Conference Previews for the 2024 Season - RMAC

Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's Lacrosse. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is the puzzle master, Danny Moran. Hey, Danny.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Kevin, I'm puzzled already. I'm puzzled already. How's it going tonight in Northern Virginia, my friend?

SPEAKER_04 0:31

It's going great. It's going great. Been doing a lot of research on the different conferences. I'm I'm ahead of schedule, but we're sort of back up on all the stuff I've done for this one. This is round two of our conference previews. And it's the second half, Danny, of the puzzle for one new spot.

RMAC Preview

SPEAKER_04 0:55

That's right. That's right. We go out to Rocky Moon Athletic County. That's right, the Armak, Danny, the Armac.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Uh the Rocky Mountain Conference, Kev. Beautiful out there.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

Yeah, it is. It is. When I see those shots, we talk about this before. Every time I watch a game like a Westminster from Westminster Stadium, it's like, wow. I'm like salivating. That looks so nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

That looks really amazing out there. It does. Good, good conference, the RMAC, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

I like this conference. And I think this one changes up a little bit this year. You see, we thought they were going to go to six because they were adding Dominican, but then CSU Pueblo announced last year that they were going back to clubs. So they stayed even at five. Yeah. But is this going to be a tighter race this year?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

In the back. I you know, it's going to be it's going to be different again. Again, Kev, I'm finding, you know, as we're doing our homework, I'm finding that a lot of teams are losing core core players. Guys that's been there three, four years.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Colorado Mesa. Do you want to start with them? That's what I know. That they just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

All right. We'll start with the Colorado Mesa Mavericks. Uh, located in Grand Junction, Colorado, Kev. That's right. Troy Moyer, head coach. Hey, man, the Mavericks are a good team. Last year they went 13-4, 7-1. Last year they went 14-4. The year before they went 16-2. This team is a national powerhouse, Kev. Any way you slice it, anyway you slice it. They're Road Warriors. They come out east. They play a million games on the road. They're quite quite the group.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Two years ago, they played the first 10 games before coming home. This past year, they had a little bit of a break. They only went the first seven games before coming home. Yeah, man. And they, you know, they played tough skills. Road Warriors. They played uh Maryville, Tampa, and Florida Southern. They lost to them. And then they they also lost to Westminster by one goal, but then beat them by one goal.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah. Yeah. They definitely had a you know tougher schedule last year, playing all-ranked teams, you know, out of the conference, you know. Maryville was number 16, Tampa was number four, Florida Southern was 15, lost to them by one.

unknown 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

By one. You know what I mean? So they're a good squad, but Kev, they're taking a hit. You know, four out of their five top scorers are gone. Hunter Holcomb, gone. Micah Payton gone. James Stanke gone. Phil Peterson gone. 158 points between those guys.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Crazy the amount of points. Now they are returning JJ Brummet, Dylan Plus, and Logan Smith. But how many times did we say those names? You know, Brummet, we've said a lot last year. I mean, he had 54 goals for their team last year.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, he was all confident.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Yeah. But Stanky, Holcomb, Micah Payton. I mean, it's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

But what about face-off man Dylan Chaquitz? Yeah. Big loss. Huge loss.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Big loss.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Their defenders, Riley Fisher, Trey Conklin, like a lot of their starters, Kev, were four, three and four year starters. I mean, Checkets was, you know, all region, all American. Like he was really, really good.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

Yeah, and you look at Trey Corkin, ground ball machine. 81 ground balls last year, Danny.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, yeah. But like you said, they got DJ Bromett coming back. They got Dylan Pless. They got Levi McCoy. How about that for a name? Levi McCoy.

unknown 5:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

That's where he's from. Where is he from? He's from Humble Texas. So that name fits into a T, right? Logan Smith comes back. Hey, they're goalies. Luke Paris was at 48%. He comes back and his backup make uh Mac Bayless comes back.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

But also, they also have transfer from AIC. They're starting AIC starting goalie last year, Shaden Shields, transfer. So I think from a goalie perspective, if they have a good goalie room and the competition is good, they're going to be stronger there.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, they could probably be maybe even do better. Um again, I think that I think they lose a lot, though. Yeah, they are on D.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

They return Caden Hathaway and Sean Ferguson, who are really, really good defensive players for them. And like we talked about on defense, the they have a very, very deep roster. They always have. And this is another one of those where it's next man up for this year for them. The guys that have been waiting in the wings have got to step up. But you look at some of their stats, Danny. Um, and you talk about they're really good. Man up at 37%, clears at 90%. Here's where they are once again this year. Their shots versus opponents was 828 to 536. They are a volume shooting team.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Dylan checkets too, getting them, getting them uh possessions. Yeah, yeah. So now they've got a team. And you know what? They've been a good team, Kev. They've been they've been uh a national powerhouse, in my in my eyes, a national powerhouse. It's just that they were stuck out in the armak, they had to come out east, they had to put really tough guys on their schedule just to get a sniff. Yeah, and uh they've been knocking on the door for the NCAAs for the last couple of years, right there. They're like literally knocking on the door. So is this the year that they win it all?

SPEAKER_04 7:25

They're gonna have some competition in their own conference this year if we go to it. But let me let's talk about their out-of-conference really quickly because I want to point this out. Their out-of-conference wasn't up yet when we started doing the research. So we reached out to Coach Moyer and he gave us their their out-of-conference. It's Rockhurst, William Jewell, Florida Southern, Florida Tech, and St. Leo. And he's the one that said to us, too, right? Road Warriors, he said, Kevin, Danny, let all the teams know we have plenty of room on our schedule for home games.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I love it. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah, well, they're gonna you know, watch out when you play Florida Southern, watch out when you play St. Leo. They're gonna be formidable squads this year again. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's not gonna be easy coming east for those guys. I think it's gonna be a new look Maverick team this year.

SPEAKER_04 8:17

I agree. I agree. I just, you know, in years past, I would have them as probably the prohibitive favorites in their conference, even with Westminster, because Westminster always plays them tough. They always go back and forth, but you always always give kind of a slight nod to Colorado Mesa. This year, I don't know if I can do that. They are gonna be good, but I'm telling you, this Armac, like we just talked about in the intro, this Armac conference is good.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

It's different now, it's a little different, yeah. You know, so I think I agree with you. I think Colorado Mesa is gonna have it a little harder, maybe, than they had it in the past. And is this the next team that we're gonna talk about? The team to do it. Who do you want to talk about? The runners up? No, let's talk about the Westminster Griffins. Yeah, let's talk about Westminster, located in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. Yeah, Joe Kerwin, the head coach, been doing a really good job getting those guys ready year in and year out. Yeah, another Road Warrior team got to come out east and get on the road and and just crazy amounts of miles. Uh, they went 11-3 last year, 7-1. Hey, and they had a nice, nice 12-7 signature win over number 14 Maryville last year. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

So adding that beating and beating Florida Tech. Another nationally formidable team, Kevin. They they are, and I think this year they may actually improve.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

I they they just might because the returners that are coming back.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

They've got some they've they're losing a little bit, you know, but they still have a lot of a core. What I found interesting last year is they split with Colorado Mesa, I think, last year. They lost to Concordia in the tournament 15-9, and they had beaten them twice in the regular season.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

This goes to show you it's hard to beat a team three times in one season. We've talked about that before.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

And I'm telling you, I think that the that win, and we'll talk about Concordia second, I in a second, I think is really going to show how much tighter this conference can be this year.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, you know, Westminster loses a couple of guys. Joe Salantro's gone, Grignola's gone, weathers, and their all-conference defender, Timmy McGuire. He's very good, very good defender. He's gone.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Yeah, and they also lose Liam Profit and LSM Jackson Wigger on on defense.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, it's a those guys have been together a while, you know. But again, they they're bringing back their top scorer in Ridge Crouch. Yeah. He's gonna he's gonna be a sophomore this year. Uh, and attackman, Jacob Mendez was RMAC freshman of the year last year. So like he's a good player, you know what I mean? And then they got Luke still strop still. And is this where Hayden Henson comes in on face-off? Does he take the job? Or is a freshman come in? We'll see. Defender George Phelps, man, 6'5, 220-pound kid was second on the team with caused turnovers. 6'5, 220. You know where he's from, Kat? Where is he from? He's from Tacoma, Washington. There you go. And goalie Christian Jones comes back at 56%. So and they got a couple of good games on their on their out of conference schedule this year with Rollins.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Yeah, Rollins, Emmy Riddle, Lynn and Lewis. Lewis. That's a that's a tough out of conference. Yeah. That's gonna set them up for well for conference play, I think.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

It's good for RPI, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah. You know, I think I agree with you. It's gonna set them up for conference play. I think with that, with that kind of group coming back, I think, I think they're gonna be pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Yeah, I think they're gonna be pretty solid on in special teams, probably, and on offense because of who they're bringing back. D is a bit of a question mark, but if guys like you know, George Phelps keeps going and and Ryan Pentillo step up as he's had a lot of playing time last year, and he steps up in more of a starting role, they're they are very solid. They are very solid.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah. Another team that's always kind of deep, has you know, good amount of players on the team. They you know they do a good job of recruiting every year. It's not a hard sell that school. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

No, and he seems to get the team really working well together. I mean, that two years ago they weren't as good. Last year, do you they they were just strong. They every game they went into Yeah, offensively, they were good.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And you know what? They improved pretty much in every category last year up and the year before, too. So they were a good squad. I think they're gonna be good again this year. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Before we go to the the newer teams in the conference, let's talk Adam State, because I'm really kind of excited about the Grizzlies. Maybe not this year, but in 2026 and 27, if things go the way, Coach said. As you remember, Danny, we hadn't really ever spoken with Coach Jerome Austin, and he finally reached out to us to get on a call with us to kind of discuss his team, and he was ribbing me the whole time. Remember that? He was like, Oh yeah, you picked you picked Dominican against us the first game. You you know, you're so he wanted to kind of set the record straight for us on on where he's been with Adam State and where he's going. He's in his seventh season at the helm.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And he kind of caught me off guard. He's like a an old school kind of militant type of guy, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Like, well, let's let's let's face it, he came out guns a blazing at us, which I loved personally. It was a great call.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

It was a great call. It really was. I was I wasn't expecting that, you know, from him. You know, I didn't know what to expect, but he was he had that old school gunslinger type of attitude. I I liked it. And yeah, and he was he was very forthright in telling us what's going on at Adam State and uh how he, you know, he's finally starting to get the backing there, and he's gonna start to bring bring in and put heads in and you know, heads in beds and bring in players.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Well, one thing he said is, and we kind of thought about this, we looked at past schedules when they didn't have really a huge out-of-conference schedule, they didn't travel that far like some of the other RMAC teams. You figured where do they really have the resources? And he's really doing and recruiting without scholarships, Danny.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, it's hard to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

And and this is what Coach had to say about that.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

We don't have, I mean, you talk scholarships, right? Fundraising. Yeah. Um, scholarships, I'm I'm, and this is nuts. What do you guys think? I'm at say a guess. I would guess like like two scholarships. I love you, man. I need you here so you can get me two. Um. Okay. So it's I hear a lot of people like, wow, he's in the seventh year. I don't know what he's doing there. I mean, it's like fund me, baby, and I'll give you a national championship.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

Okay, so with that, Danny, with the fact they don't have scholarships, he's still trying to build. And this year, he has his roster up to about 38.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Which is probably the most he's ever had.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

As far as I can remember, he last year he said they they were senior heavy, but that the prior coach had actually had skipped a recruiting class. So now this year they're really young. They have only two seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores, and the rest are freshmen. Yeah, and he says the freshmen are going, a lot of them are going to start. And he's excited about that. He's excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

One good thing I can say is that they return the the RMAC goalie of the year. Yeah. In Ryan, in Ryan Berger, man, the junior from Houston, Texas. He's up there at Adam State. He was he was the RMAC goalie of the year last year. He's a pretty good goalie. He comes back, and their leading scorer, the senior mid Matt Walsh, uh Matt Lash. He comes back. He had 18 goals and 14 assists last year. So he does have some players coming back that were, you know, balling out for him last year. Right.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

And and provide some of that that leadership, that experience in leadership. And like he said, and if you watch their teams, even if they're behind, they don't give up. They're gonna keep coming. So yeah, but Kev, they haven't won many games in a long time. No, they were last year, they were one in thirteen and one in seven in conference because they beat CSU Pueblo. Now, their out of conference this year is interesting. Right now, what they've got on the docket is New Mexico State, University of Colorado, Utah, and BYU. So they're playing club teams for their out-of-conference, and I think that goes back to travel and schedule and whatnot. Yep. He's also kept one of his former alums and players, Dalson Balbanoff, who is a great offensive player from now, is now an assistant coach for him. He's got three coaches. You know, the you still go back to their stats. They lose the ground ball race by a wide margin. Their face-off percentage was was low, 27%. But coach says now that they've got some good face-off specialists coming in. I think it's gonna be look at the stats are what the stats are, if you look at them. You can't throw them out, but I really do think that this is a new look Adam State team. And maybe this year they can be competitive enough that each team has to really earn the W when they felt it was just an automatic check in the block when they got there.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Well, if Coach Austin's new, you know, way of doing things at Adam State is gonna work out, it's gonna take a little while. Yeah, like you said, maybe 2026 we might start to see, you know, the fruits of his labor, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Because they need help. They need help. They do, and the the roster has depth now. And what he said was he has a big 2025 class coming. And this is what he said about his team and his roster.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

I give my guys so much credit because they will play wire to wider no matter what the score is. They don't let down. So this year I think, you know, I can't promise you anything, but I think we're gonna be in some wars just because of some great photos I have now versus But I had one forever for J uh Justin Peterson went to battle for me every single time. It's not hard to counter that and wear it down. And if football control, done. So we we do have a I went up in size, um, got some great IQ. We have a young uh offense, but they're all they're studs, they're hungry.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

So is it is it a lot of those freshmen taking in those spots? Because that's a huge class that you were able to bring in, which is awesome. Or do you or do you have guys now that have you've developed enough that it's kind of a mix?

SPEAKER_00 19:54

So it's kind of a mix, but there's majority majority of those freshmen are starting. There's probably two of them are goalies, so they're not uh right now, but it's a heavy freshman class that are playing that just flat out balling right away. So I like that. I like that when freshman can come. It's beautiful. I mean, it's it's gonna be a lot of fun. You know, I mean, you gotta you gotta keep them going. Uh one game doesn't define you. You're gonna be in wars, they know what they're in front of. Let's close the gap, be in wars. Let me get one more. Like my 25 class is insane.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

So, Danny, with that, I think we just need to see. I I don't think we're gonna see, in my opinion, a huge shift in numbers of wins this year. But if they can close the gap on score, I think that's an improvement.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

If they can improve on the fundamental parts of the game, too, do a little bit better in clearing, do a little bit better on man up, do a little bit better on man down, did a you know, stay out of the box. You know, it's important for a young team, you know, stay out of the box, you know, in division two, yeah, in some of these games. If you're in the box, you're gonna eat, you're gonna watch the other team chalk up points for the most part.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Yeah, but uh yeah, exactly. I'm excited to see these freshmen on the field and see what they do.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, it's gonna be like it's it's a it's a new process for Coach Austin again. First time, first time he's had more than 26, 27 players on the team. Yeah, you know, so that's gotta help out with practices and stuff like that. And it just maybe a little bit more um competition and practice and pushing each other might, you know, again, little things for them will be do better in clearing, do better on man ups, do better with ball possession, do better staying out of the box. If they can improve, then they're trending upwards. You understand?

SPEAKER_04 21:48

Yeah, totally agree, totally agree. All right, let's move on. Who do you want to touch next?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Well, there's only we got Concordia University of Irvine.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Yes, and we got to always remember it's Concordia. C UI is the easier way for us to remember, so we don't say California, California, University of Irvine, but it is Concordia.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

The golden University of Irvine, located in Irvine, California, last year's RMAC Rutter Up. Yeah. Which was huge. They went seven and eight, not bad for first year squad in Division II. Uh four-in-four in conference 500. Not too shabby. Coach Jesse Foss did a pretty good job of getting those guys ready for their first year in Division II.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

At the end, like we talked about earlier. Beat Westminster 15-9 in the RMAC semis. And then brought Colorado Mesa to overtime in the finals before losing. Yeah. That was a really, really good game. So, and now let's look at their out of conference for this year, which I think is pretty bruising of a schedule. They go Quincy, Florida Southern, St. Leo, Tampa. Those three Florida teams, they play in five days. Then they play Adelphi and Rollins. Now they play them in Irvine. Adelphi and Rollins is coming out, which will be really interesting. And then, Danny, they for their first conference home game, they play Colorado Mesa. That's two days after playing Rollins.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

They'll be lucky if they have one win in those first six games. That was a tough one. That's that's a tough schedule, man.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

That's a tough schedule. Very tough schedule.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Florida Southern's a good team. St. Leo's a really good team. Tampa is a national powerhouse. A Delphi is the returning national champions. And Rollins was a top five team pretty much most of the year last year. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

And then you say, okay, really, that would that that's bruising schedule, but now they're ready for conference in here coach.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Well, you know what? It's going to be a different Colorado Mesa team this year. So this could be they could be ready. You know, think about that. If they stay home, you know, if they if they go Tampa, Tampa, Delphi Rollins three in a row, and now you play Colorado Mesa, you know, I think you might be ready.

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Yeah, as long as you have your legs with you still, you know, you got to recuperate pretty well, recover pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yeah, but all the all the boys at C UI, man, you better keep training and stay in shape because those those first five games are a gauntlet. And you know what? That's I give them props. I give Coach Fox pops for that. All right. They lose players too, even though because they were a club team before they came into Division II. So they had players, they had seniors, they had juniors and whatnot. So they lose a couple of big scorers in Nick Beast and Chad McFadden and Drew Buckley. Um, they lose their LSM conicule. They lose their defender Braden Schneider, who was just like ridiculous for them last year. Crazy. But they returned some pretty good players, man. Uh junior attack Matt Caresi. He can put up goals. Um short stick D-mid, Bobby McCluskey comes back. He had 13 grounds balls and 10 close turnovers from the short stick D-mitty position. That's pretty good. Um uh uh goalie Danny Yang comes back at 50 percent. You got defender Ed McMahon, uh the graduate student from Malloy who went over there two years ago. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Uh O'Connor returns.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Yeah, like they're gonna be pretty decent. And you know what?

SPEAKER_04 25:53

Now, now I I have to point out you said it, but actually Chad McFadden is coming back.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Oh, he is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

He's coming back as a graduate student. He must have still had eligibility, NCAA eligibility. Yeah, okay. But he's coming back.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

So that's big for them then.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Yeah. I mean, they you're right, they look they lose Nick Beeson, but Chad McFadden and Matt Caresti and Jeremy Barnes on offense. That's a good trio. And then you add in, you you talked about it, but they also have some strong guys uh in the rope defense with Connor Kehl, Ben Gorlock, and Brian Parr, uh, you know, ready to take on bigger roles. I think they've got a lot of players coming back. They lose a few, but they have a lot of their core returning for this year.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah. It should be interesting. You know what? They're entering their second year, they got a year under their belt. And like again, these first couple of games that they're gonna have to play, they're gonna come down to Florida, right? And then Adelphi and Rollins are going out there. Is that the is that what's going on?

SPEAKER_04 27:01

Yeah, yep, they're going out there. And then if you one thing I would point out, I don't think we talked about special teams that much. Their goalie, Daniel Yang, returns. He played pretty well. He was second team all conference last year, but they got the transfer from Anderson, Joey Heckle. So there's a battle for the spark starting spot right there.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

A little competition.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Yeah. Well, I think they're gonna be strong in there, too. So I think, and Cade Poe uh is coming back at face-off. He was 67% X last year.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

He's pretty good. He's pretty good. They get a lot of pieces. Yeah, they certainly do. And again, a year of D2 under their belt. They know the physicality now, they know about their conference now. This year they're gonna they're gonna find out what it's like to be their out-of-conference schedule. They're gonna they're gonna find out what they're what they should be aspiring to be.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

They've really ramped up their out of conference.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Wait till they meet Tampa and see the size of those kids. I know. And then they're gonna run into Dylan Renner, bully of the year. The kid's like a brick wall, and he freaking loves it. He doesn't even let his own teammates. I know, I know, I know. He likes talk shit to his own teammates. He's great. So, you know what? I think CUI could do pretty well. Well, you know what? They made it to the championship last year by beating Westminster. Right. I'm the it's gonna be really interesting. Nobody thought that. Everybody had Westminster in that game. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 28:41

Once again, I think it'll be really interesting to see these teams play their out-of-conference and how they match up. Because that's the best thing about RMAC does. Like a lot of times, you know, the teams in the South don't have enough out-of-conference to play teams in the north. And now look what this is happening. CUI is playing one from the north and one from the south back to back, and really two from the south and one from the north. If you go Tampa, Delphi, Rollins. I think that is really cool to watch. But then the out-of-conference between those three, Westminster, Colorado Mesa, and CUI is going to be really interesting. And now finally, the Dominican Penguins. Can they ramp up this year and make it more competitive? Can they be more competitive in there?

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yeah, the Dominican Penguins, located in San Rafael, California, Kev. And Coach Bobby takes it over this year. Uh two and ten last year. A little bit of a rough go. First year in Division II.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Yeah, but what's interesting, you remember Coach Grove talking to us about this, though. What he said was they were really kind of building the plane as it flew. They were calling players that thought they were playing in the MCLA and saying, hey, bud, get ready. You're in NCA Division II right now. So now they've got in players, they've started to recruit and they've started to get more NCA D2 athletic players into the school, into the program. And so now they're trying to build it uh so that they can really compete. They're out of conference this year, Danny. De Uville, a Delphi, Lynn, Palm Beach Atlantic, and Quincy. So it's not the loser that CUI has. I actually think that's a pretty good schedule for Dominican.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Yeah. Yeah. Again, Mr. Renner. Just I laugh every time I think about a Delphi. They got they got Renner. So, but like, you know, I like when these teams, these especially these younger teams, are trying to make a name for themselves. You kind of want to show your players, hey, this is the level you we want to play, these guys. Yeah, they're gonna be, they're gonna beat the snot out of us, but we're gonna learn. Right. We're gonna learn from playing these guys. We're gonna see what they have, see how they do things, see how they go after a ground ball, see what they do when they ride and they clear, and you know, then you aspire to be like that. It doesn't have to be perfection. We take small steps. You know what? Again, if they can start improving, because again, they need to improve in a lot of different areas, Kev. Their stats aren't that great. They need to clean up the turnovers, they need to improve way in man up. You know, you're gonna get the opportunity. You gotta put the biscuit in the basket more than two times out of ten. And they got to stay out of the box, too. They were they almost doubled their opponents in in penalty minutes last year. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:49

So those things lead to doom, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, and what's interesting too is they lost some good players. Pear Anders Alters.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Yeah, we had them on our show. Yeah, the kid from Germany.

SPEAKER_04 32:05

Kalen Briggs, uh, and uh Brennan Krebs is also an attackman. Those are some key players for them. And then on defense, Keenan Mai, who was a 2024 starter and captain. I mean, the stats aren't that great, but his leadership for the team was critical. Now they do have some good returners. Tristan Hunter, their goalie returns. Um, he, you know, so he's hoping to really improve where he was last year. He's trying to lock up the the starting spot. Nick Woodard, uh, senior defenseman, 32 ground balls and 31 cost turnovers last year. Noah Gibson, LSM. So they've got some key guys. And then on often.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Jason Edy comes back as a grad student, and honor Barnes.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

And Kenny Siler.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

So, you know, Lesson Wyatt Anderson comes back.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

So they do have to be at face-off, and he was 51%.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

So they do have some core players with another year. So let's see what Coach Grove can do this year.

SPEAKER_04 33:04

Yeah, they as Coach told us, you know, they are returning 36 uh out of 50, but only returned 41% of their goal scoring from last year. However, they have 19 freshmen and two transfers to bump up the roster to a full 58. And, you know, let's see what they can do. They're hungry. Look at they're in the RMAC now. Last year they were independent. Right. Now they have something even more to play for. Does that help them galvanize as a team and be a little more focused? I think talking to Coach Grove, they had to come up with their identity last year and actually get in their mindset that they were playing NCA Division II and not club. Yeah. And now this year, with Fallball and everything, there's no doubt about it. They brought in the players that know that now. And with some of the returning guys they have, and they have a good group of guys returning. Yeah, they can be much more competitive this year.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Yeah. You know, again, this is another squad that if they can move forward in these areas of staying out of the box and and and and doing better on man up and doing better with ball possession and and and doing away with the unforced errors and the turnovers and that. If they can improve in those areas, they'll be trending up as well. But you got to admit, like Adam State and Dominican have a lot of work to do, Kev. Yes. They got work to do.

SPEAKER_04 34:37

They do. They do. I think it's a through those three on top, like we talked about Colorado Mesa, Westminster, and CUI, Dominican and Adam State trailing. But I actually think if Adam State and Coach Austin continues that improvement in roster depth and talent, and Dominican improves on their talent and getting used to playing NCA Division II, the Armac is going to be a very tight conference in years to come. This year, I think it'll be interesting. Now, the real question, Danny, I have for you if you look at the teams that we just talked about, and we talked about Peach Belt.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

I got Peach Belt right here with me.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Last year, last week. Who do you think? Do you have a do you have a front runner conference to take it all for the AQ?

SPEAKER_01 35:32

I tell you right now, I think top to bottom, Peach Belt is a better conference. Top to bottom.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

Top to bottom, I'd agree. I'd from a from a yes, I would agree with that. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

I think Lander and Flagler are really good teams that play really good out of conference schedules. That you know, they're playing Tampa, they're playing St. Leo, they're playing, you know, the they're playing squads, they're playing Wingate. There's you know what I mean? Like they're playing limestone. They're they're going. I just think again, Peach Belt top to bottom. I think it's a peach belt that goes to the AQ this year. You do? I do.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

I'm gonna go the opposite way. I think it all depends on matchups, right? I think, and I'm maybe thinking historically, I look at Colorado Mesa and Westminster the last few years and what they bring to the table. I try to go back and see how they've matched up if head-to-head last year or whatever between some of these teams, and I couldn't really find it. So it was really tough. Now, Flagler was one of them, and Armac won out on that, you know. I know, I know. So I think it all depends. And you look at something like you look at Lander, big turnover this year, right? Uh, they're gonna have to get they're gonna have to get their feet underneath them for a little bit. I think I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Armac going to the AQ by the end of the year. I think it'll be really interesting, but I I it'll be but see, here's the deal. This is the best thing about both these conferences. I don't think today I could pick who's gonna win their conference championship in either one of those conferences to go to the final AQ decision maker.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Well, you kind of have to give CUI a good wide open eye, right? Oh, 100% because the team, you know, could can beat can beat teams. Oh, yeah, in the RMAC. Okay, so you know, God forbid there's no injuries or anything like that. And I, you know, I wonder what if it was like a neutral field for the AQ game.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Yeah, I don't even know where they're playing it.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

You know, that would be interesting if it was like on a neutral field somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

It is going to then, but you look at like Westminster, really didn't, they've got a good core. And uh the other thing is Colorado Mesa. Colorado Mesa, they've lost a lot, but they are always deep, and Moyer's going to have them ready. Now you like you said, now you go back to the peach belt side and you look at what Flagler Flagler brings a lot uh back. Still is Montevallo.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I just think it's and and the tr and UAH brings a boatload of guys, they really didn't lose as much as the other teams. Right. They went two and two in conference and they were seven and nine overall with a pretty decent out-of-conference schedule. So if you look at like Lander, 12 and 4, Flagler 7-9, Montevallo 9-6, UAH 7-9. Pretty solid numbers throughout the conference. Not the same in RMAC, you know what I mean? 13-4, Colorado, Mesa, 11-3, Westminster, 7-8. Damn good record. 2-10, and 1-13. Yeah. So we drop off pretty pretty. Drop off.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

You're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

So you'd have to say that the Peach Belt right now is probably a better all-around conference. Face facing pretty good competition in conference as well as out of conference. And I think, you know, it's a three-team race in the RMAC. And I agree now right now. I don't know who I could pick out of the RMAC. I don't know if Colorado Mesa with losing 158 points in the offensive side.

unknown 39:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

And defenders and Dylan Checkets. Yeah. Which, you know, Kev, when you got the ball, when you have the ball, you can set tempo, you can you can do so many different things. Depending on, you know, your scouting report for that week. You know? But when you you lose a guy like Check It's who's basically gonna get you the ball 80% of the time. I mean every time he goes out there, he's got a chance to win. So they're not the same squad. But you know what? Again, Moyer, they're a road warrior team. Like they're a tough team.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

Can you? I mean, you can't count them out. There's just no way.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

So it's a three-team pick'em, I think, right now in the RMAC for me. Yeah. I don't think I could pick one. It's a three-team. It's C UI, Westminster, and Colorado Mesa. Mesa. Yep.

unknown 40:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

After those three, I don't know about that. So can the Westminster Griffins beat UAH? You know? Probably. Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 40:57

You know what? And let's say, you know, out of 10 games, what would it, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

So it's pretty interesting. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

I think it's so fun to watch this shoe at these conferences. Now, like when we break it down like that, Cap, now I like the NCAA and what they did with these two. It makes it super interesting.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

I love it. I love it from those two conferences because they're all battling now to say, now we got a shot. We're not going to just do our conference championship. We've got a winner conference championship to win another game to get to the NCAA tournament. It is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Yeah, and again, like that peach belt, there's so much parody in the peach belt. Each one could beat each other on any given day. Like Flagler beats Montevallo but lost to UAH. You know, like it's you know, and it goes crazy over there. It's I like what the NCAA did with these two conferences. It should be really interesting. I think it brings a whole new super duper dynamic within the two conferences now. So now Flagler, for example, was a runner-off. I'm picking them to go all the way this year. I just like their coach, I like their coaching, I like everything that they trended up to do. They got athletes, they got guys that can run the field, they got defenders, they got a lot, they got a lot, and everything's getting better for them. Are they the type of team to take it to the next step, win their conference, and get a chance to go play the RMAC? Yeah. Or is it gonna be Lander or Uah with all of the colours? Or Montevala.

SPEAKER_04 42:37

Yeah, I mean, like I think it's that's why I went. It's a for me, uh it's a pick'em. I it's a pick'em on who wins both counters for me. Like I said, I just think when it comes down to it right now, if I'm just for fun's sake, I'm gonna say our Mac is gonna be in the AQ.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Okay, you might be right. You might be a hundred percent right. See how the season goes. We'll see how the season goes.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

So much fun. I can't believe it. It's gonna be great to watch. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

100%. It's got like again, when you break it down like this, it's pretty interesting because again, this year a lot of teams seem to lose core guys. That that fifth year stuff is gone. Yeah, that COVID year is gone, and teams that had core groups with three, four, some of them five years together. You know, when you think about that, when you think about a core group that's been together four to five years on the field, that's hard to replace the chemistry, knowing where you're gonna be, knowing how hard that guy's gonna pass the ball and certain, you know, and you know, where they're gonna dodge to and how they do things. And so you got guys trying to get new chemistry. And I think out of the peach belt, Uah brings back the most guys that from the year before, and then you know what. Concordia brings back a lot of decent, you know, a lot of guys from last year. So it should be interesting. It's all good. It's all good.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

It's really good. It's really good. All right.

Shout outs

SPEAKER_04 44:16

Now to close it out, Danny, as always, let's go to our shout-outs. Do you have any?

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Shout outs. Yes, I do. I have a shout-out. I want to, I don't know if you saw this on Instagram or not, but I want to shout out uh the Wingate coaching staff. Did something special this weekend, Kev. Uh I don't know. As you know, uh Coach Seth Grimwood, the offensive coordinator at Wingate, has a special needs brother. And Shane has been a big part of Wingate University in more ways than you could know. I he was, let's put it this way, Mr. Grimwood, chef Coach Grimwood's dad was the first dad I met at Wingate when my son first went there. And his his son Shane was the second person I met. So Shane's special needs, and he's been part of the Wingate program now for a long time. Um he's at the SAC Championships, he's always at the he's always at the big games, the family's in Michigan now. And um this past weekend, they named the equipment room after Shane at Wingate University.

SPEAKER_04 45:35

Oh, that's awesome! I did not see that.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

That is awesome. Listen, just knowing Shane, knowing the Grimwood family, and just knowing what type of family the Wingate Bulldogs have with Coach Boyle and how they just have such a family type thing there. And I thought it was uh a great thing. It truly warmed my heart. They brought Shane down the stairs and they opened up the door and they opened up and there was, you know, Coach Shane's equipment room. And he was like, like he was blown away. It was but it was just such a cool thing, you know. And again, and that's something that the lacrosse community just does, you know, that yeah, special needs kids, kids with you know, uh cancer, um, mental health, and just giving back to the community and stuff. That's what's so great about the game of lacrosse. They all seem to do it in such special ways and and different ways from each college and university. And I just thought what Wingate did with that young man and and just honoring him that way, and just knowing the family and knowing the kid, and just knowing all the background to it, I just thought it was a great thing. And big props to uh Coach Tim Boyle and Coach Grimwood and the Grimwood family, and Coach Shane's gonna be at Wingate forever now, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:58

I love it, I love it. That was a great shout out. I've got two, not at that level, but uh so just the I'll make them quick. The first one goes out to Coach Stefan Ducett, who is named the head coach for shorter recently. Now, there has been no press release. He's listed in the staff directory. I saw a few people put it out on Instagram. I have no other real information on Stefan Ducett. So if you know he's probably lucky that I don't have the no. So if anyone's got good bio information on Coach Ducett, we'd love to have it. And of course, we will invite him on the show next year for the coaching changes. My last shout out, since we're recording this on Veterans Day, is to all our veterans out there listening and who aren't listening. Hey, you always hear thank you for your service and thank you for your sacrifice since I've been there. My family's been there. I know what it's like. I was proud to serve. I know everyone who is a veteran was proud to serve, but I just want to say thanks for everything that they've done.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Well, Kevin, you're a veteran, and I thank you for your service. And uh, my grandfather served in World War II, Uncle Mike served in Vietnam. And uh yeah, you know, uh I it's Veterans Day, and it's just it's a big day in New York. We have a big it's a day off, it's a holiday here. Yeah, it's yeah, everything is shut down, you can't get mail, the the banks are closed, and uh there's a big parade in New York City every year on Veterans Day, and it was a beautiful day here in New York today. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, Veterans Day to all those.

SPEAKER_04 48:45

That's sir. Exactly right. And with that, Danny, for our second conference video.

SPEAKER_02 49:04

That's a wrap.

SPEAKER_03 49:05

That's a wrap, guys.