjoyed our time here at LeTourneau," Van Holland said. "We will greatly miss being surrounded by people we call family now. I would like to thank Dr. Sceggel, President Mason, and everyone in the athletics department for welcoming us with open arms."

"Brady Van Holland has been an incredible gift to this institution," said LeTourneau Vice President for Athletics Dr. Tim Sceggel. "Not only has he made a huge impact on the pitch, but he played a significant role in the formation of our culture of cultivating disciples and pursuing excellence. His loss will be deeply felt in our department."

Van Holland spent three years as the head coach of the YellowJackets and led the program to 18 wins and two trips to the ASC Tournament championship round. He was the 2022 ASC Coach of the Year after leading the YellowJackets to a late season run, which included the program's first appearance in the conference championship match in 24 years.

Twice the YellowJackets made the ASC Tournament championship match as a low-seeded team under Van Holland. In 2022, LeTourneau was the No. 6 seed and advanced past No. 3 seed Hardin-Simmons and No. 2 seed Concordia Texas -- both in penalty shootouts -- to reach the title match. In 2024, the No. 4 seeded YellowJackets defeated Howard Payne and then took down No. 1 seed Mary Hardin-Baylor in PKs to advance to the title match.

Under Van Holland's tutelage, the YellowJackets had two ASC Goalkeeper of the Year awards (Raul Torrez in 2022 and 2023) and one ASC Offensive Freshman of the Year (Caleb Nelson, 2023). LeTourneau totaled 15 All-ASC selections, six ASC All-Tournament honors, and seven ASC weekly award winners.

Van Holland's 2022 team was voted as the ASC SAAC Team Sportsmanship Award recipient.

[Kuiper]

Another Region X team dropped its schedule:

Chapman

Opens the season with a trip to Illinois where it plays Wheaton and DePauw.  It then returns to play Life Pacific (NAIA) and its alumni game before starting SCIAC play.  This year, it plays the following teams twice:  LaVerne (twice in two weeks), Caltech, CMS, and Whittier.  Seems like a pretty favorable draw for them, which they'll need given that they are playing only the 13 conference games and 2 other countable DIII opponents non-conference.

[Kuiper]

Another Region X team dropped its schedule:

Chapman

Opens the season with a trip to Illinois where it plays Wheaton and DePauw.  It then returns to play Life Pacific (NAIA) and its alumni game before starting SCIAC play.  This year, it plays the following teams twice:  LaVerne (twice in two weeks), Caltech, CMS, and Whittier.  Seems like a pretty favorable draw for them, which they'll need given that they are playing only the 13 conference games and 2 other countable DIII opponents non-conference.

Speaking of Chapman, they also posted their recruiting class on their Instagram account.

Enzo Lopes could be a special player for Chapman if he's focused.  He can disappear in games, but he can also take over and score goals in bunches, often with a little Brazilian flair.

[Kuiper]

Cross-posting this from the 2025 Schedules thread

Hardin-Simmons

Tough opening game of the season at Texas Lutheran.  After that, they play a number of games against familiar SCAC opponents, including a trip to Houston to play St. Thomas on 9/6 and then a game against Concordia three days later.  The H-S schedule gets really interesting from 9/18-9/20, with Hardin-Simmons playing Trinity on the 18th, Trinity playing Christopher Newport on the 19th in Abilene at H-S, and then Christopher Newport playing at Hardin-Simmons on the 20th.  Three must-see games in a row.  Plus, it's one thing for Christopher Newport to travel to San Antonio to play H-S and Trinity, but to travel to Abilene?!  It's not that different flight-wise (probably fly from Norfolk with a change of plane in Dallas), but let's just say there's no Riverwalk in Abilene, although they do have something called the Cedar Creek Waterway.  Fortunately, all three games are at 7:30 pm because the average high in Abilene that time of year is in the low 90s.  Last year, the high was 95 degrees.  It could still be in the 90s during warmups and stay in the 80s all game, which might make this a real conditioning test for CNU.

The H-S conference schedule is a reminder that there are only 4 schools left for soccer in 2025-2026 before reinforcements arrive in the form of McMurry and Schreiner (who they play as non-conference opponents this season).  All teams in the ASC are playing a home-and-away against every other team, but H-S manages to fit in a non-conference game at Belhaven in Jackson, MS on a Wednesday between a game at Mary Hardin-Baylor on a Saturday and a game at Marshall, TX against East Texas Baptist on Friday evening.  That's an 8.5 hour drive to Jackson on a Wednesday, so I wonder if they have some kind of school break and they are staying over in Jackson on Wednesday night and traveling on Thursday to play ETBU on Friday (halfway between Jackson and Abilene).  Otherwise, that's a heck of a lot of travel during the week, even for a Texas school.

[Kuiper]

Cal Tech played its spring game today against Pasadena City College.  According to a post on its instagram account, it won 3-0 on a brace from Ishaan Mantripragada and another goal from Matt Luk.  Check out the video of Ishaan's free kick goal on the second slide of the post.  Pretty impressive.

[Kuiper]

Cross-posted from the schedule thread.  It almost feels like this schedule, particularly the four Region X school invitational, was put in place before the NPI system last season when Region X rankings had importance.  Regardless, it's a bit lower travel burden way for these schools to get out of conference games.

Colorado College

Always fun to see the crazy travel schedule of Colorado College, which is the most deserted island of the island schools in DIII. This year, the strength-of-schedule dips a bit as CC has to fill the big shoes of some key graduating seniors, including all-everything Curtis Hale. Nevertheless, they have scheduled some really solid schools, which include several that could breakthrough this season.  It's the kind of schedule that could be sneakily strong.  They travel to the Midwest for opening weekend to take on DePauw (10-5-6 and lost in the NCAA's to Hope) and Wheaton (IL) (10-7-1 and lost to North Central in the CCIW tourney).  Do they dare drive?  I mean, it's only about 15 hours to DePauw!  The following weekend, they host Whitman, Cal Lutheran, and Mary Hardin-Baylor in a really intriguing Region X invitational that nets them three games in four days.  Whitman was 12-6-2 last season and finished third in the NWC despite beating champion Pacific Lutheran 2-1 on the final game of the season.  Mary Hardin-Baylor was 10-6-3 and 7-0-1 as the regular season ASC champion, but lost a heartbreaking upset game in PKs to Letourneau in the ASC tournament after beating them 4-1 in the final regular season game.  Cal Lutheran had a down season in the SCIAC, finishing 6-9-5, but it handed SCIAC tournament champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps one of its only losses of the season and still qualified for the SCIAC tournament. The following weekend Colorado College hosts Carroll (9-4-5 and lost in the CCIW QF's on PKs to Illinois Wesleyan) before taking two weeks off to get ready for SCAC play, where they should be serious contenders even with some rebuilding, especially with Trinity and Southwestern gone to the SAA. They are helped by the fact that two of the stronger SCAC teams - Texas Lutheran and Concordia TX - play Colorado College in Colorado Springs this season, where CC has only lost once in the last three seasons.  They do have to travel to Houston to play St. Thomas this season, though, where they have lost to UST in the SCAC semifinals two years in a row.

[Kuiper]

A few Texas schools posted their schedules (cross-posted from the 2025 schedule thread)

East Texas Baptist

The non-conference schedule is very similar to last year, with Millsaps and Belhaven visiting Marshall, TX this season.  They replace the home-and-away conference games against UT Dallas and LeTourneau with games against Southwestern, Austin, Lyon, and Hendrix.  In the ASC, they are listed as playing both conference games against Mary Hardin-Baylor at home.  Unless this is a mistake or UMHB is doing construction on its field, I'm not sure why they would agree to play both ETBU games away.

Austin College

Replaces Concordia-Moorhead, Fontbonne, UT Dallas, Nelson, Mississippi University for Women, and Ouachita Baptist with Dallas Christian (NCCAA), Southwestern (as a non-conference game), East Texas Baptist, and Howard Payne as non-conference games and Hendrix and LeTourneau as conference games.

[Kuiper]

Redlands went to Italy this Spring, played 3 games (winning them all) and posted video on its Instagram account of the trip and some of its game action.  I'm surprised they got out alive after watching a brutal nutmeg of a defender in one game and a chip of the GK for a goal in another!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKdMJ8lSC3w/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[Kuiper]

Couple of schedules from the 2025 Schedules thread that are either of schools in Region X or of schools elsewhere that reveal parts of the schedules of some Region X schools

Willamette

Willamette tries to rebound from a tough season last year and with NWC's round robin schedule of 16 conference games, that doesn't leave a lot of room to improve by scheduling differently.  Nevertheless, Willamette does appear to have deliberately reduced the degree of difficulty of their non-conference schedule.  Gone are Calvin, Occidental, and Cal Lutheran and in their place are Pomona-Pitzer, La Verne, and Whittier.  Basically, nationally ranked and top half of the SCIAC exchanged for bottom half of the SCIAC.

Oglethorpe

Lots of interesting matchups in this schedule.  In the Sonny Carter Invitational to open the season at Emory, they play Covenant and Washington & Lee. A week later at Oglethorpe's own invitational, they play Wisconsin Lutheran and North Carolina Wesleyan.  A week after that, they host Babson, which is also playing Covenant on its trip to Atlanta.  Two weeks after that, they host Trinity and Southwestern in what I assume is their first away trip in the SAA.

[Kuiper]

Cross-posting from the 2025 schedules thread:

Whittier

Whittier seeks to build upon a decent season last year, finishing 4-7-1 in conference after going 1-10-1 in 2023.  They were inconsistent, but highlights included a 2-0 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and a 1-0 victory over Redlands on the last game of the regular season.  Before last season, they adopted a new recruiting strategy that focused on international recruits and CC transfers, which they have continued this season.  According to their Instagram, 3 out of the 5 recruits announced thus far are from either Sweden or Norway and the 4th is a CC transfer.  This season, they drop Albion, Bethesda (NAIA) and Stanton (NAIA) for a trip to the Northwest where they play Lewis & Clark, George Fox, and Willamette after starting the season against Southern California Leadership University, a sketchy school that La Verne beat last year 3-0 in an exhibition game, and Cal Tech beat 3-1.  In conference, they play Redlands, Chapman, La Verne, and Pomona-Pitzer twice and the rest once.  The rough part is they open with CMS, but they have 10 days between their Oregon trip and that game and it's at home.