Fast Takes with Fast Break: Chicago Prowl
Author: Sam Nielsen
PC: MLQ
Last season: In 2023, years of development in the Chicago area finally paid off, and the Chicago Prowl made the jump back to the MLQ Championship finals for the first time since 2017 after losing in the play-in bracket in 2022. They also re-took the North Division Championship for the first time since 2019. Prowl entered the season with high expectations, and immediately put to bed any questions about their standing in the North with a dominant sweep at home against the Minneapolis Monarchs. Another sweep against the Detroit Innovators and a quick dispatching of the Toronto Raiders at North Division Championships put the Prowl at 8-0. Prowl’s dominant run through the regular season was marked by quick line changes and a willingness to play deep into the roster in any game, whether a blowout or a close win over the Monarchs. While a cursory look at the stat sheets will mostly highlight Nathan Digmann and North Division MVP Matt Brown, Prowl got results from up and down the roster, with seamless meshing of stalwarts Digmann and Brown with high-profile newcomers such as Darian Murcek-Ellis and Byron Ng. A huge amount of the credit for both the overall development of the franchise and the integration of new and old players was due to first-year Head Coach Kennedy Murphy, a long-time player who sat out the 2023 MLQ season with an injury. Under her leadership, Prowl handedly won against the San Antonio Soldados to open MLQ Champs, followed by an instant classic of a 3-game series against the New York Titans, highlighted by their come-from-behind win in game 3 to advance to the finals. While they got swept by the Austin Outlaws in the finals, last year was a huge statement- that Chicago is back, and competing for a title.
Returning Players (20):
Liam Zach III (Boom Train)
Grant Himmelmann (Mizzou)
Caleb Williams (Baylor)
Harold Avincula (Chicago United)
Byron Ng (Rutgers)
Nivash Jayaram (Boom Train/NY Slice)
Ally Manzella (Boom Train)
Jim Richert (Boom Train)
Darian Murcek-Ellis (The Warriors)
Nojus Ausra (Boom Train)
Michael Mrowiec (Boom Train)
Benjamin Peachy (Boom Train)
Kailey Fugate (Boom Train)
Milly Hunter (Columbia College Chicago Renegades)
Nathan Digmann (Boom Train)
Ryley Andrews (Boom Train)
Matt Melton (Boom Train)
Emma Vasquez (Boom Train)
Melanie Rolfe (Boom Train)
Veronica Hoffman (Illini Ridgebacks)
New Players (10)*:
Kennedy Murphy (Boom Train, played for Prowl in 2022, nonplaying Head Coach in 2023)
Tad Walters (Boom Train, played for Prowl in 2022, nonplaying Assistant Coach in 2023)
Aniyah Dillard (Chicago United, Prowl practice squad in 2023)
George Blackwell III (Columbia College Chicago Renegades)
Ojas Turekar (Illini Ridgebacks, Prowl practice squad in 2023)
Annie Petrelli (Chicago United, Prowl practice squad in 2023)
Maverick Wolf (Columbia College Chicago Renegades)
Camila Rodriguez (Illini Ridgebacks, Prowl practice squad in 2023)
Matthew Troy (Chicago United)
Dara Gaeuman (Boom Train)
*references to Prowl 2022 is the former Indianapolis Intennsity team
Breakdown:
College: 9
Columbia College Chicago (CCC): 3
Illini Ridgebacks: 3
Rutgers: 1
Mizzou: 1
Baylor: 1
Club: 21
Boom Train: 16
Chicago United: 4
The Warriors: 1
Notable Losses:
Matt Brown
Dany Yaacoub
Lauren Smith
Linnea Schultz
The Season Ahead: Prowl starts the season on June 1 at home against an Innovators team full of young talent, who are looking to make a big jump of their own this year. The results of this series are likely to say much more about the Innovators than it is about a Prowl team returning 2/3 of the roster from last season, but should be a much more exciting series than last year.
Following the Detroit series, Prowl will face their toughest matchup of the regular season in a June 29 matchup against the Monarchs in Minneapolis. While Prowl swept the Monarchs at home last season in their first games under new branding, an away series provides additional difficulty and presents the best opportunity for a team to give Prowl their first season loss post rebrand.
Prowl rounds out the regular season with an away series in Cleveland on July 6 and a home series vs Toronto Raiders on July 27. Anything less than a convincing sweep in both of these series would pose serious questions about how prepared they are for MLQ Championships in August.
Season Potentials:
After returning most players from the 2023 roster, Prowl is looking to return to the MLQ Championship finals and this time emerge with a championship. A good half of the roster got a taste of this success during the USQ season with Boom Train’s club championship win, and will be very eager to return. Prowl should still be the confident favorites for the division title in the North, although it would be much less surprising if they drop a game on the way in matchups against the Monarchs and/or Innovators series. The North Division has gotten stronger around Prowl, which will help them work their way up as Benepe Cup contenders.
Why they Will:
Consistency, chaser depth, and coaching.
This squad includes 20 players returning from 2023, plus two coaches and four practice squad promotions. In total, only four players on this year’s team are not returning from last year’s program. This provides a level of continuity to the previous year’s team that is not afforded to most. On top of that, a full half of the team played together for Boom Train, where they just won a USQ Championship. The core of this roster has been playing together constantly at the highest level for several consecutive seasons and only seems to be growing. They should be able to use this consistency to start the season strong against their two toughest opponents in the first two series, then take care of business over the back half of the season as they prepare for MLQ Championships.
On top of having a huge number of returners from last year’s team, this year’s Prowl are just plain good, especially at chaser and keeper. The team features 2+ lines of chasers who could compete for a starting spot at any other roster, and in particular is extremely well set up for the MLQ switch to 3 max; Emma Vasquez, Ally Manzella, Liam Zach, and head coach Kennedy Murphy are likely the best group of women and non-binary chasers in the league, and when joined by Digmann, Ryley Andrews, Darian Murcek-Ellis, and Byron Ng, present two chasing lines that most teams would be thrilled to have one of.
The X-factor in Chicago’s return to the MLQ finals is certainly their coaching. Murphy was widely praised last year for Chicago’s vastly improved schemes on both offense and defense, winning the Fast Break News coach of the year award. Walters and Manzella also return as assistant coaches, providing plenty of continuity to complement Murphy’s leadership. On top of new looks to start the year, Chicago also showed that their coaching staff could implement new looks as the season went on. Given a roster where almost everyone was involved with the program and their coaching last year, this coaching staff is set up for another year of success, and if they can continue to build on their work from last year should have the team ready to hang with anyone. One question will be how Murphy and Walters’ responsibilities and midgame adjustment are affected by their return to active play, but coaching will remain a strong point for the Prowl in any case.
Why they Won’t: Beater depth
The Prowl’s clear weakness coming into the season, and the one area they have unquestionably lost ground from last year, is beating depth. Brown and Dany Yaacoub did not share many minutes last season as the Prowl used their depth to maintain a high level of consistency across lines and each took turns anchoring the beating game. As such, the loss of both leaves the team with huge minutes to fill at beater, and a question of who will step into the starting 6 to quiet these doubts..
Walters is expected to fill a large chunk of these minutes in his return to playing. His physical play and penchant for forcing no-dodgeball situations should be a great fit for Prowl’s stellar chasing corps. Beyond Walters, however, the franchise only returns three beaters from last year’s active championships roster. Of these returning beaters, Nojus Ausra is also the team’s premier seeker. Prowl will need to have new players step up and succeed in new roles in order to beat the other best teams in the league, and potentially rely on veteran seeker Matt Melton to clinch the catch.
Preview for June 1st series against Detroit:
Prowl leadership couldn’t be more thrilled about the schedule placement of this series on opening weekend- against an Innovators team with a very high ceiling but will still be in the early stages of working star players like Leo Fried into the returning roster. The matchup to watch is in the beating game, where Ryan Hsu and Rei Brodeur (Innovators) will match up against Walters and Ausra (Prowl). Hsu was teammates with Walters and Ausra this recent USQ season, and has had plenty of trash talk for the matchup featured in MLQ’s Quad Quips, with Walters very ready to fire right back. If Innovator’s top line can find some good runs they may keep the series close and could even take a game, but the Prowl’s chaser depth and advantage in chemistry and experience should keep all three games well in hand.
Prediction: Prowl 3 - 0 Innovators
