Roster Reactions PT.2
Chicago - Sam Nielsen
PC: Chicago Prowl
In moving from Indianapolis to Chicago, the Prowl have put together what is one of, if not the, best roster in the franchise’s history and should have a strong rebound from a disappointing 2022 season in Indianapolis. Last year they were swept in three close games in Minneapolis and bowed out of the play-in bracket to the Charlotte Aviators at MLQ championships. This season Chicago looks to win a series against Minneapolis for the first time since 2019 and make a deep bracket run at MLQ championships.
Looking down a list of changes from the 2022 roster, the first name to jump out is the addition of Darian Murcek-Ellis. Murcek-Ellis has been a rising star in the sport for the last two years, and is already no stranger to big games, having played in the USQ Cup finals each of the last two years. He should fill a critical role on this team as an initiator on offense and a solid defender, both areas that Intensity often struggled with last year. Emma Vasquez is another important addition to the team, coming from last year’s Detroit Innovators. Vasquez is an excellent passer who can also put pressure on opposing defenses with a drive and already has chemistry with much of the team, having played for Boom Train during the USQ season. The Prowl also boast a few highlight additions from college teams in other parts of the country, including Grant Himmelman from Mizzou, Byron Ng from Rutgers, and Caleb Williams from Baylor.
Other than these newcomers, the vast majority of this roster comes from three teams: Chicago United, Columbia College Chicago, and a full half of the roster from USQ Cup semifinalists Boom Train. The Boom Train core of this roster, anchored as always by star Nathan Digmann, has only improved over the past year, especially with time to work with franchise newcomers from last year like chasers Ryley Andrews, Cole Collins, and Ben Peachy.
Looking at this roster position-by-position, I expect Chicago to maintain a top-notch beating squad, but paired with a significantly improved chasing corps. While Tad Walters (non-playing assistant coach) and longtime player Harold Advincula are not on the roster, additions such as Tim Kwan (returning from 2021) and Nojus Ausra should help maintain the excellent depth shown in recent years. Matt Brown and Dany Yaacoub should anchor the team, but expect them to take plenty of subs from a roster that could run eight beaters deep in many games.
On the chasing side, one of the bigger roster changes is the loss of head coach Kennedy Murphy, who is recovering from an injury sustained during the USQ season. Despite this, new additions to the roster and returning player development should give Digmann a little more help than last year in getting offensive possessions going in the half court. Chicago will likely also be much improved on point defense this year, an area they lacked depth at last year behind Digmann and Collins. Even considering the significant upgrades in the half-court, Chicago will still probably look to score most of their goals in the fast break, following a coordinated press between their chasers and beaters. This was an excellent look for them last year when they were coordinated enough to execute it and should continue to be this season.
For the second year in a row, seeking is the biggest question mark for this team, although it is another area where Chicago should be much better situated than last year, when they entered the season without a dedicated seeker. Melanie Rolfe and Conner Flatley were primary seekers for Columbia College this past season, and the return of Matt Melton brings an experience level to the position they were severely lacking last year. Additionally, Nojus Ausra had an incredible weekend for Boom Train at USQ Cup, but is not listed on this roster as a seeker. Hopefully the Prowl can take advantage of their excellent beating with some flag catches and improve over their 1-5 regular season catch record from last year.
On the coaching side, Chicago does not have Kennedy Murphy and Tad Walters on the playing roster, but they are still with the team as non-playing head and assistant coaches respectively. Non-playing coaches have been slow to take over in MLQ the way they have in USQ, especially the collegiate division, but it will be interesting to see if the Prowl show an elevated ability to make in-game adjustments while having two coaches not also concerned with playing.
On paper, Chicago is set up for an excellent season. They have the latest season start to any team, and open against Minneapolis, which could combine to be a challenge, but one that they can certainly overcome. If Chicago can effectively integrate its newcomers over their long preseason the series could be a sweep, but it is just as likely we could see the first non-sweep between these two teams in franchise history.
Regular Season Prediction: 5-1
Washington - Ben Mertens
PC: Washington Admirals
One year after a heartbreaking season that saw them narrowly lose three series two games to one to the three best teams in the league (New York, Boston, and Austin), the Washington Admirals enter the 2023 season with an all new coaching staff and an ultra-talented roster determined to bring home a championship for the first time. To do so, they’ll need to fill in the holes left by key departures, determine their best lineups and combinations on a team pulling from disparate USQ programs, and prove their ability to close out tight series.
The chasing game will feature many familiar faces but also some notable differences. Washington suffered a massive loss in the chasing game with the absence of Team USA’s Justin Cole, who was a leading scorer for the team last season and hit the biggest shot in franchise history in Washington’s Game 2 victory over Austin at MLQ Championships. In addition to Cole, the team is going to be without John Sheridan and Justin Kraemer, who served key roles as point defenders and auxiliary scorers, and the underutilized Paige Bellamy and Ben Phillips.
With those departures however, comes opportunity for the rest of the roster. A paradigm shift is coming for the Admirals this season; for the last two years, the team has primarily relied on the BosNYan Bearsharks chaser core for the bulk of their minutes, with chasers from other programs playing spot minutes to fill in the gaps. Coming off of a USQ season where DCQC and BosNY were on the same tier and had identical nationals performances, expect to see more blending on the roster of the two feeder programs. TJ Generette, Julia Rankin (back on the Admirals after a one summer absence), and Riley Starrs were all starters on DCQC and have firmly established themselves as elite players. Starrs, the newly minted assistant coach, suffered an untimely injury in the first game at USQ cup which robbed him of the chance to show his game on the biggest stage, but he is expected to be back for the MLQ season. Well known for his defense, it’s Starrs offensive game, in particular his much improved playmaking, that will be key for an Admirals team that feels a little light on ball-handlers. Rankin remains one of the most underrated chasers in the sport, overshadowed two years ago by her team USA teammates, but she is one of the most versatile offensive players in the sport, with her ability to hit long shots or use stiff arms, spin moves, and pump fakes to drive all the way to the rim and finish or sling an extra pass, and has become a nasty defensive presence. Jerrick Knippel, a top-notch point defender and off-ball scorer, ably filled in for Starrs during his injury absence at US Quadball Cup, and Juli Nuetzel, an extremely gifted passer, served as an excellent 1b to Rankin. Both also bring a strong dose of physicality to the position, as do their DCQC teammates and first-time Admirals Liz Stone and Rachel Williams.
But it’s Generette who will draw the most attention. Heralded as the future of the Maryland program from nearly the moment he joined the sport, Generette has lived up to the hype while continuing to refine his game. Generette is able to score from any spot on the field, whether it’s through ridiculous angled shots or his patented high-step drives, but he showed major improvement as a playmaker during the USQ season and should continue to grow in that area with the Admirals. His defense has also progressed from good to truly great, and he has a case for best active seeker in the sport. If an Admiral is going to win the East Division MVP for the first time in program history, Generette is the betting favorite.
There’s a reason of course that BosNY chasers have taken most of the minutes the last two summers. Julia Baer, Rachel Heald, and Tyler Trudeau were all once again named to Team USA. Trudeau remains one of the best rim protectors and most unstoppable one-on-one drivers in the sport. Baer’s shooting and offball cutting make her a dangerous weapon against both mark and zone defense, and the Admirals should expect to see both defensive looks this summer. Heald, stepping into an assistant coaching role this summer, stands as the best playmaker on the roster and her ability to guard the rim defensively gives the team unmatched versatility. The Admirals have shied away from mark defense for most of the last two seasons, but expect to at least see them experiment with lines featuring Heald at the hoops and three of the team’s arsenal of elite defenders running a tight press. The top candidate for that role along with Starrs is Bryan Mulcahy, one of the very best defensive players in the league who also doubles as one of the best offball scorers on the team and gives the coaching staff even more lineup combinations.
It’s not just club players that have everyone excited about the Admirals chasing core. Virginia Tech’s Shane McConaghie is back following a season where he was the lead playmaker for Virginia Reunited, and can work as an extra ball handler or an offball shooter as needed. The real headline though is UVA and USNTDA’s Zan Siddiqui, who gives the team yet another lockdown defender (on or off the ball) as well as elite speed that enables him to get open without the ball and beat defenders with the ball. On a team laden with superstar talent, expect Siddiqui to earn minutes over many of his more veteran teammates.
But wait, there’s more! Siddiqui’s coach David Littleton, an excellent offball player in his own right, is back and ready to hit tough shots right past the arms of your keeper. Veterans John Gaffigan and Jeanette High have joined from the Cleveland Riff and Detroit Innovators respectively, and both will be eager to transition into big roles for the Admirals. We haven’t even mentioned Dale Farnan, one of the longest tenured members of the team and one of their best ballhandlers who missed much of last season to injury. Chasers who other franchises would give their right arms for are going to be left off the game day rosters for the Admirals.
Beating is a comparative question mark for the franchise. The team has lost Heather Farnan and Cameron Castilaw, as well as new head coach Keegan Remy-Miller who has stepped into a non-playing role for the summer. But the team won the very public free agency of Team Australia’s Nicola Gertler and Nathan Morton, who will join the team in July, and has picked up the young talent of Adrian Koretsky and promoted Robert Rice from the practice squad. Both players will have the chance to be immediate contributors despite their youth. The team will also welcome back the pair of chaser-turned-beater Ali Iannucci (making her first Admirals appearance since 2019) and Robby May (making his first appearance since 2015), which will give the team welcome depth.
At the top of the chart, at least to start the season, it’s the core from last summer. Zain Bhalia and Cody Nardone both partnered with Melissa Smith last season, and the team will quickly need to establish who will beat with whom and get all three players to shake off the rust after a USQ season where Nardone played chaser and Smith and Bhalia did not play competitively. Diana Howard is fresh off of a breakout USQ season, but will need a new partner at least to start the season as her normal partner and new assistant coach Colin Bourn recovers from surgery. Look for the team to try Howard with Bhalia, May, and Nardone at various points, and expect to see her as the first option for snitch on pitch.
The one pair you can put money down on seeing is Bernie Berges and Katryna Hicks. The duo have firmly established themselves as an elite unit, and their ability to stymie elite opposition has allowed the Admirals to hang in and win matchups where they have the beater disadvantage on paper. Where the pair can still improve is their ability to truly dominate games when the matchup calls for it - while Berges and Hicks calculated game give fits to other elite units, it also has led to the playing cautiously in matchups where they can afford to press their advantage and create turnovers and easy points for their chasers, a situation that should be easier to create this year due to the new reset rules. They are also prone to occasional lapses in judgment; just when they seem to be on the verge of creating a press, they throw a dodgeball away before securing the third dodgeball or throw the dodgeball directly into an opposing beater’s stomach for an easy catch. If the duo can take that last step and finish all of their potential presses, the Admirals loaded chaser core will feast in transition.
Count on Remy-Miller, a highly analytical beater himself when he played, to clean up the mistakes and put Berges and Hicks in the best spot to succeed, as well as to sort out the many rotation and playing time decisions to be made at both beater and chaser. Having a non-playing coach at the helm will give the Admirals a calmer bench and better control of game flow, and having three stars (or Starrs) as his assistant coaches should mean the coaching staff and players are in sync. Expect a more disciplined and methodical Admirals this summer, and a deeper rotation that gets players ample rest and puts the right players on the field at the right times.
The new coaching staff and the exciting additions should be enough to overcome the departures. Where does that leave the Admirals in terms of record? Your guess is as good as anyone’s in an East Division that features 3 of the 5 best teams in the country. The Admirals will open their season against the New York Titans on opening weekend for the third year in a row, meaning once again the team has only a few weeks to prepare for their fiercest rival, who they have beaten exactly once in seven seasons. The Admirals do have the advantage of hosting both the Titans and the Boston Forge this summer, and they will be heavy favorites on the road against both the Ottawa Black Bears and the Charlotte Aviators. Facing New York so early, with multiple players already known to be unavailable for Washington, is a tough blow and facing both Boston and New York in the regular season makes a perfect season hard to foresee. But I expect Remy-Miller and his staff to experiment and improve throughout the season and I think we will see a very different team in July and August than we do in June. There’s enough here for the Admirals to secure a top 2 divisional finish and a bye to the quarterfinals at championships for the first time in history - setting them up for a real run at the Benepe Cup.
Prediction: 9-3, second place in the East.
Toronto - Scott Rousseau
PC: Toronto Raiders
The Toronto Raiders did the one thing nobody would ever anticipate from raccoons: they recycled. The 2023 roster remains largely unchanged from the 2022 iteration with 70% of the players returning, which can only be good for keeping what went well and shoring up what didn’t. Looking to improve on their performance from last year, where they acted more as a gatekeeper team in their division—sweeping both the Riff and Innovators but failing to pick up a game against the Whiteout or Intensity (Prowl)—than a true contender for the throne, this year they’re scheming to make out like bandits with a top seed in the North.
Quadball Canada finally got a full season in the wake of the pandemic, which certainly puts the wind in all of their players’ sails. The majority of the returning roster comes from Valhalla, who were undefeated through Central Divisionals, Eastern Regionals, and Nationals, and will certainly feel momentum going into the summer. Their returning young guns from last year gained more experience and playing time through the season as starters for their respective teams, strengthening the roster’s depth and giving them the hunger to cement themselves as Canada’s next big talents. Rookies feeding in from the Universities of Guelph, Toronto, and Waterloo further bolster the Raiders, capping off the main roster and a near complete practice squad.
For the coaching staff, Michael ‘Howie’ Howard returns to the head coach position, albeit as a non-playing coach this time around. Bryan Melchior returns as an assistant coach, now joined by Savannah Campbell—formerly of the Ottawa Black Bears. Maintaining Howard and Melchior in coaching positions will surely provide the returning players with a sense of stability heading into the season, and the addition of Campbell can bring a fresh set of eyes. If you’re familiar with the Canadian Quadball scene, you’re likely concerned with how chaser-centric this trio is. Not having a beating-focused coach on staff (a role formerly filled by Alexander Scherger, who is still a beater for the Raiders) might raise more than a few questions for this season.
If anything, this demonstrates the amount of trust Howie and company are giving their beaters, and it’s no wonder why. Top-loaded with the same veteran Valhalla beaters from last year, the beater corps have played together for years at this point. Because of this, the beaters will feel less of a need for experimentation or synergy building. The team can focus the efforts of these veterans to act as a collective coaching staff to play off of each other and to bring the new recruits up to speed. How much playing time the rookies will get this season remains to be seen, considering how much more effective the Raiders were with their top pairs last summer.
Offensively, the Raiders will be looking to take a step up from 2022. Last season they were frequently caught red handed in the half-court, struggling against zone defenses from the likes of Rochester and Indianapolis (now Chicago). Toronto will be looking for new tricks to break through the opposition, and from new sources. With Michael Howard stepping back to a non-playing role, the Raiders have lost their top goal scorer (20) from last season as well as a commanding play-maker to lead the pack. They will likely put trust into veterans Andrew Kusters and Stevie Vindua, who each banked 19 goals themselves last season, to continue where they left off, but the rest of the chaser lineup will be feeling the pressure to put up goals to prove the team isn’t overly reliant on a handful of players.
The Raiders will be up to their usual plots defensively. Having relied mainly on zone defenses last season, they likely won’t change that dynamic. When they had their footing, their defenses shut down shooting and driving threats alike and gave them fast break opportunity after fast break opportunity. When they didn’t, it was open season for the other teams to score repeatedly. With that in mind their true tests this summer are twofold. The first, to stay in control for more of the game. The second would be responding and adapting appropriately when they aren’t. In such scenarios, the trash pandas from Toronto will act as any cornered critter would: attack and get scrappy. Last season they proved that any one of their players, big or small, were willing to lay out big hits in order to prevent a goal.
The biggest gap in the team’s identity this year will be in their seeker game. While they still maintain Cory Smithson, who led the team with catches last season (4), the following rotation is largely up in the air. Six other players are listed as seekers, so expect the Raiders to experiment with who they want going after the flag runner.
With their largely unchanged roster and a weaker conference than last year, the Toronto Raiders are more than capable of stealing their way into the North Division championship game. They just have to keep their guard up and not take a single game off, or else they might end up as roadkill.
Prediction: 4-2
