Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Cross posting from the 2026 schedules thread

Occidental

Very ambitious schedule for Oxy.  They open against Azusa Pacific, as we already knew, but then they play two out of state opponents.  The first is Gordon College (MA), which is kind of random, but the second is Trinity (TX) on 9/6.  Trinity has been hosting SCIAC and other Region X teams in San Antonio for years, but I haven't seen them do the return trip to any of them.  It looks like they are doing it in this case to play their former assistant coach Edward Cartee at CMS (which traveled to San Antonio to play Trinity last season) because the Oxy-Trinity game is listed as being at Claremont.  In any event, as if playing the DIII men's soccer runners up wasn't a tough enough game, Oxy then travels the following weekend to Ohio to play at Kenyon on 9/11 and Denison on 9/13.  Talk about a challenging three game stretch, plus cross-country travel, over 7 days!

[Ron Boerger]

Cross-posted from the Coaching Carousel thread:

Most new head coaches these days were assistant coaches before that or at least have some high level club coaching experience touted in their hiring announcements.  We don't hear about many full-time HS teachers and coaches getting these positions anymore.  Nevertheless, a guy with over 800 high school wins total, who leads his teams (boys and girls) to the playoffs 46 times in 51 seasons over 21 years at one high school, winning 91 playoff games, and has been named district coach of the year 29 times and state champion twice, sounds like a true legend and a pipeline to the talent-rich Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex.

Don't know for how long it was or even if head or assistant role, but the release mentions he "also coached with [...] Southwestern Assemblies of God (Nelson University)", an NAIA school in the region.  This story from March says he started the program there but provides little other detail other than to say he also coached there. 

[Kuiper]

Cross-posted from the 2026 Schedules thread

La Verne

Just like Oxy, La Verne has a schedule that is both random and ambitious.  They open the season at DII Westmont and then host George Fox (NWC) and Russell Sage (NY), which like Gordon (MA) is heading across the country to play SCIAC teams in what could be an attempt to recruit some California kids.  La Verne then travels to Texas to play Trinity and Southwestern before opening conference play at Occidental.  The team made it to the second round of the SCIAC tournament last season before falling to Oxy 4-1, so I'm sure they'll be looking for payback.

On a side note, Trinity certainly is filling its schedule with SCIAC teams this season with games already listed against Oxy, CMS (probably), and now La Verne.  Since the SAA has fewer teams than the SCAC and some of the weaker SCAC/ASC teams don't provide much competition, Trinity might have needed to travel more to get a decent strength-of-schedule.