D2 Lacrosse Conference Previews for the 2026 Season - SAC

Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Coast Coast D2 Metropolitan. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is the man who sits atop the People's Choice Awards for D2 Lacrosse, Danny Moran. How's it going, Danny? That's a very special category.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

The People's Choice Awards, huh? Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I don't know. I saw some awards where I wasn't even People's Choice Awards. I'm like, uh, this sounds pretty good. I'll do this one.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Kevin. How are you doing tonight, my man, in Northern Virginia this evening?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I'm doing okay, you know, trying to get back in the swing of things as uh the holidays are over and we are back into work, regular work, as always. So that's, you know. Yeah, kind of sucks. Gotta purge a little, gotta purge a little of the all the eating too over the holidays.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Yeah, and today was like one of a big walkthrough with all the big wigs at work and the general contractors and all the big Oh really. We call them the white helmets. They come with the white hard hats that are, you know, shiny and brandy.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

The the uh the white hats. The guest, the guest hats.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Yes. So they can it was a big walkthrough today, so that was like everybody had to be on their on their best behavior. But it was nice. They had like bagels and coffee for us this morning, so it was nice. We came back to like a nice beginning.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

And then be on your best behavior because all the big boys are walking.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

All the white hats are coming.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was one of those days. But all in all, just another day, another cold one up here in New York. Man, it's been super duper cold up here.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah. Yeah. It's been here. It's supposed to be warming up here for a few days, but we'll see what happens. We shall see. So here we are. Here we are. Last conference preview, Danny, of the 2026 season. But before we get to that, a couple of name corrections. The first one was when we did last week, we did the ECC preview, and we mentioned Stefano Evan, but we didn't call him Stefano Evan. We called him Evan Stefano. He's a player at Deuville. So we apologize for that. It's Stefano Evan. Stefano's his first name.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Sorry about that, Stefano.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Sorry. Please forgive us. Two knuckleheads. Exactly. Here's another one. This is two weeks ago with the Sunshine State conference. A St. Leo player, Aiden No Jin. His name is spelled a little No Jin like N-O-G-I-N, but it's spelled like K-N-O-E-T-G-E-N. So a little bit tough. We want to get that correction. We got the word that it was no gin, like having no gin. So I've had no gin today, but I can say that name.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Well, we're sorry, Mr. No Jin. We got it right. Again, just two knuckleheads.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Just trying. It's not easy. It's not easy.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

He's a good player, though.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

We like the suggestions. We like to know 100%. Even sometimes when we get the right name pronunciation, we still screw it up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

It'd be nice to have somebody DM us and say, hey, you got it right. We don't get those.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Well, I'll tell you what. I bet we get um some of the head coaches' names correctly today. That's all I'm gonna say. That's all I'm gonna put myself on.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I should hope so.

SAC Preview

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah. But here we are. Last one, South Atlantic Conference, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

South Atlantic. South Carolina. Mr. Jerry is the recorder. South Carolina boy.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Southern state of mind, good way to get us kind of prepped, kind of ready for this conference. This conference loses a huge loss in limestone this year. But sucks.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

I like limestone. I hate them. I hated them, but love to hate them. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

We love to hate limestone. And they get it. The limestone people that I we talk to, they understand why we do it that way.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

And they probably liked it that way, too. Sure they do, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

They like being the bad boys of the Division II. And you know what? I'm gonna miss limestone big time.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I totally agree. What they built there when we talked about this on our first episode this season, when we had the limestone head coaches on, they really kind of set the bar in a lot of ways, not just for the South region, but for D2 in general in the 2000s, the whole 2000s, past 25 years.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

A national powerhouse, division two, historical. It's just a historical Division II lacrosse program.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah. And it's really sad to see him go. Very, very sad. But if you look at this conference, Danny, there are not only teams that were right there with them, but there are a couple teams that for the past few years have been trying to knock on the door to be at that top and be able to compete against the limestones, the Lenore Rines, the Wingates. And guess what? This past season, that kind of happened. Last season in 2025. So I'm really interested to see what happens in 2026 with those teams.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Interesting season in the sack last year. Yeah. Kevin, if you ask me, this is a really, really tough conference. So I mean, at the top, you have five, four, five teams that are all national contenders. Yeah. That are all in the elite conversation, you know, with Division I players with excellent coaching and deep, deep rosters. Some of them up, you know, 60, 60 plus.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Seven out of the 11 teams, there was 11 teams in the conference last year, only 10 without limestone this year. Out of the 11 teams last year, seven of them were 500 or better. Which is, you know, every team is pretty dang good. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

It's rivaling what we talked about with the Sunshine State a lot of the ways, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Right, exactly. There was four four teams in the top ten. Limestone, LR, Anderson, and Wingate. And Newberry was right there at like 11-12. Right. Newberry was right there. So there's still five teams that are set at the top. That all of them are very good elite squads, really.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I totally agree. And it's going to be a battle in the conference, in conference play this year with those teams.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

It's going to be, I think it's going to be quite the battle in the in the sack this year.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And we can start off with the first team, and this kind of shows, I think this team shows that you can lose a lot of conference games and still take the conference tournament. And that's the Wingate Bulldogs. They ended up, well with head coach Tim Boyle, they ended up, Danny 15-5 last year, but 6-4 in conference, which is not their usual record in conference. They lost to LR, Limestone, Newberry, and Anderson in the regular season. But then they beat Newberry in double overtime, leak beat limestone in overtime, and then Anderson to take the sack tourney. That's what there was an article by La Crosse Reference that came out talking about the clutch gene. And do teams have the clutch gene going from one year to another? I will tell you right now going into that conference tournament, you knew for Wingate to make it to the NCAA tournament, they had to win the conference tournament. There was no way in hell they were going to get in unless they did that. That's right. Look at the the games and the scores and how close a lot of them were, they had the clutch dean clutch gene down the stretch.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, they got hot when they needed to get hot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

And then they beat Lenore Ryan in the first round of the NCAA tournament by one goal. Again, they ended up on the W ledger every time. Now they lost to Tampa in the second round, 13-9. It was down in Tampa. It was rainy. It was hot. Tampa went all the way to the final. So you can't. Tampa was just a great team. They finally ran out of juice.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yeah. Wingate, um, first of all.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

The Bulldog! Sorry, I went ran over. I just got so excited talking about how you can go from a six-and-four in conference team to winning the tournament.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Located in Wingate, North Carolina, Kev, about 45 minutes southeast of the beautiful city of Charlotte. Bulldogs were a really good elite team that had some defensive troubles last year, Kev.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

And usually it's what is one of the top defenses in the country year in and year out from Coach Boyle. Didn't turn out in the top ten last year. Nationally, they were ranked 24th overall as a defense. Not the usual defense you usually get from a Wingate Bulldog squad. In those games that they lost in conference in the season, they found themselves in the box. We spoke about this in several of our podcasts. They found themselves in the box and lost by one or two goals, giving up man-up goals in big conference games against Newberry, against Anderson. What they did to avenge that was nothing short of remarkable. When you think about you're going into your conference tournament in fifth place, which means you're going on the road for every game.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Every game, you're going on the road. So where do you gotta go? I gotta go to Newberry first. Oh my God. What a game that was. Went into overtime. Super duper exciting game. And then LR and then Anderson in the Sack Championship. It was and then Limestone.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Limestone and then Anderson, yeah. In overtime.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

It was just such an unbelievable ending of a season that wasn't what we're used to seeing from the Wingate Bulldogs. You know, again, defensively, I think it was just a couple of lapses on defense that got them where they were. But man, once they got to the tournament, they really they showed that they're a really, really good team.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Like I said, when I saw that article in the cross-reference and the clutch gene, and then I started doing the the homework for this preview, that's immediately what came to me is because if you look at how close those games were, and they did it over and over again, they actually I think they built upon that every game, right? They they really did kind of have that in their DNA by the end of the near the end of the season going into the tournament. And I think that's what got them there. They just they just never gave up. Look at they were down to limestone by a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

They believed. They believed. They believed that they could get it done if they could just get certain things done at execution-wise on the field. They were just they were just a fun team to watch. I mean, they're just exciting team to watch, the Wingate Bulldogs. Loaded with you know studs on both sides of the ball. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So let's look at their out of conference first, and then we'll go to see who's returning and who's not. So they're out of conference of 2026. It's North Greenville, Florida Southern, at Florida Tech, a Delphi, and at Belmont Abbey. Great. That's awesome. Yeah, I think that's fairly favorable for them. I mean, obviously, there's teams they play Belmont Abbey a lot, you know, either in scrimmages or in the early in the season. A Delphi coming down, that will be a huge test.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah. And then a Delphi plays L R the following Saturday. Yeah, so they're gonna be down south for a week, they're gonna face Wingate and then LR back to back.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

But okay, but let's look at who they've got returning. Their roster is not out yet in 2026 on the website. But on offense, except for Zach Sampson, Danny, from what I can tell, they lose no one. And this may be the best offense in the country for D2. If you look at who's returning.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, basically a hundred percent of them, one of the most prolific offenses in the country is is returning. And then that offense is the Fab Four, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah. I mean, you've got attackman Kyle Spence, 39 goals, 79 assists, attackman. Hold on.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

118 points from Mr. Spence. Are you effing kidding me? Yeah. He's ridiculous. He's unguardable too.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Well, and then the other thing is the two other attackmen both had over 50 goals. Had 50 goals or better.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Yeah, Vinny Patrico, senior attack, had 50 goals, 14 assists for 64 uh 64 points. But I tell you, the the the silent killer there is Sean Clark.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Now, if you look at Sean Clark's numbers, he's a s he was a sophomore last year. He had f he had uh what do you have?

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Um 27 goals, 23 assists is what I had.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

80 points, that's correct. He's the fastest to 95 goals in wing gate history. No wingate bulldog has reached 95 goals faster than Sean Clark. He's he's the silent guy. He's the silent killer.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

95 goals in a career is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

He's got that in 30 games.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Three seasons.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Like he's good. And he and again, other guys around him are good too. So it's like pick your poison with the Wingate Bulldogs. Who are you gonna guard?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Well, and here's the thing: you don't let up on in the midfield. You've got Joey Moran, Matt PayPal, Jackson Grant, then you've got a lot of other depth with Jack Murray, Braden Cifrio, James Salazo. I mean, they've just got a ton of midis that they can run out. And that first, second line, sometimes you can't tell the difference.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

You're right. Again, I love calling them the Fab Four. This group of four kids, PayPal, Spence, Moran, and Jackson Grant, started for the Wingate Bulldogs as freshmen. They have been through the gauntlet. They are the seniors, and they are the guys now. They know exactly what needs to be done, how this offense is run to a T. They are gonna be tough. That midfield, again, I think they're the best midfield in the country. I think Adelphi and Anderson have really, really good midfields as well. And I think St. Ace has a very good midfield as well. But I don't think they're as deep as the Wingate Bulldogs. And from what I understand, some of their freshmen, let's put it this way, they're getting D1 type players now there. You know, they're not getting, you know what I'm saying? They're getting pretty good players recruited there now. And these frustrates.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

And they're just getting deeper. Yeah, these fresh people say, and I saw this when my son was there, right? When he was there, actually the the the guys ahead of him, there was a good line, and there was a little bit of a break, and then by the time he was a senior, there was always like two good D MIDI lines, right? Really solid, really good. Now they're getting to the point where you're getting three, four lines deep where you can interchange.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Right. This one's coming in and out of the box with this group, this one's coming out of the box with that group.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

You look like a guy like Sam Goss, who is also another attackman that goes in there. I had to ask you, like, does he play midi or attack? Because he's an attackman on the roster, but he's not always in there. No, he plays both. He goes both. Big guy. He's probably coming out of the box, and he's another good player. They are stacked on offense.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Yeah, boy, oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Now, on the defensive side, I think they're losing a little bit more. They lose Peyton Farley and Nick Arnold and short stick D. Middy, CJ Dore, which are the best.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah, and they and they lose Dom Gullis, the LSM. He was a freshman last year. Yeah. He played a lot and he did well. Um, he went to the portal. So he's no longer with the Bulls. So they lost three starters on D and one like uh LSM backup to Graham Tillett.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

So, I mean, in Peyton Farley, they lost a three-time All-American. That kid was just ridiculous out there. He was so good, so big, so fast, so strong, so well. He was really good. So was Nick Carnegie.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Nick Arnold was right behind me. Yeah, right behind me.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Nick Arnold was really good as well. Very big, very strong, very athletic out there, very tough. So, and those two guys have been playing since they were freshmen.

unknown 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

So they lose some pretty much some senior leadership on defense, but man, they still bring back a lot, Kev. They bring back Graham Tillett, they bring back Short Stick, D. Mid, Mason McGovern, Johnny Blakely returns, Mac Micho returns, uh, Noah Whitehouse, who is on man-down defense. He's, you know, he's good. He's on the man-down defense. He's gonna see more action this year, I guarantee it. And Sam Dierdoff.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

They got a good group returning. You know, I've watched guys come and go at Wingate, you know, with my middle son being, you know, there and your son being there. I don't think I think it's a reload. I mean, just the way his team is built.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Coach Boyle's team is built. The thing this is the only the real thing that concerns me as maybe a little bit of a gap. When you lose a guy, like two guys like Peyton Parley and Nick Arnold, who, like you said, have been starting since their freshman year. You add in CJ Dore, who was lights out as a short stick D Middy, and he was a senior, that is so much experience that's gone. I think and that's what's all the interesting is that their defense is what let them down last year a little bit. Yeah. That's what's kind of confusing to me. But what I would say is, and we've seen this in years past, we saw this when Peyton and Nick were freshmen and sophomores, right? Right when we started this podcast, their games would get better and better through the season, and usually their game would get better throughout the game. They would usually not be as tight in the beginning of the game.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

But defense would start out slow.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

And I it would take it was like the engine that could add a chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug chug. And then when they got going, they became the wing gate defense.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

And I and I think in my this is what I would assume is gonna happen again this year. May not at all, but it in my opinion, this is right where, yes, they bring back a lot, but they're not guys that were all in starting roles. And there is a little bit of a gap there in my mind.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

I think they're gonna be just fine. That's my opinion. Um, so again, their face-off was pretty good last year. They ran out two guys pretty much most of the year, uh, Dylan Rupert and Logan Spade. Dylan Rupert was 48%. Logan Speth was at 58%, but they brought in a D1 transfer. Yeah. This year at face-off. Nico Cottage comes in. Um he's uh adding a lot of a lot to that face-off group. Uh goalie Quad Williams comes back. I think in order for this team to be really, really good, Quad's gotta be he's gotta stand on his head.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

He was out my note was he was outstanding at times last year. But then at other times there was a few head scratchers.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Yeah. You know. I was thinking about this and I was like, you know, when goalies get hot, they get hot. You know, that's just what it is. They get they go through these periods where they get super hot. And boy, when Mr. Williams gets hot, he's ridiculous. But again, a couple of head scratches. There's a couple of games where maybe he didn't play as well as he should have. And I think for Wingate to get to that national level, they're going to need really, really super duper good goalie play this year. That's just my opinion. I think Mr. Williams has to up his save percentage. He really does. That's just my opinion. Just one knucklehead out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

No, I I can't disagree with you there. I mean, 50%, that's you want that or higher. And obviously, if you look at past national champions, their goalie play was much higher than 50%.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

100%. Oh, absolutely, man. A lot of it, you're going back, you know, to when we started when you know Brent Ulmer was uh Blake Ulmer. We have Blake Ulmer was at at Tampa and all these guys, they're just they're just lights out. Renner for two years, Shane Katchadorian, uh Terrio last year. You know, these are Benny, Pensa Benny, Rob Pensa Benny at LR. I mean, just those guys were good, and they really make a big difference. So, you know, I think with Graham Tillett, uh, McGovern, Blakely, Micho, Whitehouse, and Deardorf, these guys that McGovern and Blakely and Micho saw a lot of play until it started. So Tillett might go from LSM to pole. We might see, we'll see. You don't know. You know, we're gonna see. The face-off, I think, with the addition of Nico Cottage there, the D1 transfer, he's pretty good. There's pretty good there. Yeah. I think, you know, that was a thing with uh with Wingate last year as well. As good as Rupert and Spath were against the Jacob Chises, against the Mancinis, against, you know, uh the Mikey Flores's of the world, you know, three top, top face-off kids in the country, they struggled against those teams. Yeah. So if Wingate wants to get to that, they gotta win face-offs, gotta play better at at in goal. I think the offense is gonna be insane this year. Yeah, I agree with you. They're gonna be tough to guard. They're gonna be a tough, tough squad.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Very tough on the offensive side. That was my final comment. I agree with you. If their face-off goes up and they can go against the the big boys, when I'm saying the big boys, not the teams, but the top of face-off specialists and hold their own, that's gonna help out undoubtedly, because look it, they have a defense that is not, although you named a bunch of the players, they still don't have they don't have the experience yet as all starters. You see what I'm saying? So yeah, I understand, sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

So yeah, but but they're facing the number one offense in practice every day. You know, good for them. Yeah. You know, it's good they're you know, iron sharpens iron. So last year they averaged 18 goals a game, 53 shots per game, but their man up was only at 38%. I think that could be better, you know, with the team.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I had them at 16.4 goals per game last year. Oh well. Uh it's yeah, six, but but you're right. Their man up was much better last year.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

And it's still not where it should be with that team, with that squad.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Well, that is what I would say. Yeah, you look at 39%, you're like, that's really good.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

But then you look at that the squad, you're like You know, you have at least two All-Americans offensively and couple and a couple of all conference guys on that field on offense. You should be able to bury the biscuit on man up.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Especially when you look at the man up percentages of some of the other teams in the exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

So they they uh as a as a team that faced off at 52%, which isn't bad. They cleared at 90%, which is great. Yeah. 732 ground balls last year. They suck up a lot of ground balls. So you know what? The Bulldogs are gonna be a top 10 team. They're gonna be one of the teams in the country that's gonna be elite. They're gonna be they're gonna be a tough out no matter who plays them.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Totally agree. Let's move on to the team they beat in the conference tournament final, who had an unbelievable season. Anderson.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

The Trojans. Albert Mitchell, head coach. What a job he's done there. Boy, oh boy.

unknown 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

They were good last year. Now, here's the funny part. Like, this goes to show you how stupid and knuckleheadish I am. I listened back to last year's sack preview, and I'm like, I don't think Anderson's gonna get they'll be lucky to make 500. Really? That's what I say. I'm like, what a jerk I was. Boy, oh boy. They were 13-5 and 9-1 in conference.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

And not only that, but we talked about this in the intro, Danny. This is a team that was always below the top three LR limestone win game. Oh, for the first couple years. They didn't hadn't beat them, really. Last year, they beat Lenore Ryan and Wingate in the regular season. They beat Newberry, they beat LR again in the sack semis in overtime.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Then they finally lost to Wingate in the sack finals. And then lost to Meryville in the first round of the NCAAs. But they had an unbelievable season. And to me, they notched themselves up there in the elite of the sack, which when you're in the elite of the sack, just like you said, that's a top 10 team.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Um the elite squad. Elite squad, bottom line. I thought they were a super solid team last year. I thought Coach Mitchell did an excellent job of coaching, and he does a great job of recruiting, man. He gets good players to go there. I heard it's a beautiful school. I've never been to Anderson.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

I haven't.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Maybe I'll make that trip because they play my son's team plays Anderson this year at Anderson, so I might make that trip this year. They don't lose much at all. They really don't. No. They lose PJ Finchak and his 21 points. They lose mid Midi uh Max Calabrese was good for them. He had 16 points. This this guy was good, though. LSM Chase Robertson. Yes. He was very, very, very good for them.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Um I don't think it's gonna hurt them.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

I think they're gonna be just fine. They return just about everybody on offense six scores. Dude, Ryan Bitterman last year, the senior attack, 63 goals, 14 assists, 77 points. Junior attack, Cole Sparks as a sophomore last year, 30 goals, 44 assists. He's a dish man. I love it. 74 points. Senior attack, Raiden Badron. What can you say about that kid? Yeah. He's one of the better kids in the country. He's one of the better players in all of Division II, if you ask me. 51 goals, 17, 56 goals, I'm sorry, 17 assists, 73 points. And then our man, he's a senior this year, Kev. Unbelievable. Maddie Rogers, the senior attack. He had 30 goals, 11 assists, 41 points. Their midfield is legit, dude. Legit.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

And they bring Brody Deutsch and Braden Buschno.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Braden Bruchno, 26 goals, 17 assists for 41 points. Senior, they're gonna be they're gonna be senior heavy though this year, that's for sure. Uh senior Will Hazelhurst had eight goals and seven assists. Uh sophomore, Ryan Deutsch, come, uh Butch, uh, Brody Deutsch, 20 goals, 25 uh assists, 45 points. Their defense returns short stick D mid Nash Perry, 38 ground balls, seven cost turnovers. Redshirt sophomore, Garrett Casall, 33 ground balls, 12 cost turnovers. There's senior defenseman, Chris Zulata. You know he's from? Where is he from? He's from Boynton Beach, Florida, Kev. He's a Florida boy. 27 ground balls, 31 cause turnovers, and their LSM Greer Martin returns. Dude, they had 45 on their roster. Oh, I forgot to mention their elite face-off duo of AJ Rush and Aiden Dixon.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Well, I was gonna wait till you let me speak for a second and throw that in there. No, it's my turn now. You get the whole intro. I get the teams. Go. Yeah, yeah. And the goalkeeper returns.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Yeah, Aiden Lockwood returns.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Yeah. And he was at 51%. So we just talked about, and this is the one thing, a little bit of a difference between Wingate and Anderson. Now, I would say Wingate's I mean, look at Anderson, I won't even go there. Anderson's offense returning is unbelievable. Average 19 goals a game.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Does not lose first or second offense in the country.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

They their defense, they didn't really lose anyone either. They're returning almost everyone. Unlike Wingate a little bit, right? Now you you mentioned a lot that Wingate has in the wings coming in, but God, they are stacked in Anderson.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yeah, they're gonna be tough, man. I counted only 45 on the roster, though, Kev. That's kind of them, yeah. That's kind of smaller for a sack team. A lot of the sack teams are in their 50s, man. A lot of them. Even LMU and these guys and Coker are getting up into the 50s.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

I I my whole thing is once you get over 45, it's just a lot of other players that aren't playing most of the time.

unknown 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

45's a good. I think 45's a good. If you've got more, maybe you've I I'm looking, I'm not a coach. Coaches can tell me what benefits you get at 50, 55, 60. I'm sure there's something there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh you have more options, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

So they're 45 on the roster, 13 freshmen. They averaged 19 goals a game. They averaged 54 shots per game. Their man up was great at 50%.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Uh their face-off was just sick at 61%, you know, and they clear at 90%. I mean, I just think they're an elite squad, super on offense with guys that are fast, athletic, and they're well coached.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Yeah, coach shared with us that he thought they shared the rock uh last year really well, which is so true. Their offense played fast, so true. They said he said they need more stops in D and had to clear the ball better. I don't know how you clear the ball better when you're at 90%, but maybe 95%. I don't know. I mean, there's not much face off looks good, but could be better. Like too many, he said too many turnovers last year. I think that's the sign of a good coach. We heard this all the time when Storyer would would email us back, right? And he would say, We can get better at the clear, we can get better, less turnovers, and you look at their stats and they were outstanding. Right. That's picking, not picking at the edge, a little bit picking at the edges just to always improve.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Well, that's what good coaches do. They fine-tune. They fine-tune, you know, and they find coaches find things that are wrong. They're not looking for things that are right all the time. They're looking for things that the teams do wrong so they can fix it. Yeah. I just think, again, I think they're going to be really dangerous. I think they're going to be a top ten squad. Totally agree. I think that whoever they play is going to be in for a long, long afternoon. You have their out of conference?

SPEAKER_01 33:46

They're out of conference is North Greenville, Emery Riddle, in Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

In Jacksonville, Emory Riddle they play.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Oh, are they playing it in Jacksonville? And then at Montevallo after Lander and then Tampa.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah, they host Tampa.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

And then they play Wingate 11 days later. So that Tampa game is a little let's sharpen the irons against a good squad before Wingate comes in. So I like the Trojans. I think they're a really good team. I think they're going to be among the country's best. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

All right, let's move on to Lenore Rhine.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

The bears of Lenore Rhine University, located up there in Hickory, North Carolina, beautiful Southern North Carolina team town. Greg Paradine, great coach. What can you say? The guy's just an amazing coach, gets great players there, does an amazing job year in and year out. Got multiple championships under his belt, been to a few. Super nice guy. 14-4 last year, very great season for them. 8-2 in conference. They lost to Anderson and Limestone.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

And here's what I would say. If you recall when we did the preview last year, they had lost going into their 2025 season so many players. They had like a whole new team last year. Yeah. And we wondered how they would end up. We knew, obviously, with Coach Paradine, what a great coach he was. But if you look at it, that record with a whole basically a whole new team in a lot of ways, that's an amazing record. And they don't lose much this year.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

They don't. I mean, I mean, they do. They lose Evan Voss.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Right. Well, that's one. Where what else are they losing on offense?

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Well, Richie Timothy, he was the transfer from last year that came in from where Towson or whatever he was from. And they lose Cameron Heard on offense. You know, Voss had 49 points last year. He was a good cog for them.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

You know? He could light shit up.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

They lose LSM Josh Wright. They lose Cade Marino on defense.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

On defense, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

And they lose Patrick Shoemaker on defense, but they return pretty much everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah, on offense. I mean, some of the players you mentioned on offense weren't even their their top scores. They returned to the case.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

It doesn't matter that they were top scorers. They were good contributors to the other thing. No, you're right. They were. They're part of the lines that they're intricate. Yeah. You know, they work together. It doesn't matter if you get 13 goals, you know what? You know what to do and where to go with the ball. And you become part of what's happening on the field.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

They are returning a lot. They return Donnie Powell.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

47 goals, 20, 12 assists, 59 points. He's great, that kid. I've seen that kid light up for six or seven goals a game. He's another kid that is good enough to put a team on his back. He's really that good. They had junior attack Robert Walker last year.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Nate Serrano comes back.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yep. Junior Middle. Yeah. Peyton Gastol. They have sophomore Jonathan Garn. I wonder what kind of transfers Paradigns got this year. You know he's got some. Yep, they do. Huff had 24 goals, 21 assists for 45 points. Morgan Mattish, he was pretty impressive last year. He did some things that, quite frankly, I was very impressed with last year. He did some really good things on the field. He had 28 goals, 15 assists for 43 points. I mean, they had multiple guys that could really bury biscuits here. Like you said, brushing a hand, 20 goals, eight assists, 28 points, Serrano. Then they return sophomore Cooper Stark on defense. Yeah. 33 ground balls, six cause turnovers. Junior defenser Deacon Medwick comes back, 19 calls turnovers, 29 ground balls. Parks Painter, who was excellent for them last year. You know where he's from?

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Where is he from?

SPEAKER_02 38:16

He's from Memphis, Tennessee, Kev. 37 ground balls, 19 calls turnovers. What's huge for them, and I mean huge, is that their man at the dot, Matt Mancini, returns. Yeah. That is huge. That's huge for them. Because they got a big hole to fill. Because their goalie play was not up to par last year, Kev. They were pulling goalies left and right. They would start this one, pull them, put that one, pull them, put that one, pull them.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

I mean, they just did not and they were averaging, you know, in the 40s for save percentage, which is not normal for Lenore Ryan team.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Nah, they didn't have a good goalie in there last year. Now, I know that they brought my man Gavin Conlin in from Lake Erie, who had uh he had a broken collarbone one year, so he had a red shirt season. So even though he graduated, he had a year of eligibility, and he's down at Lenore Ryan. So does he get the start? Because he was in top 25 goalies last year in the country. Last year, Gavin was.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

It'll be interesting to see both their other goalies return. Jack Burge, who was at 43%, and Owen Peters was at 40%. It started he Jack had the most minutes, and Owen Peters started four games. As you said, coach kind of going back and forth between goalies, trying to find that guy who could get hot. Does Gavin come in and take that and give them better stability and over 50%?

SPEAKER_02 39:54

I think it does. I mean, what do they got to lose? I mean, because they just didn't get the goalie play that they they needed last year.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

And um but and that's the other thing. We talked just the opposite of Wingate, right? Wingate had all those experienced defenders and they didn't play as well as they usually do. Lenore Ryan has very bad goalie play last year for a typical Lenore Ryan team, and they still were 14-4. I know. I mean, that would tell you how good that team is.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

Yeah, man. They averaged 16 goals a game because Mancini gets them the ball, dude. Yeah. You know, they're they got the ball a lot. You know, they averaged 52 shots per game. Their man up was at awesome 54%. They clear at 90%, and their face-off was at 64, Kev. So seven out of 10 times, they got the ball. You know, they got the offense, they got control. So, do you need excellent goalie play if you got control? Well, if you want to win national championships, you do.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

You know, you can win games like they did last year, 14-4 here on the paper, but they didn't win much after that because I personally just don't think they had the goalie play.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

And that's exactly what I ended up with. This is what I said. I said they had a whole new team last year we already talked about and still performed well. Now they have experience and chemistry together. Those same, most of those same players. You mentioned some that, like I said, and and you're exactly right, who maybe weren't top scorers, but they were integral because of that chemistry and knowing what what to do. Yes. But they still bring back a lot. So they still bring a lot of that back. The key is goalie improvement.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Right. I they lose six starters. I still think the offense is going to be elite. Yes. My question is in goal. Yes. And who's going to replace the guys who graduated? Like, does Gavin Conlin come in? Um, you know what I mean? I think you might see a couple of new faces on defense. I think the offense is stout. I think you might see a couple of. But um, I expect this is this is another elite team with all Americans on both sides, studs, division one caliber players on both sides of the ball. Uh having Mancini for them is just a tremendous arrow in the quiver. You know what I mean? 100%. That's the that's the bomb, you know, that's the bomb right there. So I expect them to be a top ten team, Kev, to be honest with you. I do too. You know, they're that good. So I I you know they're a sack rival of ours, you know that, but you have to respect what they do.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

I agree. All right, let's move on to Newberry.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

The wool.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Located in Newberry, South Carolina. Okay, have Coach Nick Cotter at the helm. Couple of good wins last year. Signature win, a 14-13 win over Wingate. Then they lost to Lewis by two and lost to Emory Riddle by two, which was kind of like didn't expect that from them. They were 10-7 in overall and seven and three in conference.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Yeah, and let's look at their out of conference for this year. They're at Tampa, then they host Lee's McCrae, followed by Mount Olive, then they're at UNDY, at Lewis, hosting Emmy Riddle. That's a that's a excellent good test.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

Yeah. High RPI. Yeah. High high end lacrosse pretty much throughout that whole thing. That's a great out-of-conference schedule. And then they're gonna have to face some really good teams in in conference.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Now it's not gonna be easy for the Wolves, but uh I think they got a good team.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Here's what is interesting. I went to their roster, they have a 2026 roster up. But they show no freshmen and no transfers. No. And I know they got a lot. They've got, I think, four or five limestone transfers. At least five.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

That I that I heard of.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

So it's tough to tell who else they're bringing in, but they bring back a lot on offense.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

So let's talk about who they lose. Senior midfield Shane Hallowell. Yeah. Midfield Johnny McLean McLean. McLean. Midfield Derek Chiazzo. They lose defender Jack Travassos.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Brian Lake, who's really good, Long Island kid. And Caleb Mallon. Right. They also lose short stick, D-Mid, Tristan Nicholson. That's a lot to lose. Yeah. But again, like you said, they got some guys returning here about sophomore attack. Liam Vollins led this team last year as a freshman.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

I know.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

41 goals, 19 assists, 60 points. What a diamond in the rough cotter found in him, huh? Then another, who was another freshman last year, who's now a sophomore this year, attacked Scott Williams. 24 goals, 14 points, 38 points. And then sophomore attack Ace Nichols. So they returned pretty much their starting attack, and they were all freshmen last year. 11 goals, 15 assists for Ace. I love that name. Ace Nichols. Sounds like a detective, right? Put it on the list. Go get Ace. He'll solve the case. Their midfield sophomore Gage Vigor comes back. Senior Aiden Snow comes back. 82 points between those two middies right there.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

I mean, that's nothing to sneeze at. Their defense returns some big boy. Senior Will Wozniak, 19 ground balls, 16 cost turnovers. You know where he's from, Kev? Where is he from? A little Florida Town that's producing a lot of good lacrosse players. He's from Lake Mary, Florida. Yeah. Yeah. So a short stick D Mitty, Nathan. Puglio comes back, 15 ground balls, six cost turnovers. Faceoff man, Colby Rogers, who was at a solid 50% last year, and goalie Ben McMullen. I mean, they lose some defenders, though, with Travasos, Lake, and Malin there.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

The one thing my note is who on D steps up.

SPEAKER_02 46:31

Exactly. We're going to see some new faces on D.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Right. And I don't know, I can't remember who from limestone they're bringing in. If they're bringing in offensive players, defensive players, I assume it's maybe a mix. I don't know. But I think where they could use the help in transfers may be on the defensive side.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Yeah, I think they're gonna, you know, I that's a lot to lose. I don't know who they have. Again, their roster wasn't updated, like you said. So they did bring in players for sure. I know that. So even though the roster hasn't been updated, I expect Newberry to be a really tough squad. I think Coach Cotter over the last four years has really taken and putting those ingredients. We talk about the ingredients, you know. And he's been knocking on the door. He's been making noise in the sack, just having trouble getting over the Wingate LR limestone home.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

And they they did one time last year. They beat Wingate. So they're right there, and I see them as a top 20 team. I think last year in my top 20, I did not have them in because I wasn't sure, and they ended up like number 17 or 16 at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

In the top 20. They deserve that from what they did, and I think they're gonna be right there again this year.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Is this the season that the Newberry Wolves get to the championship? I don't know because they're gonna have to beat a really good wingate squad and a really good LR squad and a really good Anderson squad.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Well, that's what we said at the beginning. These four at the top could eat each other up in the season, and I don't think you really can tell what happens in season, what's gonna happen in the conference tournament.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

No, that's right. You're right. But I think they're gonna be a top 15 team. I think I agree with you. I think they're gonna be a real I think they're gonna be with the elite squads. I really do. They got the numbers, they got the players. Can they get over that hump? And that hump is Anderson, LR, and Wenge. So we'll see. Again, they do lose some players, but they return a good squad. And again, I think Coach Cotter's really been putting those ingredients together for the last couple of years. I know he wants it bad.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Let's move to another team that continues to make noise and continues to improve every year since they got Mike Murphy as the head coach, and that's the Catawba Indians.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

The Indians. Coach Mike Murphy, good guy. Located in Salisbury, North Carolina, Kev. 9-7 overall, four and six in conference, signature win at 13-11 win over Belmont Abbey. Uh I think personally, solid season for Coach Murph and the Indians. They started out. Remember last year we were doing their out-of-conference, and I said, hey, there's a possibility that this team could be six and oh by the time they started sack play, and they were six and oh. And they had a little stumble against Mars Hill. That they should have won that game. And then they lost six out of their last eight against the Behemoths in the sack. Yeah. So Coach Murph's goat, they were very young last year, Kev. And above 500. Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

If you look at it, hit more improvement in total wins. They jumped up in a lot of offensive statistical categories, total goals, total assists, goals per game, shots per game, shooting percentage. They improved in all those. And I think we've talked to other coaches, and we're going to get to them later on when we talk about Emory and Henry, that coach Ripple talked about that last year, right? Same sort of thing. You don't build a team always by you don't improve by looking at your wins and losses. You improve by in improving in your statistical categories that mean the most to you. And that's what they did last year. You're right. They stumbled, but they're up in a in a tough conference when you start playing these big boys. And there's five of them, you know, right off the bat that they they couldn't beat last year, and that's their next, that's their next level. I don't know if they of course they've got that. They they they got into the tournament, they lost to Lenore Ryan in the sack quarters, and they were young last year, and they bring back a lot.

SPEAKER_02 51:06

Yeah. They started a lot of freshmen and sophomore last year, Kevin. Started.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

So I personally, if you look at the attack units' numbers, their numbers at the attack were really phenomenal. Uh junior Tanner Stout returns 37-9 for 46 points. Senior Peyton Turner returns 18 goals, 23 assists, 41 points. Uh senior Frank Citron comes back, 29 goals, 11 assists, 40 points. Sophomore Devin Trezia, 16 goals, 5 assists, 21 points. That's 848-12. That's 150 something points right there.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Then you add in Michael Lindsay.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

He's a he's a he's a midfield.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

And he's the younger brother of Davis Lindsay of Tampa.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Right. He was a freshman last year. Had 17 goals, five assists, 22 points. Then you add Garrett Simmy, 11-8 for 19. Andrew Crumpacker, 9-7 for 16. Uh senior Hunter Clark comes back, 10-5-15. They had a lot of guys that could put biscuits in the basket and dish the rock. Again, one guy's a sophomore, one, two sophomores, three, three sophomores on that starting offense. So they were young last year. Their defense brings back a sophomore. Ben Butterfield, 18 ground balls, 12 cost turnovers. Junior Steven Hernandez, 6'6, 200 pounds. The guys of Behemoth. Sophomore Owen Conway, 6'4, 210 pounds. He had 43 ground balls and 24 core, 25 close turnovers.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Look at that. Their starting D last year were two freshmen and a sophomore.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

And two, one was 6'6, 200, and the other one was 6'4. You know where Owen Conway's from? Where is he from? He's from Bel Air, Maryland, Kev. 43 ground balls, 25 cross turnovers. Their face off, Kale Petrov comes back, 51%. And goalie, Ben Lopiccolo, was a true freshman yet last year in goal for Coach Murph. 47% as a freshman.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

Yeah, and he took over after six games. So that's the learning curve. That they're going to have to get better on the goalie side. Coach says that some areas of success he felt, like man up, they were they went 49%, which was unbelievable. Finished third in the NCA. Their team faceoffs were over 50% for the first time in seven years, he told us. That's great. Now the areas of focus, and this you can see it right off the bat when you look at their clearing percentage. They're only at 79.7, 80%. So they feel they need some improvement there. Uh and so I think this team is going to continue to make strides. I agree. The question is, can they be competitive against the big boys in the conference?

SPEAKER_02 54:18

You know, it has to have to see what you know what they bring in recruit-wise. You know what I mean? They were very young last year, but very competitive. You know, they compete. You're not rolling over the Catawba Indians. Coach Murphy is a good coach. He knows how to coach the NCAA game. He's only been there a couple of years. He's still getting his boys there. Um again, they had a lot of freshmen and softs on the field. I expect Catawba to be super competitive again.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

And they got two ranked teams on their out-of-conference schedule. And I think the Indians are looking to sharpen and maybe make a little run. I think they're going to improve this year. I think they're going to be a better squad.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

I agree. I agree. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Did you do their out-of-conference?

SPEAKER_01 55:05

Yeah, we went through their out of conference. Oh, they're out of conference. I thought we did. Maybe we didn't. Okay. Their 2026 out of conference is Lander. Then they're at Mount Olive, at Belmont Abbey, at Barton. Then they host St. Leo, followed by UAH.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Yeah. So that's a good out-of-conference for them.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

That's good. And like you said, St. Leo's going to be a real test. Lander's going to be a real test. Belmont Abbey's going to be a real test. I think they can hold their own with Mount Olive and Barton. And I think the same thing with UAH. So a little bit tougher, it looks like, than last year's, which is good for them. Yeah. And I think they are going to be, like you said, I wouldn't be shocked if they beat one of the big boys. Maybe a little bit, but I think they'll be competitive.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

Again, they were young last year. They don't lose a lot. Right. And coach is a good coach. You know, once you get that chemistry going, anything can happen. I mean, this team, they don't suck. They almost had 10 wins last year, you know.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Do not discount the Cataw Indians.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

No, no, absolutely not. And, dude, they play in the sack. It's a gauntlet there. Yeah. And they know that they're going to have to face these teams year in, year out. And Coach Murphy's got to get those guys that can play against those guys. And you know what? Since he's got there, he's been adding the ingredients each year. And they've been improving. Again, 9-7, almost a 10-win team last year, Kevin. Right. Can't sneeze at that.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Now, here's another team that you can't discount. And that's Mars Hill.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

The Lawyers. Coach Josh Coons. He's uh 8-8 last year. 500, 4-6 in conference. And their signature win was a 14-11 win over Catawba. They do lose a couple of guys, Kevin. They're kind of short on numbers with the roster. I only counted 33 on their roster.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Their 2026 roster, I'm not, it's not out yet.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

That's what they had maybe last year, 33, which is surprising to me. Yeah. You know, Mars Hill's part of the sack. I'm surprised they don't have more than 33 players on there. Dude, they lose a boatload. Boatload.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Yeah, they lose yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

Josh McCallan, Brandon Woodward, Austin Stroud. Almost over a hundred points just between those three guys. Cole Ross, 33 points. He's gone. Yeah. Face off A.J. Howland's gone. And Golan Shane Hecht is gone.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

And also I've got short stick D mini Zach Gardner McMinn is gone. Oh, he is gone? That's what I have.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

I have him returning. I wouldn't know, and it looks like we both don't know. One says potato, one says potato. I have him returning. He had 35 ground balls. But they do return junior attack, Sam Arnt. 37 goals, 18 assists, 55 goals. Again, they were young too last year. They started two, a freshman at attack. Now sophomores uh Caleb Nelson, Luke Moore.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

So kind of young last year. And then they have some nice defensemen coming back. They have Liam Murray coming back, and junior defenseman Elliott Prescott comes back. But again, I mean, after losing like 80% of their offense output, Kev. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

But on the defense, I think they are strong because they get LSM Carter Semple. He's returning senior D, Jake Lynch, along with what you said, Liam Murray and Elliot Prescott. Faceoff specialist, A.J. Howland is a fifth year. He's back from what coach told us. He was at the end of the day. Oh, he's coming back for a fifth? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:02

All right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:03

And then they've got uh face-off junior uh Mason Messicomer, probably butchered that name. He was injured in March last year, and he's returning. So he probably is going to be able to help out A.J. Howland.

SPEAKER_02 59:17

So who's going to get that goalie spot? Because last year they had a sophomore that got some burn, um, Xavier Wells. He didn't get a lot of burn, but when he did, he did pretty well. He was at 61%. So again, I only counted 33 on their roster from last year. They averaged 11 goals a game, only 39 shots per game. Their man up was at 32%. Their face-off was at 46, and their clear was at 85. Kev, I think they got some big shoes to fill on offense.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Yeah, coach did let us know uh that he is looking for some key productions from some other players that we have not mentioned. Junior Middy Ben Hokinson. Okay. An Australian Jake Mannix, and a freshman, Aiden McNamara. Okay, so he's got some youngins coming in. Some pieces that we haven't seen yet that hopefully can help them.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Right. I have a feeling that they might have to str they might struggle a little bit this year. So it's a wait and see right now for the I'd agree with you, V.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

They lost a lot of offensive production. I think at best they may be steady state. Um, they looked at the dudes has done a good job.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

Close to 150 points on offense.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

Yeah. So let's see if they can they can, with the people they bring in, the players they bring in, what they can do. I I agree with you. This is a team you have to watch. It's a team that you couldn't discount last year. I wouldn't discount them this year, but let's see where they end up.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Yeah, they're out of conference schedule. They're at Belmont Abbey. They host Young Harris, they're at Montevallo and at North Greenville before they start sack play. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

So then I think they've got Lees McCrae later on in the season. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:15

Later on.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:16

After they in the midst of uh of So I think I'm gonna have to see them and see what they put on the field this year. I think they're I think they're still gonna be kind of on the young side. Yeah. You know, but let's see what Coach Coons can do up there in the mountains of North Carolina there.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Let's move on.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

To Coker. The Cobras. The Cobras! Coach Austin Ambrose. You know where Coker's located?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

Artsville, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

That's right, Kev. You know where that is? It's about a little over an hour from Columbia, South Carolina. Seven and nine last year. Not a bad season for Coker Cobras, but they do lose their top three scorers. Yeah.

unknown 1:02:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:09

Justin Bahey, Tyler Adjmean. Probably butchered that one. Someone's gonna have to come back to me, and Augie Ford is what I had.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

Yeah. It's 92 goals between the three of them, man. They lose senior attack Sean Moran. That's a good name. I like that name. Uh they lose defenseman Mason Kentworthy, goalie KJ Seymour, and Midy Connor Gross. But they do return senior attack Ryan Forehand at 36 points last year. They do return senior attack Caleb Hilts, had 22 goals last year. They do return junior midfield Britt Rumba. Nine goals, 12 assists for 21 points. They have a couple of middies coming back. Seniors, Jackson Dirk and James Brands. They are sophomore goalie. He was a freshman in goal last year for the Cobras. Rice Galloway. He was at 45%. And then they got uh a defensive transfer. Michael Jensen's coming over from St. Leo. And they got Brendan Madonia at face-off. He was kind of struggled last year at 36%. But here's what I like. They had 51 on their roster this year, Kev, up from 41 last year. And I saw 24 freshmen I counted. That's phenomenal. That's going to be a huge thing for the Coker Cobras. Because they struggled. They struggled last year. They struggled to score goals. They don't clear the ball well. They turn the ball over a little bit. They averaged almost 22 turnovers a game, Kev. But I think with the added depth, we could see some improvement with this team.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Yeah, so what I would say is last year they were pretty much steady state from what they were the year before as far as record. They the team stats showed some improvement from the year previously. They've always been a gritty team. They need to rely on that a lot of times to sneak out more wins. They lose some firepower in both offense and defense, but they have some new faces. So can they break 500 this year? Now with the bigger roster, will they remain kind of at the same level until those 24 freshmen get some experience and maybe it's their sophomore junior year that they get a little bit better? I think this is another team we'll have to wait and see.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:47

I would say the latter on that. I think these kids are gonna have to come in and learn the the college game. Um I don't know. Again, they struggled to score last year. I do love the fact that they went up 10 players from 41 to 51. I love the fact that they got 24 freshmen, and then that's a great year of recruiting.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

You know what I mean? And that's gonna really super duper help their program. Um they only averaged nine goals a game. They only averaged about 36 shots per game. Their man up was at 31. Overall, their face-off was at 52%, and they clear it like a little over 80%. So not a bad team, not a great team, kind of like middle of the road kind of team.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

Right. Yeah, I'd agree with that. And I've seen them in the past. Like I said, they to me they've always been a gritty team. They've had some turnover, obviously, and coach coaches since we've been doing this. Austin Ambrose is there second, third year. He was the interim head coach, he was an assistant before that. I think it's good to continue to be. He's starting to build. If he's gotten that many recruits, let's see what he can do this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

Yeah. To turn a program over. I mean, Unless you're JB Clark, you know, or one of those kind of coaches where you can just, you know, John Jez or Bill Dunn that you can just turn the program around just by showing up.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

But even those guys, except for Clark going to Tampa, Dunn and Jez, they're taking four years, three, four years.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

Yeah, they have to do their work, but they know what they're doing, and then they get it done. You know what I mean? So, you know, they uh there are the Cokers, the Coker Cobra is out of conference schedule this year. They host Barton, they're at Lander, they host Emmanuel and at Young Harris. So I think that's good for them. And uh let's see what happens with Coach Ambrose and the Cobras this year.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Yeah, I had a few more on there. I had them starting at Belmont at Belmont at the Is that a scrimmage?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

Those might be scrimmages. Oh, they could be. If they're late January, yeah. Yeah, those are the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

Barton may be a real game. It starts on the 31st.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:00

I think they only have four out of conference. A couple scrimmages in the front.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:04

Although the play starts for the sack January 31st. Yes. So Barton could be a game that's on their schedule. Yeah. Yeah. So all right. Uh let's move on. Here's a team and talk about trying to build a coach who's in his second full season, and I think is doing that with the Tusculum Pioneers.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:30

The Pioneers.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:34

Mike Brisbane. In Greenville, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:39

Yeah. Coach Brisbane enters his third season for the Pioneers. They were 5-11 last year, 1-9 in conference. They were extremely young last year for Coach Brisbane, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:53

But here's what I would say. You're right. But they improved their record.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:58

Yeah. They now have over 40 on their roster with 18 freshmen.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

There's only 28 last year, 43 this year. Zach, man. These guys are building up their squads, these squads.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Yeah, and that's what they need to do. And I think he's you we just talked about it with Coker. Coach Brisbane's doing the same thing with this team.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:26

Their top three scorers were sophomores. And seven out of their top eight scorers were either freshmen or sophomores. Extremely young. Extremely young on the f on the offensive side. And they did pretty good, man. He was a sophomore last year. He's a junior this year. Attack Luke Bowen, 73 points, my man. Yeah. 30 goals, 43 assists. Junior attack Ben Royer comes back. 33 for 63 points. And then senior attack, Clay Mendez comes back, 24 goals, 14 assists, 38 points. That is a pretty darn good attack unit, Kev. And some of them have a couple more years left.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

Then the midfield stacked. They were all sophomores last year. They're juniors. They all played. Tyson Fontena, Preston Stewart, Blake Harrison. Fontena had 37 points. He had 32 goals. Preston had 21 goals. I mean, they're not too bad at the defense, uh, at the midfield. I don't know how the deep they are, but it looks like they added players for themselves. And then on defense, they have some guys coming back on defense, junior defensemen, uh Aiden Paychak.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

34 ground balls, 17 calls turnovers, junior defense, Jesse Brown returns. Sophomore defenseman, Jamie Thompson returns, 34 ground balls, 10 calls turnovers last year. Sophomore, he was at a freshman last year, starting. Aiden Lyman, 26 ground balls. They do lose goalie Brendan Picara. Yeah. So does sophomore goalie Garrett Smith get the nod because he got some burn last year?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:11

Yeah, he did. He played in seven games. You would think he may have the be the front runner there. Yeah. But we'll have to wait and see.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

Yeah, and this team averaged 13 goals a game, averaged 35 shots a game. Their man up was at 39. They face off at 35. They need to do better there. And they clear at 75%. They need to do better there. But you know what? If you ask me, Coach Brisbane has clearly made a move to improve this team in the sack.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:44

100%. What I said, yeah. What I said last year was that this was a rebuild, and their goal is to get to the first rung in the sack or what they're doing. I think they did that. I think they got to that first rung with a 5-11 record, and they're building.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:02

Yeah, but they're only one and nine in conference. So they got some work to do in conference. But again, again, they were super duper young last year, Kev. Super duper, super duper young. Freshmen and sophomores all over the field.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

With a fairly small roster.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:17

Exactly, but only 28. You know, one kid gets hurt, two kid gets hurt. It spells doom, you know, especially in the sack. But um again, another year together should bring this team closer together to being a cohesive unit and playing better. I think they need to improve vastly at the face-off. 39% ain't gonna get it done in the sack. But I definitely think that the added depth is gonna help the Pioneers and Coach Brisbane. So I'm looking forward to seeing. Again, they're gonna be young, they're gonna still gonna have their struggles, but I love the fact that they brought in so many guys and 17, 18 freshmen or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:56

And let's go over their their out of conference for this year. They're at Wheeling, then they host Emmanuel at Chouan, at Thomas More, and at Virginia State. Okay. Which it's not I think the toughest team on that schedule is probably Wheeling, their first game. It's not a tough, tough schedule, so I think they can actually do fairly well. They could be another like Cataba from a year ago, potentially.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

It could equate to a winner, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:27

Yeah, it could equate for them, but then they got to go through the the sack.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

Yeah, exactly. But we'll see. Again, love the fact that he's adding to the roster. You know, that's that's the second or third team now that's been adding to the roster. That's good. It's good for the sack, it's good for the programs, it's just good all around. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:46

Got a couple teams left. Let's head to Lincoln Memorial.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:51

The rails splitters. Coach Joe Wilson. He's doing a good job up over there in Harrogate, Tennessee, Kev. There we go. Yeah, man. They were 4-10 overall, and again, another team that was one and nine conference. Uh they lose a couple of guys this year. They lose their top score, Rhodes Conroy. Yeah. They lose uh face-off Hayden Berry. They lose defenseman Nolan Cumberston and short stick D Mitty, John Lombell. But they do return a bunch of guys. You want to go over them? Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:27

Yeah, well, I've got also they they they also lose short stick D. Middy, Ashen Wilson. I had John Lombell as a defender, but they lose. So these are like three key defensive players, and you mentioned the ones on offense that they lose. The ones I see they're retaining on the offensive side, junior attack, Gavin Reed, senior midi, Jensen Jones.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:50

He's a senior this year, Gavin.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

Okay, I had him as junior. Okay, so senior, then uh Alex Winters, junior attack, and then junior midi, Alex. Alright, I'm gonna butcher this one. Weggerson? Weggerson. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:07

Weggerson. That's what it is. Daniel Pearl comes back. He's a senior attackman. Who else?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:16

That's who I've got as far as their key players coming back on.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

Middy Cohen Burdett returns. He had 10 goals. And his uh, you know, guys that played last year. Uh senior midfield Jensen Jones, 14 and 14 for 28. Uh short stick D. Middy, Jordan Jordan Castro comes back, eight eighteen ground balls, uh, twenty-eight ground balls, six cost turnovers, a couple of defensemen, uh, uh senior Connor Blond Blondin, uh, and uh junior uh Aiden Blizzard. Yep, yep. Aiden Blizzard is six foot six, he's another beast. Uh face off Brixton McKenzie comes back at uh 40%. He was uh back up to Hayden Berry last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:59

Um I also have LSM Henry Boss returning. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:03

And uh in goal last year, they had a true freshman in Connor Fitzgibbon, and he was at 44% last year. They averaged a little less than nine goals per game. They averaged 37 shots per. Their man up was at 27%. They averaged 17 turnovers a game, Kev. That's not too good. Uh face off at 47, they clear at 86. So Lincoln, uh, again, they had 37 on their roster last year, Kev. They have 45 on their roster this year with 21 freshmen coming in. So this is the fourth team in the sack that's added on dramatically to their roster. Yeah. And I think it's great again. So they do lose a couple of guys, but I'm not sure it's gonna hurt them all that much. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

I think they've got some key offensive pieces returning. They lose a little more seniority on defense, but with the roster increasing, I think they're gonna be about at the same, if not better. Look, I like what Coach Wilson has done there. Can they rebound to where they were a couple years ago when they really were starting to make a splash?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:21

You know, before Wilson got there?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:24

No, right when Wilson got there.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:25

When he got there.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:26

Yeah, a couple years after he got there, they really were playing at a higher level than they have the past couple years. Can they return to that 2023 level? I think we we will see. I think it's gonna be a work in progress, but he's got the pieces, and I'll be interested to see where they go this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

He's starting to put pieces. He's starting to get some pieces, absolutely. Not all the pieces yet, but he's definitely starting to get some pieces. If they they need to improve at face-off, and they need to improve at clearing, and they need to take the care of the rock, and they need better goalie play. But I do love the 21 freshmen on the roster. I love the fact that Coker and and and and these guys are just adding to their roster. Yeah. Totally agree. You know, you're talking between four teams. These teams added each 10, 12 players to their roster. Right. It's an extra 40 guys. You know, it's it's the depth is big. It's huge. It's huge. It helps them at practice. Yeah. So I think Coach Joe Wilson has a little still has work to do with the rail splitters, but again, each year he's kind of been adding those.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:36

So I went I just went back through. In 2023, their record was seven and nine overall. And that's when I thought, wow, they're a team that's going to move up. I thought in 2024 they'd be above 500. They did not reach that. They went back to like four and eleven, and they've been about at that level.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:51

But what were they in conference in 23? 3-6. All right. See, see, in conference, it's everything. You know, your outer conference can be favorable and you can get three wins, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:02

Right. But you're also doing that sometimes. We've talked about this. Is how you how do you do it? Like, are you trying to build confidence to get ready? Are you going to be really tough where you could beat the beat yourself up and then be injured and not be ready for play in the in the conference? I don't know personally which way is is the better way to go. I think there's got to be a good mix. And it's 50-50, right? And I I look at this though, like that's what I said. Like back in 2023, they were three and six in conference, which where they had been in years previously, like back in 2020 when they barely didn't even had a team. Right. Wilson was building that, and I I guess I expected them to be in 2024 and 2025 building to over that 500 and getting closer to 500 in conference record, potentially. They haven't reached that, but they do have the bones and the structure. I like what Coach Wilson is doing. I like his assistance and his staff that he's got there. I think that they can put it together. Maybe was losing some key pieces back after 2023. I have to go back and look at what we said. Who knows? But they are a team that I still growing. Still growing and needs to improve. They're 2026 out of conference. You look at a team that's got a good mix. I think this is a pretty good mix. Wheeling at Lander, then they host Mount Olive, Malone, and UAH, and then they finish up their out-of-conference at Thomas More. Okay. So that's a pretty good mix. Yeah, and it's going to test them a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:35

I like to see them against those guys, especially the UAH kind of team, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:40

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

And I think so. I like Joe Wilson. I think he was great when he came on our show that time. I really liked having him on. Um, I just, you know, he's just getting those ingredients and just trying to make it work. He's plugging away up up there in Harrogate, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:58

And that comes to our last team who is doing the same thing, trying to build and mix those ingredients and plug away. And that's the Emory and Henry Wasps. The Wasps.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:16

You won't do a hawk anymore, but you will do a B. I figured I got the tenor for a B more than I have the tenor for a hawk.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:24

So they are in Emory, Virginia, head coach Eric Ruppel. Second year program. Last year was their first year playing. They were or 14 last year, Danny, at 2025. They had a small roster of 18 freshmen.

unknown 1:20:41

Oof.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:42

And as you recall, Coach Ruppel took over after Joe Laird stepped down. And Joe Laird had recruited all those players. Right. So the team, even going into prior to going to the season and starting their fallball, when RuPaul was there, was dealing with some adversity, right? And you're a young team, you're all freshmen, that's not an easy thing to deal with. No. Stop. Here's the good news. Their roster is moving up. They're now up to 26. They've got 11 freshmen, 13 sophomores. They've got one Guildford College transfer who's a junior. And then they've got one senior. Interestingly, this senior also plays on the Emory and Henry golf team. So he split the time. I don't know how that works too well, but maybe he gives brings a little NCA experience and knowledge and a little more leadership qualities. Qualities. Their 2026 out of conference this year is Virginia State. They host Virginia State. Then they're at Young Harris, at Emmanuel. Then it's they're playing Stack and Sparks, Maryland, and then they also play Barton at home. Okay. That's a pretty good schedule for them. That's a difficult schedule. If you their 2025 stats were tough. I mean, they only shot 20.8 shots per game. Goals per game were at 3.5. Basically, it was a high school team. They were they were in a very steep learning curve. I mean, their man-up was only at 6.3%. I can go down the rest of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:19

Don't do that to the guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:20

Don't do that to the wall.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:21

Here's the only thing that r uh would really got me, and I think it's something that I know Coach Ruppel is trying to get there from uh improvement, and they only had 19 assists in their goals. Now they didn't score a lot of goals, but that was well below 50%. And when you talk about really moving the rock, sharing the ball, he talked about last year seeing improvement in things like clear percentage, ride percentage, and hockey assists. Okay. You're not really seeing that with that many, and that's probably what he's going to continue to work on. Look, he knew what this was going to be like, and it's going to be very incremental. He wants to see improvement and progress this year over last year, and that's going to be the key.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:06

You know, adding some extra players is going to help, adding the depth, of course. But I, you know, again, this is a brand new program, Cav.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:15

Brand new program. I mean, they're just, they're really in their infancy. They're they're in diapers still. So there's a lot of work for Coach Ruppel to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:26

They lose, interestingly, their top two scores. They did not return. Dakota Hawkins, 15 goals, two assists, and Colin Shell with 14 goals, one assist. But they do bring back a lot. Sophomore MIDI, David Mews, sophomore MIDI, Gabe Carter, sophomore middle Cabe, Caleb Mims, who played in all 14 games. I think they've got a lot of their core coming back. On D, they lose sophomore D, Michael Wyman, but everyone else returns. And they're all sophomores. Kyle Diet, Isaiah Ward, Noah Parrish, Connor Miller, and uh short stick D Mini, Jackson Swanson. They're just gonna need to build off of that. They're gonna need to build with that core and go from there and improve the basics.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:13

Absolutely. 100%. Couldn't agree with you more. It's a brand new program. They're starting from zero. Yeah. So 18 players to 20, what, 20, how many?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:23

26.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

All right. All right. Moving upwards, you know, that helps a little bit of practice. It helps a little bit with it, maybe a second midi line that you can run in. But until they can get some players and get going there, it's gonna be another rough year for Coach Rupple. But I think he knows that. He's building a program.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:41

Right. He started to build it at Quincy and was doing a good job there. I think he can do the same thing here. And uh and we'll just see. We got to give him a few more years. We'll see how they how they compete this year. I think it'll be interesting on some of the out-of-conference games and maybe a couple of their in-conference games, but I would venture to say that there's still a steep learning curve with the top six teams in the in the sack. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. Okay, so there we go. That is the preview for the sack. What do you think, Danny?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:20

Dude, it's been a long couple of months with this conference, these breakdowns. 81 teams, it was a lot of work, but uh, you know me, I love the sack. I think it's a great conference. I think some of the best teams in the country reside in this conference. You know, you had limestone and LR and Wingate and Anderson and Newberry. That's a tough conference, man. Yeah. All these teams are top 10, top 12. Some of them might be top five teams, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:53

So I agree. And the thing that I would say about this conference this year, kind of if you look at what happened last year, that Wingate pulled it out in the end, and I said it earlier, I think if you look at those top four or five teams, I'm not sure you can call it any time during the season or going to the conference tournament, what's going to happen?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:15

No, it comes down to who wants it more and execution, and the good teams need good play at the dot and in goal.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

I think, you know, I think Wingate's offense is as good as anybody in the country cap. That's how good their offense is. Can their defense keep them in games? They lose, do cut, they do lose a couple of guys. I like what they do in bringing in the D1 transfer at the dot. It's going to help them immensely. The kid's good. Um Williams has to be, he's got to be better. He's got to be better. And the Wingate Bulldogs have to do better on man up. I think the Anderson Trojans are going to be one tough squad, man. They are loaded for bear offensively, defensively. They bring their face-off gurus back, two of them. Pick your poison. They're going to come out and win six out of ten on you, no matter what you do. Yeah. That's what they do. Um, Bitterman, Sparks, Berdon, Rogers, Braden Brush, no. Dude, they're they're tough. They're going to be tough. And and Coach Mitchell is doing a great job coaching them. LR, great offense. A couple of little holes in defense. My question is for them is in goal. Agree. But on the opposite side of that, they got Mancini.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:42

With Mancini at the dot, chances are they're going to come up with the ball more often than not. So they're going to be playing offense more times than they're going to be playing defense. Statistics show that. You know? I think Newberry's going to be tough. I heard that they looked very. Very good in the fall. They played North Greenville. I got a little DM from a North Greenville dad said, Wow, Newberry looked good. So I expect the Wolves to be pretty damn good, although they did lose a lot, especially in the midfield. And and um so and those four guys, and then you got Coach Murphy and the Catawba Indians making moves. Those guys added guys to their roster. The Cobras added raw guys to their roster. Mars Hill added guys to their roster. LMU added guys to their roster. Tusculum added guys to their roster, their roster. I think that's amazing in the sack. These teams needed to do that in order to try to even get to where these top five teams are in that sack. Sack's a tough, tough, tough conference, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:53

Totally agree. And I think it'll be interesting in a couple years to see where those the Tusculums, the Mars Hills, the Lincoln Memorials, the Cokers, even Emory and Henry, what do they start producing when they get the rosters up to that size? And then they start building the real depth at not only bodies, but quality players.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:18

I think these teams are going to go get them. I think so too. And the reason being is because lacrosse is exploding in the south. You know, the high school lacrosse is just growing and growing and growing in the south. Like guys are stopping playing baseball to play lacrosse. You know what I mean? Yeah. Kids who whose dads are like, you're gonna go out there and play third base. And they're like, no, dad, I want to go out and play lacrosse, you know? And these kids are coming out and playing lacrosse now, and there's just more players that are getting better. And there's only so many D1 spots. They're company D2. They're adding schools every year. Every year in this in this division. They're adding schools. We might lose one or two, a Mercy Hurst, a Limestone, a Lemoyne, a Lindenwood, but we get two. We lose one, we get two. Right. Like we got Point Park this year and Northwest Nazarene. You know what I mean? So again, I just think what Division II is doing is amazing. I think it's growing and growing. You can't deny it. You can't deny the growth. And especially in the South. And a lot of these players, Kev, from the North, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, even up Massachusetts, upstate New York, they're coming down south to play ball.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:32

Yeah, I agree.

Shout outs

SPEAKER_01 1:30:34

All right, now it's time to move on to shout-outs. Do you have any? Zero shout outs. It's not shout-out time yet. It's not. All I can say is we finished all our conference previews. So the only shout out I've got is to the Division II 2026 season. I can't wait. We've got one episode left before the season starts. That's our top 20, your top 20 compared to my top 20. And then we'll talk about some players to watch on your side and what I'm looking at too. That's always a fun episode. I've already started to do my homework because I have to go on travel for like a week, so I want to get ahead of the game. I'm done. It was not easy. I did my top 20. I have my top 22. And so I started my players to watch list. I've got that ready to go, I think. But it that top 20 was not easy. Was not easy.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:33

It was a lot easier than it was last year from here.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:35

I have 27 teams that could be in the top 20.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:39

Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:41

So it'll be fun to do, and then we're right into the season, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:46

Yeah, baby. Here we go. Another quality year.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:49

You know what I'm saying? I'm I'm ready. I'm psyched. I'm pumped. All right, Danny. For this conference preview, that's a wrap. That's a wrap, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:04

I'm always walking around telling everybody high.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:09

Love the stop. Top twenty next week, guys. There we go.