Great Lakes Region Navigation Channel

[TableMax]

I understand the NCAA flips the tab.. And on that note with all the "grift" in college sports the NCAA should pay for the travel regardless of round and venue.. 

[Kuiper]

This happened a month ago, but it was when the board was down, so some people may have missed it or not gotten a chance to discuss it.

The NCAC announced that John Carroll is leaving the OAC and joining the NCAC starting in 2025-2026

https://northcoast.org/news/2024/1/17/general-north-coast-athletic-conference-welcomes-john-carroll-university.aspx

As I said on the D3Soccer.fans board, I get why this makes sense for the NCAC, since it bumps them up from 9 to 10.  They dropped to 9 when Allegheny left in 2021.  For John Carroll, the claim is that it allows them to have a more national platform to spread their name.

https://www.jcu.edu/news-center/john-carroll-university-joins-north-coast-athletic-conference-ncac#:~:text=John%20Carroll%20University's%20momentum%20continued,NCAC)%20beginning%20in%20Fall%202025.

Our Board of Directors and University leadership are committed to ongoing strategic investments that will ensure that the gift of a Jesuit education from John Carroll is available for generations to come. We are pleased to align with a group of academically and athletically competitive partners in the NCAC who enjoy national reach and reputation as high-ranking liberal arts institutions.

Others (@SimpleCoach) point out that this will mean John Carroll will not longer have to compete with perennial power Mount Union for the automatic bid in football.

Regardless of the reason, it is probably only the first domino to fall in another set of conference realignments.

[Kuiper]

Cross-posting this from the 2024 Schedules thread because it might be of particular interest to Great Lakes fans

John Carroll

Last year in the OAC, but they are getting a jump start on NCAC play by playing at Oberlin and home to Kenyon on the first weekend of the season.  That isn't a surprise since they often play NCAC teams and these are just the second legs of home/away series that they started last year, but it is a chance for Kenyon to get revenge after losing 4-0 to John Carroll last year in Gambier.  They are also hosting Stockton and Trine for something called the Cleveland Classic in mid-September on a Friday/Sunday, which probably means Trine and Stockton will play each other on that Saturday.  Always nice to see those East Coast/Midwest clashes.  Another interesting addition to the schedule is they are traveling to Williamsport to play Lycoming on Sept 21 after playing Ohio Wesleyan on the 18th, and before playing Case Western on the 25th and hosting Calvin on the 28th.  That's a murderer's row of games.  In fact, in their 10 non-conference games to start the season, only Oberlin and Trine did not have winning records last year and Trine was 7-7-3 and beat Kenyon.

[Kuiper]

Hiram is moving from the NCAC to the PAC in all sports, starting 2025-26

https://pacathletics.org/news/2024/4/23/general-hiram-college-to-return-to-pac.aspx

Dr. Robert Bohrer II, the 24th president of Hiram College, has announced the College's plans to re-join the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) as the league's 12th full-time member. Hiram will become a full-time PAC member with all voting and membership rights effective on July 1, 2024, with competition in all sports set to begin in the 2025-26 academic year.
 
The announcement marks a return for the College to an athletic conference where it was previously a member from 1971 through the spring of 1989. During its prior 18-year tenure in the PAC, Hiram won 13 team championships, including multiple titles in men's basketball (five), women's track and field (three) and baseball (two). In addition to the 13 team championships, Hiram also has 71 individual championships achieved by 30 different student-athletes during its previous tenure in the PAC.
 
The College also won the PAC Women's All-Sports Trophy in the first year it was awarded by the league in 1985-86.

The return to the PAC will offer Hiram improvements for the student-athlete experience according to Dr. Bohrer, including reduced time out of the classroom while competing and creating a better blend of the student-athletes' interests in and out of competition.
 
"Athletics has long been an integral part of the student experience at Hiram College with more than half of our students participating in one or more sports," stated Dr. Bohrer. "We are pleased to accept the invitation to again join the Presidents' Athletic Conference, which not only means that our student-athletes will compete with schools more locally and give our fans the opportunity to support our teams at away competitions, but also that our students will spend less time out of the classroom traveling for competition, helping to promote a balanced structure between athletics and academics."

[Little Giant 89]

Just when I thought it was safe to print out the new five year schedule for NCAC sports!

[Kuiper]

OAC Commissioner leaves to become Commissioner of the UAA

https://uaasports.info/news/2024/5/13/general-sara-otey-named-new-uaa-commissioner-succeeds-retiring-dick-rasmussen.aspx

This is a bit of a blow for the OAC I assume.  In a period where conferences generally, and the OAC in particular, are in a period of some unrest with departures, mergers, financially troubled schools, changing NCAA selection criteria potentially influencing scheduling decisions, and the possibility of new revenue streams like Flo Sports, strong leadership is particularly needed.

[Kuiper]

Denison has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

-  30 on the roster, compared to 28 last year

-  6 freshman added to the roster, including one from Lithuania.  I haven't seen many Lithuanians recruited to American college soccer

- One of the freshman is Kaden Kist.  He is the younger brother of Kameron Kist, a junior who was first team All-NCAC and third team all Region VII last year as a sophomore.

- 

[EnmoreCat]

Denison has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

-  30 on the roster, compared to 28 last year

-  6 freshman added to the roster, including one from Lithuania.  I haven't seen many Lithuanians recruited to American college soccer

- One of the freshman is Kaden Kist.  He is the younger brother of Kameron Kist, a junior who was first team All-NCAC and third team all Region VII last year as a sophomore.

- 

Amherst has a Lithuanian.  Looking at the Denison recruit, I have to say that that name doesn't look particularly Lithuanian to me and it's a topic I am comfortable claiming proficiency in!

[Ejay]

might be German...
https://fkzalgiris.lt/en/player/alexander-homuth/?tid=101

[Kuiper]

Denison has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

-  30 on the roster, compared to 28 last year

-  6 freshman added to the roster, including one from Lithuania.  I haven't seen many Lithuanians recruited to American college soccer

- One of the freshman is Kaden Kist.  He is the younger brother of Kameron Kist, a junior who was first team All-NCAC and third team all Region VII last year as a sophomore.

- 

Amherst has a Lithuanian.  Looking at the Denison recruit, I have to say that that name doesn't look particularly Lithuanian to me and it's a topic I am comfortable claiming proficiency in!

Probably lots of ethnic Lithuanians or players with Lithuanian ancestry (many of whom had their names changed when their great-grandparents reached Ellis Island), but not many who went to secondary school in Lithuania and list Vilnius as their home town.  Seems like most college int'l recruitment doesn't find kids in Lithuania, although an American School in Lithuania probably made the family already pre-disposed to consider it.  I'm mostly interested in patterns of recruitment internationally, whether based on coach/school/alum connections to a country (eg North Central and Italy) or sports recruiting services that operate internationally.  This might have been different.

[EnmoreCat]

When you put it that way, Kuiper it does make some sense.  It would be quite an expense compared to income there I would have thought.  Anyway, "labas" to him and hope it goes well.

[Kuiper]

Oberlin has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

-  28 on the roster, which is the same as they had last year

- Two junior GKs last year -- Colvin Iorio and Luke Yates -- don't appear on the roster, although two freshman are added to the mix (including one from Liechtenstein, which is another country I don't see represented that much on DIII rosters). Not a lot of experience returning to man the nets, considering Iorio started most games and Yates was one of two others to get any games.  Interestingly, Yates shows up on the Oberlin track and field roster for 2024-25 (where he specialize in long jump and triple jump) and Iorio might be playing club volleyball based on a story I found about him from March.

- 11 Freshman added to the squad

- Defender Kboy Mbonu returns for his senior season after not playing in 2023

-

[Rcjh2245]

Included on Coach Carousel string, thought I would share here as well:

https://battlingbishops.com/news/2024/8/7/MS_08072024.aspx

[Kuiper]

Ohio Northern has posted its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- They have 50 players on this season's roster, compared with 45 last year.  ONU is a school that has a reserve team with a full schedule.  Although I don't see the 2024 reserve team schedule up yet, the 2023 schedule had 9 games against a variety of DIII and DII opponents.  They also identify one of their first team assistant coaches as head coach of the reserve team.  So, while 50 is a massive roster size, they at least have some structure in place to occupy all of those players.

- Only two of the 50 players - Cade Winchester and Will Shaffer - are 5th year seniors.  Winchester played 23 games last year, but only started 6.  He did score 5 goals though.  Shaffer, who started his career at D1 Wright State before transferring for his junior year, was one of the team's leading scorers with 10 goals and 6 assists.

- 15 freshman join the squad

- Virtually the entire roster returns, including last year's two leading point scorers - Ryan Sommerfield with 11 goals and 5 assists and Will Shaffer - as well as GK Lucas Hickey, who started every game last season.

[Kuiper]

Kenyon has posted its 2024 roster

Here are a few observations:

- 34 on the roster this year, compared with 30 last year

- 15 freshman are on the 2024 roster, which is a pretty massive number.  You might typically expect a quarter of the roster to be freshman if you recruit and equal number every year (doesn't always work out that way), but they account for approximately 44% of the entire roster for Kenyon this year.  With almost half the roster freshman, you've got to expect that at least a few of them are going to have to step up and play meaningful roles at some point in the season.  Since this is Travis Wall's first recruiting class, my guess is that he rates some of them ahead of those who were on the roster when he arrived anyway.

- Lots of high-level experienced returnees, including GK Jack Pedraschi (although there is very little experience behind him at GK), M Eamon Dujakovich, and F Alem Duratovic

- Some departures of important players too, including D Aidan Burns who was captain, NCAC Defensive Player of the Year, and USC All Region VII team.  I think Alex Ramirez' transfer back to Texas to play at Trinity is a meaningful loss too.  I don't doubt that Kenyon has enough depth to put a quality player in his position, but Ramirez started every game he played and he hardly came off the field when the games were close, including playing the full 110 minutes in the tournament loss to Washington College.