Conference Previews for the 2024 season - Conference Carolinas

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Welcome,

Intro

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welcome, welcome with another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's La Crosse. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is the Walmart of D2 Men's Lacrosse Info, Danny Moran. How's it going, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Kevin, I don't even know where you came up with that one from.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I can't wait for the what can't you find at Walmart, Danny? You're like the one-stop shop, right? Yeah, you can get oil and underwear in the same store. And that's about all I have to offer, really. How's it going tonight? That is a very dangerous combo if you think about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

So we're men. We're men. We need oil and we need underwear. How's everything going in northern Virginia tonight?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

It's going well. It's going well. You know, I'm really excited, Danny. We've actually hit the halfway point on our conference previews. This is number five, as we are recording tonight.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, we're about 60 days to the first first couple of games uh in Division 2.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah, we're recording this on December 4th, right? And February 3rd, first games.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Yeah, first games in the South. Some of the kids, yeah, start playing. So we're like 60 days away. It's amazing. Close, man. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's

Conference Carolinas

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awesome.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah.

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So how about we just get started and talk about the Conference Carolinas?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah, Conference Canadians. I was thinking as I was doing as I was doing my my research. I can't believe how many Canadian players are in this conference, which is awesome. It's good.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, yeah. It's good. And if you look at it, last year there was a little bit of a shake up.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yeah, that was a big shakeup.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Think about who think about who the two that were in the finals. Yeah. On paper, that wasn't supposed to happen, right? No. North Greenville and Barton in the final, and Barton comes away the chance.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, which I don't think anybody kind of expected going into the beginning of the season.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

We talked about them last year. They, you know, they're now, I think they're in their fifth year last year. But they rose pretty steadily, pretty quickly. And we even talked about that in the last conference preview. They've got a lot of players, they've got a lot of depth, a lot of players that have played together for a long time. And I think that all kind of came to a head last year as they as they made that run. They ended up ranked 18th nationally.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Yeah, they got hot at the end of the season, is really what happened. They got hot at the end of the season. The beginning of the season for them was eh, you know, mediocre. They couldn't had to play a win gate. They got smoked in that first game. And you know, that can't be good for the psyche, you know, when you're starting your season off and you're playing like a number three or four ranked team. But you know what? The Barton Bulldogs really came together last year, and Coach Schuma, he really did a great job there with them, and they were the conference champs last year.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

I I think you said it really well. I mean, if you look at their their record, 11 and 7, so it's a good record. Three and three in conference, though, 500. So you think, okay, they're middle of the road in the conference, but they just at the end, they just played lights out.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

They got high. Yeah, you know, yeah, you get that, you know, that lucky hop that goes into the stick at the right time, and you throw a goal in, and things get like that happen in in the tournament and in the championships. Things like that happened.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

But you know, but they they did play well at the deserved it because they beat Belmont Abbey in the semis 10 to 7. It wasn't like a one-go. Now they did beat North Greenville in the finals by one. Yeah. And that was a good game. And they lost to Belmont Abbey in the regular season in three overtimes. Right, right. Right. So they've had to deal with adversity. Like you said, playing like a team like Wingate. It seems like they did what like we talked about with Georgian court coach when you talk about building a really tough out-of-conference schedule, but having the right mindset going forward, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah, it sharpens you up to conference play, right? Yeah, exactly. So let's talk about the Bulldogs. Located in Wilson, North Carolina, Kev. And Coach Warren Schumach's the heaven uh head coach there. Tournament champs, like you said, 11-7 overall, three and three conference. Their big signature win last year was the championship game, but they had a great 18-8 win over Coker in the middle of the season. So, but they lost to like some big boys. They had a really tough schedule. They lost to Wingate, Rollins, Florida Tech, yeah, you know, Belmont, you know, Mount Olive, North Greenville. They lost to all these teams. Right. But came back at the end of the season to play really well. Now, I don't know. I didn't see their out-of-conference schedule for this.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah, we we do have their out-of-conference. The coach sent it to us, and it's once again, it's tough. They are playing Lenore Ryan, Rollins, Coker, Mars Hill, Roberts Wesleyan, Lander, Kataba, and Flagler.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Wow, Roberts Wesleyan in there, huh?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah. It's great. A few of the teams in this conference play RWU during the out-of-conference, they're out of competition, which is really interesting because they're tough. Roberts Wesleyan coming down to play some of the South Southern teams. I like to see that. That's awesome. And this is the first time in a while that they don't have Wingate on their schedule. That yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

You know?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, well, they're still, I mean, you look at it though, they're still playing LR Rollins. They're not, they they just rotated one out for another.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Correct. Correct. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

I like their out of conference for them. I think there's I don't think there's a really easy one on it. Probably if you look at probably Mars Hill and Kataba, they're the ones that from past records are the ones that are, you know, the easier one, but I don't think that they're easy either. And you add in Flagler and Coker in those, and then you got some of the big dogs. No.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Flagler's not going to be an easy game for them. It's not. It's not at all. So, like they have some good guys on that team, uh, Logan Wheeler. Now, Mason Cheney, Mark Crawford, and Matt Calary. They were all seniors last year. I don't know if any of those guys are coming back.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, so Matt Calary is coming back, and he's kind of leading their attack unit, which is actually going to be a rotational group. They've got also, besides Matt Calary, they've got Nick and Sam Lord and Nick Nelson and two freshmen who are supposedly going to be able to see some time, Drew Paxson and Jimmy Carter. So Mason Cheney, as what coach told us, is TBD for the spring. So there don't know if he's coming back or not. He's their all-time goal scorer.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yeah, he's he's quite the handful. He had 47 goals and 20. Actually, Cheney, Crawford, and Kalary combined for 179 total points last year. So that was a big chunk of their offense. And if Cheney comes back, they'll they'll be right.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Crawford's not. He he's he's gone. He's their all-time points leader in Bulldog history at 214, 112 goals and 102 assists. Amazing. So that's that is a big loss. Yeah. But everyone else is coming back.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah. Yeah. The Drew Drew Wheeler in freshman and goal. Yeah, it was like 50% as a freshman last year. He's gonna be just he's gonna be so much better, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, well, he started 11 games, and then another sophomore, this year's sophomore, freshman last year, Alex Stewart. He backstopped him in uh at the end of the season, and he had he earned a four-and-one record in 2023. So they've got two guys battling for it. I don't know if they're going who's gonna be the starter or if they're gonna do something where they both play a half. I don't know. We'll see. But they both their goalies are still young, but got a lot of playing time last year. And then you look at their midfield, Danny, seven seniors returning. That's probably their strongest and deepest in positions. Okay. Starting off with Logan Wheeler, like you said, and then BJ Wilson, he's a senior, Bryce Washington, Ian Howard, Jacob Schwartz, Brendan Bosley, and Josh Kinger are all seniors coming back to play.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Okay. Interesting. But again, Cheney Croft and Kalary put up 180 points between those three. So those are three big shoes to fill. And I'm see you said Kalary's coming back, correct?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Kalary's coming back, and we don't know about Cheney yet. Yeah, Kalary is coming back.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

So, you know, they're gonna be they're gonna be somebody to watch. Let's let's keep an eye on them. There's gonna be a lot of kind of new players in their key positions, I think.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Well, they've got defensively, they're returning their entire 2023 defensive unit uh with Ryan Santos, Ryan Stapleton, and Alex Jones. And the two Ryan's combined for 40 cost turnovers last year. So that's not too bad. No. And then at short stick D mid, they've got Ethan Burke and Jack Scalese anchoring that rope unit, and they've got some transfers coming in. Pace, University Transfer, Trevaine, Tremaine Parker, as well as Logan Kennedy a senior helping out. So they've got some strong guys coming in. Other guys that they've got on the portal is Tim Blanche from Amidi from Young Harris, and then Chris Evans from Post in face-off. So they've they've got a maybe they've got some of those portal uh additions that are gonna help fill some of those gaps or at least provide that depth for them.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

They were at 53% on face-off last year. Yeah, not shabby. So, hey, you know what? Let's see what the Barton Bulldogs put out this year. Let's see. It's gonna be kind of like a new fangled thing a little bit. Yeah, I think I'm telling you, those guys, those guys were those three were good last year for them. So yeah. You know, you're talking about some guys that are gonna have to step in. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

If they and on the offensive side, if they lose both Cheney, and we know that Crawford's gone, that's a lot of points to to fill in. Yep. How about we move on to Belmont Abbey, the Crusaders? The Crusaders, Belmont Abbey, located in Belmont, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

It's a cute little town, Kevin. I don't know if you've ever been up there. I have been there. Nice little town up there. Head coach Chris Barrett, what a great guy he is. Very involved in the NCAA. He's uh very well respected in Division II and does a lot for Division II. Really good guy, and especially friends to the guys in the Indicrease. He's really good to us. We we were like so. They were the regular season champs. Yeah, they were six and oh in conference. They went six and oh, they were 10 and 5 overall and 6-0 in conference. So they were the regular season champs. Their signature win was a 12-11 win over Colorado Mesa, who was ranked, but they lost to LR and they lost to Newberry by one. But you know what, Kev? For the most part, the Crusaders they took care of their business last year, they had a pretty solid season.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah, that it's funny, it was the exact same result as 2022. 10 and 5 and 6 and 0. Yeah. So they didn't really lose a step. And if you remember two years ago, they they started off a little bit shaky. Yeah, they started two years ago.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

And this year, you know, 10 and 5 is a great, great record. And they were pretty young. I remember Coach Thomas last year, like he didn't know what was going to happen. He thought it would have to build again last year, but they they came out pretty strong all the way through, and they just had they had a tough schedule, just like um several other teams. Uh, like just like uh we just talked about Barton. Tough out of conference, and they have another tough one this year. They've got Marz Hill, Lenore Ryan, Kataba, Newberry, Tampa, Florida Southern, Emory Riddle and Lander.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Wow. Umreal. That's that's quite the out-of-conference schedule. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah. I think it matches exactly kind of what Barton has with some really, really tough teams that you can't none of those you can let your guard down whatsoever. Newberry's tough, man.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Yeah. I think I think they're gonna be another improved team. We'll talk about them at another time, but you know that that that's a really good out-of-conference schedule for Coach Barrett and the Crusaders.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, exactly. Now, Coach says their team will be very young again this season. Four-fifths of their roster are freshmen or sophomores. Four-fifths? He actually did the math. Yeah, he well, I hope he did, because I'm trusting him. Why would I not trust Coach Barrett?

SPEAKER_02 14:09

No, he's probably he's intense.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

He's probably like, all right, we got four-fifths of the guys. The interesting thing about this is though, every position on the field has experience, except for maybe goalie, where they lost Thomas Sullivan. Third team All-American. And that's that's uh a tough loss for them. But if you if you look at it, like at a tack, they're returning senior Davis McCulley, he was a 2023 All-American. You know where he's from? You know where he's from? Where is he from? Victoria, British Columbia Canadian. That's one of the conference Canadians you were talking about.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

That's right. And he was Conference Carolina's player of the year last year.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

He's a beast, he's a beast, and then add in Mike Sweiger, who was the rookie of the year last year.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, 17 goals and 12 assists. And they got Matt Wyatt, 35 goals and seven assists. You know where Matt's from? Where? Lutz, Florida. I lived in Florida for I lived in Florida for 13 years. I have no clue where Lutz is. Gonna have to check that out when I really have nothing to do with that. I have never heard of that either. But I'm super have nothing to do. So Matt Wyatt, he comes back. He had 35 goals and seven assists last year. They got some really good players, but like, you know, the one thing that stands out is losing Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah. Here's what's interesting. They've got some young guys in goal, and they and coach talked about getting a transfer goalie from Kaiser who's coming in this January, but he can't play until 2025. Why is that? So because he's got to do he's got to do a year of residency in order to be eligible. I I think as you swear, that's what he said in the season for the spring of 2025. Since he's coming in January. So really, I think goalie is where their you know their young talent's gonna have to stand uh step up. If you look at like midfield, Riley Arsenal, who was all conference. We talked about him several times last year, Danny, and had a great uh coach says had a great summer playing bots up in Canada. Trey Childers, who's a junior, Jacob Power, who's a senior, and Jaden Green. Two of those, those two guys are their their D middies. Jacob Power was all American defensive midfielder last year.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

You know, Belmont Abbey probably should have won it last year, you know. When you think about like the players they had, when you look at the paper, you know, when you look on paper, you know, Belmont Abbey had had some studs on that team. Yeah, again, they went some.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And they they ran the table, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Right. So, but you know what, they were great in all categories. They had a nice balanced offense, they share the rock goals to assist ratio. Yeah, you know, the man up was at a good, you know, a nice 42%. Their face off was at 60%, they clear at 85%, they don't make stupid penalties, they didn't spend a lot of time in the box, they're aggressive on ground balls. You know, Coach Barrett coaches them up there, man. He's he's he's got them moving.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, and they were young last year. So if you look at this, uh I'm I'm kind of interested in that when the coach is talking about how many players he has young. So it sounds like to me that really obviously we talked about it. Goalie. They're young, young goalies there. I think there's two that are in the mix. Got to step up, and then there's other ones, probably a little bit on defense and a little bit maybe on offense that need to start need to the young guns need to step up a little bit to help up their experienced uh teammates. Looks like that attack unit's gonna be just fine, though.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

unknown 17:52

All right.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

So I think I think Delmont Abbey's got a good chance of being right there at the top again this year.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

I think so too. I I think so too. How about North Greenville, the other Crusaders?

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yes, the other Crusaders, two Crusaders in one conference. And you know where they're located, Kev? North Greenville, South Carolina. Now, I've I've been to the campus, it's a nice, cute little campus, but when I came in, I came in from the eastern side, yeah, which is a little bit more country, and if you come in from the other side, the western side of the town, you go into the town of Greenville, which I heard is absolutely gorgeous. Booming, and it's booming. I heard it's absolutely gorgeous, and restaurants and river walks and all that kind of stuff, and good food and good places to have a cocktail. And too bad, because I came through the country part. All I saw was farmland as I was going to North Greenville. Maybe we need to go back. Corey Strass is a good coach. He does a really good job there. They were 10 and 7 overall last year, Kevin. Five and one in conference. Pretty good, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, and their out of conference was tough. I mean, you look at the some of the teams they lost to. They lost to Lenore Ryan, Limestone, Seaton Hill, Lander and Lewis.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah, but their signature win was a 10-5 win over number 10 ranked Anderson. They beat Anderson. Yeah. So you know what? You know what? They were one goal away from being champs last year.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, they their only conference loss was to Belmont Abbey. And like you said, then they the only next time it was in the finals by one goal to Barton.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah. Thomas Isir had himself a year last year. Yeah, now that's the only problem. That's the guy they're losing this year.

unknown 19:45

I know.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Their number one scorer. They got Hayden Moffat coming back. They've got their next top three scores coming back. Kyle Ballman, Hayden Moffat, and Alex Brooks. Alex Brooks, you know where Alex is from?

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Don't tell me Canada. Houston, Texas. There you go. Really crazy, right? 21 goals, eight assists last year. And Kyle Ballman, he's another really good player. We called his name a lot last year. Oh, yeah. He's from Glen Allen, Illinois. That's right. That's crazy. They got guys from Texas and Illinois going to school. Two hotbeds. Yeah, going to school in South Carolina. Good for them. He had 12 goals and 15 assists. Uh, and uh they had you know a goalie by committee last year, Joe Amici and Gabe Nelson split timing goal last year, and both were just at about 50% or more. So they have two good goalies that did well last year.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Um it's another one that'll be interesting to see now they and they even dropped their goals against the average down to 11.36. It was at 12.7. So they're doing something right. It'll be interesting to see is it a is it goalie by committee, or is it gonna be Joe that takes most of it? The good thing is always when you have a second guy that can come in, whether it's injury or you're just not having your day. Yeah, no, you're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

And a guy can put up 52, 50, 50, 52 percent. Yeah, that's a good problem to have, a coach would say.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Now, last year, when they got their tack uh tack involved, when they're when they're shooting more than 29 shots, they were 6-0. I'm wondering with the loss of Tom Cesari, does does that change, or do they, you know, do they run it more through the midfield in this next year? They got a few more guys coming back, or what do they do?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Well, you know, Moffitt had 29 goals and 20 assists, and he wasn't the guy. And he, you know, the DNA is in the Moffat family. Oh, yeah. He's got the he's got the DNA. So now I expect Hayden to be one of their go to guys. He's a good player, you know what? So let's see what happens and see who they bring in. Yeah. And um, it should be interesting. I like what Corey Struss has done there. The last four years, he's really. Really come a long way with this North Greenville team. They're really pretty solid squad now.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

They're very solid. We've talked about this several times in these conference previews. This is another team that no one wants to play.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah, man. I've seen them give limestone a game, and you know, like I've seen them scare good teams, you know?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah. And they're good. They're really good. Here's their out of conference. So just so people know for this next year. Kotaba, Anderson, Lincoln Memorial, Coker, Embry Riddle, Lander, Limestone, Lynn at Savannah, Georgia. It's a neutral field, and then Monttevallo. That's favorable for them.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

That's a favorable schedule for them. I think they can do very well in that out-of-conference schedule. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

There's some tough teams, though. You look at it. Anderson, Cogan's going to be better. Limestone, Lander. All tough teams. I think you're right, though. If they if they come and play, they're gonna, it's it, it could favor them.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Crusaders, you got yourself uh a schedule that you can do very, very well in, man. You know, barring injury or nothing like that, or something crazy. I think I think North Greenville's a team, like you said, a team to watch out, a team to you don't want to play. They're scrappy, they're tough, they score, they do a lot of things well. Again, five and one in conference last year, 10-7 overall, and they had some, you know, they had some good good good teams on their schedule last year. 100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Now, just on defense, they lose Colin Courtney and Anthony Pecorero. Anthony had 45, 46 ground balls and 30 cost turnovers, Danny. That's gonna be tough to make up. Can't, but they do get back Cam Webb and Dalton Wilkins, who also played really well. So, once again, it's uh a few guys probably need to step up on the D to solidify that. I think they're gonna be okay in Cage, and I think they're gonna be okay on the offensive side.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

I I think so too. And I think, you know, I think over the last four or five years, I think Corey Struss has really done a great job in recruiting and getting good players to go to North Greenville. And I don't see why that would change at all this year. I'm sure that he had a great recruiting season and got, and I'm sure he's got some good freshmen in there. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

So now let's talk about Mount Olive, the Trojans.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Mount Olive, the Trojans, located in Mount Olive, North Carolina. Just down I-95. Yeah. I took a ride to Mount Olive one year and I got stuck behind a chicken truck. Like you see in the movies with the 400 cages and all the feathers. And the feathers flying at you. I swear to God. I was like, Am I on candid camera here? And and I'm going down this country road, and I want to get to the game. You know, I want to get there. I got I I have limited time. And uh I get stuck behind this chicken truck doing like 30 miles. It was like something out of Sanford, son. It was hysterical. I'll never forget it. But another one, uh, Coach Dylan Price took over the second year, yeah. Took over two years ago, the Trojans, their signature win. Oh, they went seven and eight overall and four and two in conference. So they kind of had a mediocre year, but they did well in conference. Their signature win, they an eight-six win over ranked Seton Hill. Yeah. That nobody expected. Like Seton Hill, what happened that day, you know? But they they lost in a tough out-of-conference schedule, though, last year. They had Wingate, Newberry, Colorado Mesa, Flagler. They had a lot of really good teams on their out-of-conference schedule.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Yeah, I think I think they had a slow start with, and I don't know if it's just with the coaching change. I mean, they're used to Coach Price, right? He used to be the assistant there for years and years, but just seemed like a little bit of a slow start. But then they started playing a lot more consistently on the second half of the season. Oh, 100%. You know, so if you look at they were seven and eight, they did have a tough out of conference, and but then they did they did four and two in conference, you know. So yeah. And they when they lost to North Greenville by two in the semis, I don't know if you watched that game. That was a really good game. Really good game. I don't think I watched that game. Yeah, it was a really good game. I mean, it was you know, two goal differences is close, and that's just the way it played out. So I think they're trending back up to where Mount Olive usually is with Dylan Price. I have a feeling they're gonna have him in a good place this year. They're out of conference this year's lander, Cotabba, Newberry, Roberts Wesleyan, Wingate, and Southern New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

So Southern New Hampshire's coming down. Okay. All right, so they're gonna play two northern teams. I like to see the northern teams down.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

I love a lot of the cold. I love when you get to see a few northern teams play southern teams. Whether the the southern team goes up there or the northern team, which they probably prefer to come down south.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

You know, the like the NE-10 and the SAC, they have so many teams in their schedule. It's tough to stick to the game. It is.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

They only have a couple games. You only get a couple games out of conference.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, three or four, maybe tops, maybe five. But you know what? They got some really good players at Mount Olive. Chapman Parker, midfield, 6'2, 195 midfielder out of Hurley, New York, had 28 goals and 12 assists last year. Alan Lalon, he's Aiden Lalan, yep. And uh 6'3, 195. Some big boys down there at Mount Olive. Yeah. Uh 27 goals, 11 assists. Uh Davin Eichert, the defender. Yeah. Three ground balls coming back. He's very, very good player for them. Kev, you know, when you look at their numbers, like you said, they came off with a slow start, but they kind of turned it on for the rest of the season. They had decent numbers. They outscored their opponents. They could they could they could really work on their man up.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah, only at 28%. That was a significant drop from the year before, too. So that'll tell you where that you can tell that's probably gonna be uh a key thing that they're going to try to improve on this year.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yeah, if they could get it up to 45, maybe 50 percent, you know, that would help them immediately. But they clear well at you know 86. Yeah, but here's where they got in trouble. They had 284 turnovers across the year. That's a lot of turnovers when you average it out per game. So they don't take good care of the ball, and they have to do a better job than than last year.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yeah, my uh I'm wondering because their 2024 roster's not out yet. So I'm wondering if on the offensive side, uh senior Chaz Goodman's coming back for a fifth year, he had 20 goals and 27 assists. And then on the defensive side, is Ben is Benjamin Jenkins coming back. Because he was solid at 15 ground balls and 10 cause turnovers. So if those guys come back, I don't think they're losing a step. No, but they're in a tough conference.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Like, you know, the conference carolinas is tough. Those Mount Olives gonna have to do a little bit better to get to where they want to be. They're gonna have to play, you know, they're gonna have to play a little bit better. They're gonna have to improve that man up, they're gonna have to stay out of the box. They're gonna have to run the ball over.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

I think with Coach Price there in his second year, I think that's with what they're getting back. I would my bet is it is gonna be four teams battling it out. Yeah, four we just talk to. Because I think the next four we're gonna get to are teams that have struggled, and the only way they're gonna improve incrementally through the years, they're not gonna make a huge leap, but if they can make improvements each year, that's where they're gonna make this conference uh a lot a lot tighter in the end. So let's start off. Why don't we talk about Chuan Hawks? Chawan Hawks. They were 4-11 last year and 2-4 in conference. Now they regressed last season, but they had a pretty tough out-of-conference last year. They lost to Anderson Tusculum, Coker, and Lincoln Memorial.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah, Coach Josh Case, Chawan Hawks, located in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Their signature win, the 17-6 win over Emmanuel. They got some guys coming back. Yeah. Eric George being number one. Coach Cease, he he does a pretty good job up there. Like Chawan. You know, not a lot of people know about Chawan, and they go out and they they ball out, man. They they do they you know, over the years they've been pretty good. Had a little bit of an off-year last year. But Eric George, midfielder, he comes back. You know where he's from? Stony Plain, Alberta in Canada. Yeah, 55 goals and 27 assists last year, Kev. And uh Eric Dozey, attackman, comes back, 29 goals and 32 assists. And um they had a little uh goalie by committee. I saw two kids who were freshmen last year, Alec Rodopoulos and Gavin Kore. Um both saw significant action in goal last year. So their out-of-conference schedule this year. They play LMU, St. Thomas Aquinas, UDC, Virginia State, and Emory Riddle. That's on their out-of-conference schedule.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good out-of-conference for them where they are right now. The big problem is they do get Eric George back and Eric Dosey, but they lose Jackson Martin, who who had the exact same stats as Eric George. 55 goals and 27 assists. So now they do also have Noah Jalal returning. He had 40 goals and 16 assists. So good numbers. Very impressive. But to make up Jackson Martin's numbers, either their defense is gonna have to start shutting teams down more, or their offense is gonna need to fill in that that gap for Jackson Martin.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Well, like I said, they they struggled most of the season last year. They were outscored by their opponents. Their face-off was only at like 39%. Yeah. They clear at a little over 75%, Kev. They got to do a better job in those in those areas. And you know, it sounds like to me they're just they need a couple players, man. They have the coach, they have, you know, they have players there. They might just need a couple more.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah, so it'll be interesting to see what what they what he brought in for this year, what his freshman class looks like. Can they help out? Can other guys start stepping up that are sophomores and juniors and make a run and get them back to where they were in 2022, which was close to 500?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

You know, because he's got a tough conference. Because once once those guys get into conference, you know, North Greenville, Belmont Abbey, these guys are tough. You know, they're gonna be tough for the Chamon Hawks. So let's see what Coach Cease does this year and how we can get some, hopefully get some good freshmen to come in and contribute right away.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Yep, I agree. So let's look at uh Emmanuel, the Lions. Emmanuel, the Lions. They were 2-13 in 2023, 1-5 in conference. They beat Shorter and Lees McCrae last year. Leez McRae obviously being their conference win. And they lost to Young Harris in overtime.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Yeah. Located in Franklin Springs, Georgia, Coach Bert Servins, their signature win was 13-10 win over Shorter last year. That was their signature win. Yeah. Not bad. That's good for them. Um, they're out of conference schedule this year. They play Alabama, Huntsville. They got a tough one. Yeah. Lander, Tuskelem, Newberry, and LMU. That's not gonna be an easy schedule for the Emmanuel Lions. Um, they got some guys coming back, though, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah, they've got I've got the number one, number three score return, Luke Hildebrandt and Ryle Rylan Latrell.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yep. Hildebrandt had 35 goals and eight assists last year. They got Devin Roberts. Is he coming back? He was a senior last year. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't know if he's gonna come back for his COVID graduate year. He was another one that put some biscuits in the baskets last year. Um, they have Adam Doskell coming back, defenseman had 22 cause turnovers last year, and Matt Pester in goal out of Friendswood, Texas. So again, this is another team with not a lot on their roster. I only count to 29. Am I wrong on that one?

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Um, you're right. They they've got a small roster of about 25.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Yeah, man. You know, yeah, that's they need depth. Yeah, that's another team, you know. Without the depth, they struggle. They're gonna struggle. They need those, they need players, man. They need guys that can give these guys a break. Their opponents out, you know, they outnumbered them in like almost every category last year, Kev. They clear it, you know, 76%. I don't know. They need to protect the they they they committed 314 turnovers, man. That's they they're having trouble holding on to the ball. So they need to protect the ball better, they need some more on their roster. But I'll tell you, the guys that are on that roster are gonna get good this year with that with that out-of-conference schedule.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Well, exactly. On defense, they've got Adam Wright, Adam Dulski, and Alex Davis all return on D's. And I think maybe, like I said, they've got some key returners on offense and defense. I think even more so on Dinaf defense. If they can shore that up, their defense is gonna have to create for them. They're gonna have to stop the ball more. Yeah, like you said, they're they're gonna have to hold down the turnovers, yeah. For those 50-50s, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Get to try to get those 50-50s, look for you know, to be really good at that. So, you know, they can improve, you know. Two and thirteen, I'm sure Coach Severance was not happy with that. I'm sure he'd like to have a better schedule, uh better record than two and thirteen and just one and six in conference.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Yeah, so let's let's see what they can do this year. Here's another the next team, uh, you know, they went they went 0 for was Lees McRae, Bobcats. They were 0 for 14 last year and 0 for 6 in conference.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Yeah, Josh Singleton. Nice guy. He needs he needs players, Kev. Again, another small roster team, 28, I think I counted on the roster this year.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Now remember, last year was his first season. He took over for Brad Dunn. Um now he was an assistant, so it wasn't like a total change. Right. But I actually think it was enough of a change that they're basically starting over that. He's he's having to regroup in some res some respects.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. They only have 10 games on their roster on the for this. On their schedule this year.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Yeah, they have a smaller schedule. That may actually help them in the end.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Yeah, and two divisions to build. And two division three teams they're gonna win.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

One division three, one N I N A I A. Montre's N-A-I-A, and Brevard is D three. Yeah, Brevard, yeah. Brevard.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Spence Combs comes back, 14 goals and six assists. Ryan Bird, Aiden Frey, sophomore last year, uh, freshman last year, sophomore this year, uh, 13 goals and three assists. You know, these guys got you know some significant playtime last year.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Yeah, and then and then on the defensive side, they've got Tyler Woolridge, Eli Patowitz, and Logan Ryan all returning, and their goalie, Eddie Patterson's coming back. They had another freshman in there that that should be coming back too. And so maybe with all those young guys getting time last year, like I said, what they need to do is they need incremental improvement. Like they need to get they need to play games and make them closer against their opponents and and maybe pull out a win or two. They're not gonna have a 500 record this year, but if they can make it closer in a lot of these games and then pull a few of these out, that's what they got to be looking for. You know, you want to you want to you want to be competitive in somewhat, you know? You don't want to just go and get your ass kicked every game. And that was the problem last year. They were not competitive in most of their games. So you guess what being competitive will do for them? It will breed confidence. Absolutely, 100%. All you need is that one, that first win.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Yeah. That first win. Get that win, man. Get that win. And then, you know, it just breeds so much confidence into a player and a team. Like, hey, we can do it if we do this and play like that. But again, with only 28, Kev, God forbid, one kid goes down with an ankle or an elbow or you know, yeah, something like that. You know what I mean? And it just it really could tear up a team like that when you'll have a small roster. So, but you know, they're up in Banner Elk, North Carolina, up in the mountains. Players, man. If you want to play lacrosse and be a beautiful part of the country, look at look at Lees McCrae, man. Give the Bobcats a look, man, because you'll go and you'll play.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

If if you like, like you said, if you like to be outdoors, if you're thinking about a career that may involve not sitting behind a desk doing something different, look at Lees McCrae. Yeah, it's a it does offer a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

I'm just surprised that you know, more they just have a smaller roster. But you know what? Let's see what coach can do. Like again, it's he just took over for Coach Dunn. It's his second year in, got you know, another year of recruiting and getting his, you know, getting his claws into things. And let's see, let's hope they can improve, at least get that one win.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yeah, I think, like we said, and like we said, with all these teams from Emmanuel and Chon and Lees McCrae, and also young Harris, we're gonna talk about. They need to see just incremental improvements. They need to get, you know, get some improvements in in some of their stats, you know, and get some improvements. And Lise McCrae, it's easy. Make those games close and get a win. Yeah. They shouldn't, they're not gonna be looking at winning the conference championship this year. They need the the smaller goals to build themselves confidence and get there.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, well, they're building something there, they're basically building over again, you know. Yeah, Coach Singleton, he's got his hands full, but he's the guy for it.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

I think so. I think so. Okay. Last team coming into care conference, Carolinas, new this year, was in the peach belt, Young Harris, the Mountain Lions.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Uh, the poor Mountain Lions. I feel so bad for this group.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Well, you know, last year they went 3-13 and 1-4 in their conference. So that's incremental improvement for when they were two years ago, coming back as a total reboot, right? They beat Chuan, Emmanuel, and Shorter. So they lost in North Greenville and Barton. So they've already got some familiarity with conference Carolinas, which is gonna help them. Head coach Brandon Geldert, he's now in his second year. So once again, he's just trying to build. But you look at their 2024 out of conference, Danny, it's it's a barn burner for them. Tusculum, Coker, Alabama, Huntsville, Montevallo, Anderson, Mars Hill, and Shorter. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

That's a really tough out-of-conference schedule for them.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Now you can see there's a lot of leftover Peach Belt teams, which is totally understandable as they switch. Yeah. You know, if they can make a game like against Mars Hill or Tusculum close, or even Montevallo or Alabama Huntsville, you know, they played them a lot of times. If they can make it a closer game, I don't think they're going to win. But if they can make it a close game, make it competitive, that's the kind of thing that they can build on. Their roster's at 32, so it's still a very young team, but starting to get seasoned, right? So now they've got Tommy Chris, he's coming back, 13 goals, 22 assists, and David Trawick, 29 goals and five assists. Get this on the defensive side, Danny. I saw these stats, I did not believe it. I had to go back and check like three times. On the defensive side of the ball, Ben Sonan comes back. 61 ground balls and 46 cause turnovers.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

He's a pole or a short stick. He's a pole. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah. And Dane Dompier comes back. He had 23 ground balls and 11 cost turnovers. And then David Traywick, who as a MIDI, he is a MIDI, so he's one of their top scorers, too. He had 36 ground balls and 11 cost turnovers. So he's got to be their wow, their two-way guy. You know?

SPEAKER_02 43:32

Yeah. He he sounds like a really good player.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yeah. Yeah. So and they showed significant improvement in their per game possession margin. Their face off win rate improved from 39 to 43% last year.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

That's a big improvement.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

That's good. So that's what they got to keep doing. Right. They just got to keep on improving. They've got some key guys coming back, and that with an Another year under their belts, you know, there once again, I think they're gonna struggle to be a 500 team. But they should be looking at improvements and what they are doing statistically, what they're doing, you know, on offense and defense and the move from there.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Exactly. And I think coach knows that too as well. I mean, four years ago, COVID came, shut this program down. They didn't even have a season. Yeah. After the season after COVID. And then the coach left, and it was just like, where are they going? Who's taking it over? And I just feel bad for the young Harris kids. These kids have gone through a lot in a short period of time and now on another coach and now a new conference. So I'm interested to see where Young Harris is gonna be. I think they can improve. I they got better numbers than some of the other teams in the conference.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Yeah. And so I hope they come excited to being in the conference, playing against these teams. They're gonna be going up against some some big boys. They not that they didn't have it in the peach belt, right? So, but that's that they got if they're excited about that and come with the right attitude, let's see what they can do.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

And with that out-of-conference schedule, you know, and the kids get, you know, they improve and they get better and they look at what they need to work on, and they work on those things and improve on those things, they can maybe do some damage a little bit, maybe in conference.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah, yep.

Coach Shingleton of Lees-McRae

SPEAKER_01 45:27

All right, so there is the roundup of Conference Carolinas. Now it's time to bring on a coach. This is another coach, Danny, that became the new head coach last year. And just like Coach Moyer, we try to get him on, but you know how that goes, right? They are busy men when they start in the head coaching job. Yes, yes, they are. Yeah, we couldn't get him on. He declined politely, just like Coach Moyer. Totally understand, but he was willing to come on this time. So I'm really glad that we could get him for the conference previews. I think this is starting to be a theme of mine in these conference previews, trying to get on the coaches from last year who couldn't come on. But let's welcome him in. He is the head coach of Lees McRae, Josh Singleton. Hey coach.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Hey, Kevin. Hey, hey Dave, how you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Hey, Coach Singleton, Lee's McCrae. How's it going tonight? Thank you so much for finally getting on the program. We really appreciate you taking the time. How's it going up there in Ban RL?

SPEAKER_00 46:27

It's going good. It's uh it's starting to definitely cool off a little bit. Um leaves are falling. Um, but no, we're we're we're going good. You guys caught me in a good time. You know, I know that you got, like you said, tried to get me on you know last year, wasn't able to make it, but uh, but no, I appreciate everything every excuse me, everything you guys do for you know the sport and MD2. Love the coverage.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

Well, we appreciate it. Appreciate that. Definitely that's guys like you that make the program that makes them what it is. So again, we appreciate you coming on. So you've had a year under your belt at Lee's McCrae. How's it going this year so far? How did recruiting go and how are we looking this year?

SPEAKER_00 47:07

It's going good. We're um we'll definitely be a little lighter on numbers, but there's you know lots I learned, you know, having the first year under my belt from last year, um, from recruiting, just the scheduling and and all that good stuff. So yeah, it's going good. I'm excited for uh, you know, the what we're what we're building here.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah, and you took over when you took over as head coach, you had been the head assistant for a few years, right? And you're an alum. So what was that like to just take over that program that you were a part of so much as a player and as an assistant?

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Yeah, it was um it was great. I mean, former head coach Brad Dunn, he me he and I worked really well together, and both of our visions for you know, him being alumni as well for the where we wanted to take the programs were the same. Um, so you know, he really made it easy for me. Great coach, great person, great mentor. Um really made that transition easy. But same same goals as he had, um, just to you know help help turn the program around. We've uh it's always been uh a really strong brotherhood, um, really you know, good culture here. We're just you know trying to keep improving that and keep better in that.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

Well, I I can't tell you how much I like Brad Dunn. He was an amazing guest, but you know what? Like we talk on the podcast, sometimes we talk off podcast, and we wound up speaking with him for like a half hour after it was in a nicer guy you will not find in Brad Dunn. And I loved what he was was doing with the program up there. It really got, you know, he was get he was getting it moving in the right direction. And now you're in there, and uh it's still going in that right direction. It's trending upwards.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah, it is. We uh, you know, like I said, we definitely struggled last year, but learned a lot. Um learned a lot and you know, moving forward, taking those things and you know, using that, uh, you know, like I said, to strengthen calls, strengthen program, and uh, you know, just turn it around.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

So, coach, when you say that, uh you you obviously took your lumps last year, like you just said. What would you say that you learned the most that's gonna help you in this season with your players? Is it I'm not even talking X's and O's necessarily. What do you think that you really took from those lessons on how you can now do things differently this year or improve upon it to get your team in a better position as you move forward? And as Danny and I have always talked about this, it doesn't you're not gonna do it in one season. You're not gonna all of a sudden become you know above 500. Lise McRae is gonna incrementally get there. What what do you see as the things that you're really pointing to from what you learned last year that you're gonna go towards and use this year?

SPEAKER_00 49:53

You know, the biggest thing is just recruit the right guys. Um, you know, we're in a really unique area um where we do see all four seasons. Um but I would say uh yeah, just you know, recruiting the right, you know, recruit the right uh student athletes, coming here for the right reasons. You know, D2 is, you know, they say a lot is life in the balance, athletics, academics, social, net or something. If you can do a good job balancing those three things, um, you know, you'll you'll do well at the at the next level. Um I would say just you know making sure we got in that making sure character, uh minute character and and just building those relationships. Um, you know, getting going. There was a lot of stuff I was catching up with. I just brought on a new assistant at the time. So we had to learn how to help, you know, delegate tasks and stuff like that. I would say the schedule was uh was pretty tough too. Um I would say getting some games, you don't want to get the you know, yummy games in there, but you want to get uh you know play teams on both sides and you know other opponents are gonna give you a good game. Our guys, you know, handle the handle the opponents really well. The schedule was you know, as tough as it was, um you know, they they were all in going into each game. Um, you know, they fought at the very end, they they never give up at that. And that's you know, always been you know uh a thing about you know at least McCurry Lacrosse is you know playing the the final whistle. But uh looking a little closer at those you know box scores and stuff like that, or you know, really just uh you know, a quarter that got away from us. Um our conditioning was pretty good. But uh yeah, it was um good characters, um character uh tricky schedule. Um and yeah, so um those are some things that you know really awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

What so you say you're a little bit light on the roster this year. Is there a number you're trying to shoot for that you would like to see down the road as as a number for your roster?

SPEAKER_00 51:55

Yeah, I would say for us, if we can get you know that 40, 40 right around there would be great for us. Player development relationships. You know, you want to come here and play for us, not you know, someone for those two, three years hoping to get in. You're you're gonna get playing time, you know, as a freshman. Right. Right. And and and then and possibly the chance of starting.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Um plus yeah, like you like you pointed out earlier. Sorry, coach, I don't mean to interrupt you, but like what you pointed out earlier is it's up in the mountains. It's a great spot. It's beautiful up there. Like if you're an outdoorsy kid, you you like you know, you like to snowboard in the winter and and do those winter sports, you're up in the mountains. There's a lot to do in Banner up. This it's actually a really cool spot. You're in the Conference Carolinas, you're already in a tough conference. You're gonna be playing competitive teams. So your team will only get better by playing teams like that. You know what I mean? And to have that kind of school where you could possibly start as a freshman, it's got to be very attractive to these kids. And uh, and I I hope that you know you get those numbers. I'm I'm I'm I'm praying that you can get up to that 40, 41, 42 number and and and make it where you got that depth and you can go, and the kids aren't just you know going two ways for a long time, and it gets tough, you know. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Yeah, I mean that's when you're in a conference and you're playing the Belmont Abbeys, the Bartons, the Mount Olives, and they they've got more than 45. They're up in the 50s, and they're it's and you just that's like wave after wave from them. And it's great to hear that you said your team does not do not quit in any games, but it just becomes tough when you don't have that that depth right now. And I think that would be really good. But what do you think about what happened last year in Conference Carolinas and and Barton shaking it up a little bit and winning the the championship? And then young Harris joins this year too. Are you guys excited to play against them?

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah, definitely. I mean, um, yeah, Warren Schumach, Brad Wheeler, they they they've really done a great job of that program. There they're there's guys I I can reach to just shoot a text or a call and just you know pick their brain or ask them for you know help or support. But um yeah, it was really great to see the you know win that. Um I know awesome. But um, yeah, to see them, you know, shake things up and win that way, um and then yeah, see uh running at uh young Harris now um his awesome lights uh a couple years ago. Um they were I'm I'm excited to see what what what they can do.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

Interesting, yeah. Me too. It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

This is fun, it's gonna be a fun year in Conference Carolinas. It it is. And so before we get off though, I just have we haven't asked about any of your players. Is there anyone that in this fall uh through fallball and everything that has kind of impressed you that you think, oh, that they're really gonna help us this year, or even if it's like a group, if it's like the uh rope defense or it's your attack unit, is there something that you're looking to say this can really help us out this year?

SPEAKER_00 55:02

Yeah, rope you. I think our um our face off is a from uhlantic. He's he's been doing a great job this year. He's he's really well um he's here at work and graduate um in the spring. Um yeah, he's he's been around and really impressed us. Really impressed me throughout the uh throughout the fall. Um really, really. Um they bought in since the beginning. I mean, just finding the logo right now. We're we're just gonna search out for the uh the full-time assistant brand. Thankfully we've got a volunteer right now, Tom Haley, who um who helps out with the the face-off guys and working. Um Logan Ryan, he's uh defender big time and is uh you know helping us out in different roles. Uh Tyler Finley is uh he's a freak athlete, man. He's got he can run up and down the field for days. So I'm I'm I'm really excited to see what he can do. Um if a big time, um really excited to see what he can do. Uh Alvin Matlock is one of them. Um Jalen McCall, he's coming back from an injury. Adowitz, he's he's came a long way um since his freshman year. So I'm I'm really pumped to see what that got. On the offensive end, we've got Brian Byrne, who is uh um training leader for all four years here uh play attack.

unknown 56:27

He's been one of those guys.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

Right, right. That's good to go player like that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Yeah, that's that's great, coach. Well, I'll tell you what, this has been a lot of fun talking with you, having you on, and seeing uh where you where you are with Lise McRae and the team this year in the program. Conference Carolinas is no joke, and we talk about them a lot on the podcast, and we'll be watching the Bobcats this year and see what they do, and uh we're looking forward to seeing them improve and seeing what you can do and bring it to some of those teams out of conference and then in conference when you play.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Awesome. I appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

Thank you guys. Appreciate it again. Love the really appreciate the coverage of our sport in Indy la cross. Thank you, guys.

lacrosse story bonus

SPEAKER_01 57:22

All right, Danny. Now we just finished our recorded interview with Coach Singleton. But a little inside baseball for our listeners, we usually talk to the coach or the player a little bit, warm them up, talk about us, talk about what we've done, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And while we're doing that with Coach Singleton, he had the best story of how he got started in lacrosse, don't you think?

SPEAKER_02 57:48

Yeah, it was interesting. I loved it. I thought it was a great story.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

So, as a little added bonus to his interview, which uh we apologize, and we think it was cutting in and out with him. It may have been my us on the road or his connection or whatever, so it may be tough at times. I'm telling you, the recording that we have of his story is pretty damn clear, and you'll want to listen to it now.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

Where where did you grow up? Where'd you grow up, coach? So um, I'm a military brat. So my dad, my my family was born, or I was born and raised in Jacksville, North Carolina. Um, my dad was um in the military, Navy. Um, so grew up there about 23 years. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Kevin, Kevin's a Navy man.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Yeah. Okay, nice. So yeah, he was um he retired chief petty officer, um, but grew up in right outside of Camp Lejune, Jacksonville, North Carolina. Um, was just fell in love with sports at a young age, um, played them all. Um every couple years we'd moved. So right when I was about nine or ten, we got orders, or he got orders to San Diego, um, or had this list of you know, wherever we could go, chose San Diego. So drove across country out there, was there for about just a year, and then he got we got orders um back to the East Coast or the Gulf Coast. We were actually in Pennsylvania, Florida for a little bit. Um, beautiful area. They're actually just uh lacrosse is actually just you know growing out there. I just kind of exploded down there a little bit in the panhandle area. So grew up uh went to middle school, uh elementary school, middle school out there, got orders back out to San Diego. Um, and that's where um I started playing for the Navy life, Danny. What was that?

SPEAKER_01 59:34

That's not Danny, that's the Navy life.

SPEAKER_00 59:36

Yeah, seriously it was it was crazy. Um but so once we got to San Diego, um I want to say it was at my middle school. I was uh I lived really close to the um middle school. So I think I was walking with a buddy or catch around with his parents. He's like, hang on, I gotta go grab my you know gear bag. And I was like, What gear bag? What are you playing? He's like, Oh, I play lacrosse, it's at the middle school. What's what's that? And he's like, I'll show you. And so he brought out his gear bag and he think he played defense at the time. He had the six-foot pole, and I was like, What in the heck is this thing and how do you use it? Um, and he's like, I'll show you, I'll introduce you to the coach. And so, you know, long story short, that was ended up being my technology teacher. So he's like, Yeah, come on out. Um, and so it was the same thing. Picked up the stick, like everyone never put it down. We had uh fortunate enough to have this big wall ball, he just you know preached, you know, hitting that wall every day, and uh right left hand, moving your feet, um, and and just took off with it. I remember going home, it was like a couple weeks, a couple days, a couple weeks later, and honestly, it was like the army or the Navy Syracuse game on TV, and just got to see that live and just kind of just a clip of it being like, you know, there's that sport, there it is. It it's it's awesome. That's what I want to play, that's what I want to do. Um they had at the high school there and just picked it up. And it was funny. At my high school, the uh if you've seen American Pie, those actors that are running around as like the stuntmen throwing the ball around, those are my high school coaches. So wow. Um they would always have that as like their you know little story to tell our goals and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:07

That is so yeah, I started playing out there um in San Diego. Uh one of my buddies on my team was like, Yeah, you're gonna, you know, after started playing middle school ball, he was like, you know, you're gonna come out for you know club lacrosse this, you know, during the during the summer. And I was like, no, what's what's that like? How's it work? Um, so that was later on in high school uh or freshman sophomore year in high school. And then my dad got orders again out to uh it was March Air Force Base, just north of Temecula, California. Um so again, another area where they're starting to have showcases, tournaments. Um it's it's in it over there at the high schools. So they didn't have it at the time when I was growing up out there. So I remember I was super bummed out about it, finished out my freshman year down at uh Sarah High School in San Diego. And I remember you know going to this area, there was no lacrosse. We'd already done some research, and my mom saw this, you know, little car driving on the side of the road that had an STX sticker. And she pretty much chased this guy, drove him up the side of the road, made him pull over, and was just like, Did you live around here? And uh long story short, they got to talking, and um, so his son ended up playing. He had a couple you know, younger sons too. They were growing the game out there. So every every Saturday or Sunday, he'd have like pick up lacrosse um for free if he wanted to write a donation check or whatever, just to go towards the equipment. Um that's what he would go towards. So he was teaching uh his name was Carl Rowland, great guy, ended up being my high school coach, great family. So uh so yeah, we um we helped started at the uh at the high school, which is Great Oak High School out in Temecula, California.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

And so was I'm sure it was just a club sport, right? When you were in high school.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

I can't remember. Um, I want to say we were just the wolf pack. Um couldn't really be affiliated with uh Great Oak High School. So that's cool though. Yeah, yeah. We uh it was yeah, we we had guys on the team who had never played, but we also had a couple you know, other people like me who were just in the area, you know, relocated and uh you know had experience playing. So there were some guys. We had a kid from uh Boston out there who's uh left the attackman, so it was it was cool. A couple others.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Um so how did you get to Lee's McCrae?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:20

So uh so I was really late in the recruiting process. I played for Lax Dogs, it was a stars team um uh for under adrenaline. So a lot of those coaches were helping out with those teams down there. So really just uh so my buddy, the one I was telling you about, Landon, who got cut from the basketball team, he um he ended up getting recruited by Liz McCrae at a um a showcase or a tournament somewhere up north in in California, um, or maybe it was right outside of Los Angeles or Orange County. Yeah, so he ended up getting recruited at Lee's McCrae, and um he would you know send me pictures, tell me stories, just like, man, this is an awesome school. It's in a you know, it's up in the mountains, you get all four seasons up here in the snow, it's really pretty area. Um, there's great competition with lacrosse. I think at his time they were either still in the deep south conference or just in their first year at Conference Carolinas. So he really sold me on it. And hearing kind of the the vibe or whatever they call it nowadays, uh I was all about it. We would go camping a lot um when I was younger in the Smoky Mountains, especially when down in Florida. Um, so it really kind of reminded me of that and drew me to it. So he he he really sold me on it big time. I I didn't come on a physical.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Well, we could do like two shows with them. We got we got like recordings, we're recording right now, but this isn't even part of the podcast yet because we we just started talking about because your story is that's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

You gotta you gotta edit it in there somehow, Coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:47

Somehow I gotta get that in there.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 1:04:55

So we had to drop in, even though we didn't do it, we did record it, but it wasn't part of the question and answers with uh Coach Singleton on his lacrosse story and his journey, being in the a Navy brat, going through that, playing, not playing, playing again up in California, going to different places, starting programs. That was a pretty cool story.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:20

For the listeners who are really not sure what's going on. Um, usually what happens when we get a guest on, we'll talk to them for four or five minutes. And sometimes we hit it off and we talk for 10 or 15 minutes before we really start doing the show. You know, we just kind of get to know each other. And as we did that with coach, he came up with, you know, he kind of told us his journey. And that was just I thought that was pretty cool. So even though that wasn't part of the official recording, we thought it was good enough uh material to put on the show. And he he was I thought it was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

I thought it was awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun with him, and it was a lot of fun just going through the All the teams for Conference Carolinas. I think it's going to be uh fun to watch this conference again this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

A lot of Canadians. A lot of Canadians in Conference Carolinas. It's crazy. They're going to call it the Canadian Carolinas Conference.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

Let's see if they officially change the name in the next couple of years. All right, Danny, let's move on. We do have some lacrosse news to get to. Um, it's really kind of about that ever-changing landscape, but really it's some sad news. Two different things happened this past week before we started recording. First of all, St. Rose announced that they are closing their doors at the end of the 2024 spring semester.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

Yeah, they get one more season left, and I just feel terrible for Coach Allen.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:46

Coach Williams, he was building a great program. He really had them. I really thought in the next couple of years they would be in the top 20.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:54

I thought there's no doubt in my mind. There's no doubt in my mind. I would say maybe another year to two years he would have had that team where he wanted them, where he needed them to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:05

You know, uh I have a feeling, Kev, you know, it's not the first school till I close, you know, in the last we we start off years, you know, and and uh once and this this just this year, Alderson brought us and now St. Rose.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

Yeah, and you know, just I I it's a shame. It's a shame, but I have a feeling that COVID hurt a lot of small private schools.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

Um, not having heads in beds and meal plans and stuff for a year, and then not you know some kids not coming back, deciding that, especially if you imagine going to school in the COVID year in 2021, right? When most schools were still virtual, or you'd go to campus, but you couldn't really socialize with anyone when you came back to campus. Imagine being a freshman doing that. No, doing that for a semester and saying, like, this ain't for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:58

No, and you know what? I think these small private institutions really hurt financially because of that year. And I don't know, you know, how some of them could get their way out of it without some sort of funding. And I think that's what happens with these, you know, Allison brought us, they had no money left, right? Right, and it looks like Saint Rose was the same business.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

I the article I read said that it's their financial troubles started before COVID, but it had to exacerbate it. Yeah, because they were at one time we're at 4,000 students and now they're like at 2,000.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

So that's that's huge, man. That's half your enrollment. That's half your enrollment. So you and that school's been around for a hundred years, yeah. St. Rose.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

Yeah, yeah. So it's really tough loss. It's a tough loss for the all the student athletes there. Obviously, we're we're we hate to see them go from the lacrosse side, but even the regular students that were going there and trying to figure out what to do next, right? Yeah, yeah. And all the kids that committed, you know, told Coach Rose, I'm coming. We had a we had a a player DM us who has a friend that committed there and was like asking us, you know, what does that mean? And I, you know, I basically said it would meet really means that he's he's op he's open on the market again. But the first thing I would do be would be calling Coach Williams and see if he can get help. And I'm I'm I'm hoping that a lot of these players can can find spots and you know, because they're still D2 is still looking, they're still looking to fill their 2024 class schools.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

100%. There's schools, there's plenty of D D2 schools that haven't filled all their spots yet, even though you know, and even though the fall is only a half a semester away, the finals are coming up for the fall semester. Yeah, so spring starts pretty soon, but there's spots. Yeah, there's spots. I feel bad. And you know what, Kev, you know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid that more it's gonna happen more.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:00

Yeah, uh let's uh let's hope not, but that's a that's a good possibility. The other announcement that happened this past week was Linenwood announced that they are discontinuing 10 varsity sports, including men's lacrosse. And Coach Lang there built a powerhouse in D2. Exceptional program, exceptional program. He was played there when it was club, he brought it from club to division two, got to go division one, they made them all the varsity sports became division one, is only gonna get two years, and then they're not gonna have a program. It's a shame. It's a damn shame. He built uh both coaches, Williams and Lang, both gentlemen are class acts that permeated down to the culture of both teams.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. You know what though, that Linda would that kind of pisses me off a little bit. Oh, yeah. You know what? I'm thinking to myself, I and I read the story the other day. I'm thinking to myself, listen, you have teams of accountants, teams of lawyers, teams of people that are that do the research before you go to division one. I'm sure it's a financial commitment that's maybe more than division two. I don't know. Oh, it definitely is. It is. I'm sure that it is, I'm sure that it is. And you know what, these accountants didn't put that in there and saying, listen, man, you need to have this much money and do this, or else you're gonna have to discontinue sports.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

Yeah, it's it's almost better if they did it right when they went D1. It's like, okay, here are the sports we've got. You guys aren't gonna make the cut because of financial reasons, right? Because think of the excitement. If you're a player there that was D2, gets to go play D1, different, different competition. Now you're bringing in players. Coach Lying told us his phone was ringing off the hook when they when they announced they were going D1. Players wanted to come to another new D1 program and play there. And so you get all these people in there, and you've also got just like St. Rose, you've got recruits that are committed for next year that now have no place to go.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

Yeah, it's a shame, you know. Kids are committed, kids that are underclassmen, you know, freshmen and sophomore, you know, those that one sophomore that's in getting a little bit of time now, you know, and sat on the bench for a year. What the hell does that kid do? Because now does he stay and not play because he's already into the school for two years, he's made friends, you know, he's kind of developed uh uh a routine or whatever, you know, what happens? Or these kids are like, I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

I think unless you're a senior, you gotta look at if you want to play and be eligible and and for your total four years, because your seniors are the only ones that could have a fifth year, right? So the juniors and below, they've only got four years of eligibility again post-cOVID. So you've got to look at that. And I will tell you what, knowing both these coaches, both of them are gonna keep their heads high and keep their programs heads high in their last year and go out as a class act. I can guarantee that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

I wonder how many kids put their names in a portal. Man, I wish that portal was public. I really do. I really do, man. It interests me, you know. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like the portal for some reason. I just don't think it's right for college kids to say, you know, I don't like it here. I'm gonna go there now. I'm not gonna go there now. You know, some kids in like Division I football, they're going to their third school.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:04

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like I see the I see the reasoning behind it. It's just like before when if you were gonna transfer, you had to sit out a year. Well, a coach doesn't have to do that, right? Right. So I get it from that perspective. I totally get it. I do think it's a little bit of a wild, wild west right now, especially if you add in name, image, and likeness into that, which doesn't permeate that much down to D2 as much as a D1, but still you see that, and there's something about committing yourself and sticking it out and see what you can do at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:42

Yeah, I'm I don't know. I guess I'm old school that way, but you know what? These kids they know what they want, and um, so you know what? But then, like in this case where Lyndonwood is gonna close his doors, the portal's a good thing, right? You know, the portal's a good thing. A kid can go and and go right back to the old conference, Maryville, Lewis, all of those schools out there. I'm sure they would take a bunch of Linden kids, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:06

Yeah, right? Yep. And I'll I'll just say before we move on that you know, we reached out to both coaches and and just told them from the in the crease knuckleheads, and we don't really count for much, but that we were thinking of them and their team, and they thanked us both. And that's because that's how they are, yeah, you know, and both of them, you know, coach Coach Williams said, Look, I got 20 seniors, we're gonna ride this, and we're gonna we're gonna give it our all. And I'm sure Coach Lang is is trying to figure out who's staying and what he's got, and they're gonna give it their all too.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

You know, like I I just love Coach Williams' attitude. Hey, I got 20, let's ride, kid. Yeah, let's ride. I love it. You know what? I really like Coach Williams, man. A couple of years ago, we did our conference previews and we had Coach Williams on, and and we just we just I don't know, him and I just hit it off. We we're friends on Facebook, we're friends on Instagram. Um, I see what he does. Like he let me into his inner circle, I guess you could say a little bit, you know what I mean? And I let him into mine. And there was he was coming in to play Malloy, and I got a DM, hey man, where do I go to eat? Where do we get food from? And I was like, What do you want? I remember that, or heroes, you know, or or sandwiches. And they wound up going Italian and they went with the place that I told them to. And he was like, he wrote back, dude, that was great, thank you so much. And just you know, and I feel bad for him, but Coach Williams will not be out of work.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:34

No, no, he'll find a job real fast. And I hope Coach Lang does too. Oh, he's another yeah, he will great coaches, great coaches.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

No, they're the both of them are too good and too good at what they do to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:47

Yeah, 100% agree with you, you know, 100% agree with you. All right, so let's move on to a little cheerier note, I hope, and let's talk about the scorebreak feature spotlight of the week. Yeah, score break, Danny. Yeah, this one is on playlists, and I kind of look at this as adding to the tag boards and chat features to kind of you put it all together, and it's something really good. And playlists, you know, think of playlists like Spotify or Pandora, right? Which I don't do too well, but I hear people have playlists on these things, Danny. Yeah, yeah, they do. Well, in Scorebreak, it allows the coaches to compile clips in a meaningful and organized way, and you can do it by simply dragging and dropping. And that's just film clips, you can add in things like notes to that or external documents like scouting reports, agendas, anything you want. And it's just an easy way to compile them how you want to do it. You can even send them out via chat. You can still do these things like we talked about the chat and the tag boards. You add in the tag boards, that's easy. Now you can pull those tag boards into a playlist, and you could have several different things that you're sending to different different players or to the whole team or whatever. Yeah, scorebreak's quite the tool, man. Definitely it's another coach out there for you. That's what I'm saying. You add those three together and think about how that just lessens or multiplies, it lessens the amount of work you have to do, but at the same time, it multiplies the production, the production, the coaching you actually can do. Yeah, multiplies the production and less time in the film room. Yeah, it's just great. So just remember, Danny, this is what you're you're usually good at.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:32

Go to www.scorebreak.io. And don't forget to mention increase for that 15% off your first year, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:42

Yeah, I like how you dropped your voice when you said that too. That was very professional of you. I got all I got all MC. You did. And so with that, Danny, that's a wrap. That's a wrap, Kev.