Roster Reactions: East Division
Boston - Mike Li
PC: Boston Forge
Last Summer the Boston Forge suffered their worst season in franchise history, losing not only games, but series to both the Washington Admirals and the New York Titans. The loss of key players Justin Cole and Bryan Mulcahy from their 2019 Championship run proved to be a huge setback for Forge's off-ball chaser depth last season, and now, with the departure of franchise cornerstones Jayke Archibald, Teddy Costa, Grace Dastous, and Mario Nasta this Boston team is looking less and less like those Championship teams of old.
Bolstering this Forge roster are three pickups from the rival New York Titans: Taylor Crawford, Peter Lawrence, and Fiona Wiseheart. Crawford, a long time veteran of the sport and elite point defender will hopefully shore up Boston's defense in the wake of Bryan Mulcahey's departure to the Washington Admirals last season. Crawford also brings his reliable scoring from behind the hoops where he loves to rip shots through the medium hoop and stiff arm his way into dunks. Lawrence, an alum of the historic Middlebury program is now entering their sophomore season of MLQ following a huge rookie season on the Titans, playing huge minutes in their championship run. Lawrence will be a big addition to Boston's off-ball defense, flying around the pitch laying big hits while also using their length around hoops to block shots.
Forge is also picking up some exciting rookies from the college scene: Chris LaBudde and Jordan Smiley from Tufts and Stephen Trempel from RPI. LaBudde and Smiley are both coming off enormous US Quidditch Cup performances in their one-goal loss to Creighton in the Final Four with LaBudde being Tufts leading scorer. Trempel, coming off of a strong seeking season, can add even more depth to an already talented seeker rotation, and may stand to break into the chaser rotation as well if he can tighten up his shot selection.
Presumably filling in at the ball carrier role will be Ian Scura and Ryan Pfenning, both of whom looked at times to be the best quaffle players on the team last season. Scura brings his outside shooting and years of experience operating within the Boston offense and will most likely be taking the starting role on the team. Pfenning, while likely to come off the bench, will probably end up being one of the team's leading scorers. He brings the physicality that was noticeably lacking from the Boston Pandas team that makes up the core of this iteration of the Forge.
With so much in flux this season it’s hard to know where the Forge will place in the East this season. Washington is bringing back much of the same team that beat them last season, and the reigning East Champion New York retooling their roster with more beater depth. Forge has serious obstacles to overcome if they want to reclaim their place as best in the East. Will the Forge be able to redeem their disappointing 2021 season, or has the era of Boston dominance truly come to an end?
Prediction: 8-4
New York - Ben Mertens
PC: New York Titans
The New York Titans enter the 2022 season coming off of their most successful season ever- an 11-1 regular season record, their first division championship, and a run to the MLQ finals that ended in defeat at the hands of the Austin Outlaws.
This year, the team will try to take the final step and win that long awaited championship with a new coaching staff at the helm, and without several big names who have been long-time members of the Titans/Warriors core. But they’ll also be adding new talent at key positions that could be just what they need to finally bring a title home to the big apple.
Departures
Michael “Yada” Parada will not be on the Titans in 2022. This will be the team’s second season without Parada as a coach, after he took a hiatus in 2018, and the first ever without him as a player. Parada’s legacy as a coach is secure. The Titans/Warriors core he’s shepherded got better every single year, culminating in their near upset of the Outlaws in the 2019 semifinals and their division title in 2021. None of that happens without Parada. And yet, this coaching change could ultimately be a positive for New York. Sometimes you just need a new voice in the room, even if the old voice is a legend. The Titans/Warriors have been unable to best the Outlaws/Cavalry in either MLQ or USQ, and a slight change in direction could be the final ingredient the team needs.
Losing Parada as a player is no small loss either. He’s a crafty ballhandler who was key to New York successfully running its patient, no-turnover offense. The loss of Parada is such a headline that only now do we reach the fact that New York also lost the reigning East Division MVP. JC Arencibia, the team’s biggest scoring threat (alongside Jon Jackson), has departed, and his shooting touch behind the hoops was key to New York’s multi-possession offense: even if he misses, New York was in position to grab the rebound and attack a scrambled defense that overcorrected to the threat of his shooting. He’s also a mean driver with a plethora of nasty fake movies, and a top-notch defender. He’ll be hard to replace.
The list doesn’t end there. New York also lost Taylor Crawford, who’s been part of the Warriors/Titans core since the beginning, and remained the very best point defender on a team full of great tacklers. The team also loses David Fox, a longtime veteran who can play just about any role on offense, and Peter Lawrence who despite being foul-prone was a major contributor on both ends last season. Lawrence and Crawford are both headed to division roster Boston Forge, making the sting even greater. The combined loss of Arencibia, Fox, and Lawrence, all tall and long players, just makes the team smaller overall, which will lessen their ability to force turnovers and make them just a bit easier to pass and shoot against.
At beater, the Titans are without Fiona Wisehart and Issac Serna-Diaz, talented players who were barely able to get on the field last summer. The loss of talented younger players stings even if the team was unable to get them on the field last summer.
Returners
Despite all of those departures, New York retained its two most important quaffle players. Jon Jackson will be there behind the controls with Lindsay Marella alongside him. There’s not much left to say about Jackson. The guy has a case for being the best keeper in the entire sport. He can make even the best point defenders miss, he can break tackles if the defender doesn’t miss, he can shoot, he can pass, he can tackle, he can block shots. There’s not a single physical gift he lacks and he pairs it with one of the best brains in the game (you can always tell a Harvard man). So many ballhandlers of elite caliber can occasionally be their own worst enemy and try to go too fast in their haste to inflict themselves on the game, making mistakes in the process. Jackson always lets the game come to him
Marella is coming off of a season where her statistical output was much more muted than in previous years - just 7 goals and 7 assists. That was by design, as the Titans preferred to have her in a co-facilitator role where her job was to keep the ball moving, serve as a reset option and play a lot of catch with Jackson and Parada while waiting for the defense to shift. Marella obviously has the tools for that role, but with all the departures and a new coaching staff, there’s a chance to have her be an even bigger part of the offense and run more actions through her. The Titans should look to take advantage of her ability to shoot and pass off the drive by fully utilizing her as a primary ballhandler.
Beyond the superstars, the Titans return the perennially underrated Mike Li, who should feature more heavily in the offense with room cleared ahead of him, as well as Head Coach Frank Minson, who beat last season but seems likely to be back at chaser this season. Both of these guys will have to take on some point defending duty with Crawford gone.
Also returning are Molly Potter, Lexi Raffa, and Shade Jaiyeola. None of these players got much of a chance to shine last season, as Marella played the vast majority of the minutes and Lawrence was the primary option alongside her when the team shifted to a double male beater set. With Lawrecne gone and Marella potentially needing to shoulder an even greater load on offense, the Titans need to find a way to utilize these talented chasers. Jaiyeloa and Raffa both had excellent USQ seasons with the Rogues and Philadelphia Freedom respectively and thrive with the ball in their hands, as can Potter, and all 3 can hold their own on defense. Raffa in particular should be the favorite to get snitch on pitch minutes, where her defensive talent and ability to handle the ball should truly shine.
At beater, unlike chaser, the Titans return virtually their entire core besides the aforementioned players. Rachel Ayella-Silver, recently named to Team USA, is the headline here, a player who can and does do it all for the Titans on both offense and defense. Ayella-Silver wins so many of her exchanges, whether it’s by blocking, dodging, or catching. If opposing beaters go after her partners instead, Silver can quickly pivot into pressing the opposing team’s chasers or protecting her partner as needed, and if opposing teams try to thread in long passes to break the Titans defense, Ayella-Silver’s cannon arm will punish them.
Her main partners, Devin Lee and Jason Rosenberg, are both back, as are CJ Junior and Kerri Donnelly. Lee only played at championships last summer after missing the entire regular season, and was a force upon his return. The master of jumping over opponents’ beats and then beating them with the force of a cannonball, Lee brings the true gambreaking ability teams need to win at the highest levels. If he plays for the entire regular season the Titans are well positioned to defend their division title. Rosenberg, a master of catches and blocks who never, ever gets tired, and Junior, still a mean dodger, carried the load admirably during the regular season along with Minson and Donnelly. Having Rosenberg and Junior as the third and fourth options at beater is enviable depth.
Also listed as a beater is longtime Titans/Warriors keeper Mo Haggag, who started snitch on pitch beating for the Warriors a couple of years ago and is now converting full time. Haggag missed the entire USQ season after suffering an injury at the 2021 MLQ championships, so seeing him on this roster comes as a major relief.
Finally, the Titans return their dynamite seekers Kellan Cupid and Vinnie Iannucci. Iannucci was also the star quaffle player for Philadelphia Freedom alongside Raffa, while Cupid saw a good deal of time beating with the Warriors during the USQ season. Will the team try to use these two at positions besides seeker, or have them focus exclusively on grabbing snitches?
Additions
The headliners here are Leo Fried, Tate Kay, and Tessa Mullins. Kay, the UT and team USA product, is a game-changer for this program. He, alongside Hallie Pace and Auggie Monroe, was one of the biggest reasons the Outlaws beat the Titans in the 2021 finals. His ability to regain control, blow up plays, and create easy opportunities for his chasers powered the Outlaws, and while the Titans could slow him down, they couldn’t stop him. Now he’s on their side. Even with all the talent already on roster, Kay will likely start and play the heaviest minutes of any male beater on the Titans.
Mullins, out of Emerson, just finished a fantastic year with the Boston Pandas in the USQ season and should fit right into the beater rotation as a beater who’s comfortable as the exchange beater or the free beater. Fried, the Harvard phenom, is what makes all those departures in the quaffle game sting less. This kid can flat out play, and his shooting ability in particular is astounding. Whether the Titans ask him to be the primary ballhandler on the second unit or play more off-ball so he can work with Jackson remains to be seen, but he should thrive in either role.
Beyond those big names, the Titans added an entire starting line’s worth of Rutger players fresh off a very impressive USQ season. The Ng twins, Byron and Jason, will both have a chance to force their way into the rotation despite their young age. Byron, the keeper, is extremely fast and could inject a little pace into the Titans controlled offense, while Jason was the team’s star seeker and gives the Titans another option there as well as at beater, alongside his partner, Sedona Sabatino. Annika Kim was a frequent ballhandler for Rutgers and as such should be able to step into the Titans offense and thrive.
In addition, the Titans added another Texas product, Michael Johnston, as well as Janko Gvozdenovic, who was excellent in a limited role for the Warriors in the USQ season. Both should help replace the numerous losses at male chaser.
Prediction:
Great chasers raise your floor, but great beaters raise your ceiling. That’s why, in spite of all the losses at chaser, I think the Titans are looking at their best shot ever at a title. The addition of Kay and Mullins to an already stacked beater corps means the Titans should be able to have elite beating on field for every second of competitive games and be able to keep their elite beaters well rested. That means New York is closer to Austin than ever before.
Even with the improved title odds, the Titans have a worse chance at winning the division than last year. By August I expect the Titans to have figured out their chaser rotations and slotted their newer and younger players into roles where they’ll thrive. But in June I expect them to still be figuring things out, and that could lead to a very tight series against the Washington Admirals, a contest which takes place on the first week of the season and which I expect to determine the winner of the East. Despite the roster turnover, I’ve got New York taking the series, and the division, in a squeaker.
Final record: 10-2
Ottawa - Erin McCrady
PC: Ottawa Black Bears
After two long years, the Ottawa Black Bears are out of hibernation and ready for the upcoming MLQ season. So, what have they been up to for the past two years?
In many ways, this team is right where we left it. With more cautious pandemic restrictions across many provinces, opportunities to play have been largely stalled in Canada since the end of 2019. Quidditch Canada rolled out a modest fall season in 2021, but it was shuttered in early November after only a handful of small tournaments.
Given that, it’s exciting to see new players joining the Black Bears this season. Matthew Brockman, Marco Handa, Meg Howden and others will see their first international competition this summer after joining the sport during the pandemic. It’s a credit to the recruitment skills of Carleton and Ottawa coaches Darren Bell and Savannah Campbell, both of whom will bring their talents to Black Bears this summer. Bell will lead the team on and off the field as Head Coach and a confident ball carrier, and Campbell’s skills at both chaser and seeker will give the team a boost in closer matchups.
Queen's University is well-represented with alums Gabriel Ferreira, Nathan Reid, and Hailey Yhap taking on Assistant Coach roles and John Nicholson returning to the squad as well. Their chemistry will bring some much-needed stability as the team comes together in the early season. This season also sees the return of three founding members of the Ottawa Black Bears: Wren Bradley, Alex Naftel, and Felix Tremblay bring a wealth of experience to the team. Lastly, for a team with limited experience against the USQ crowd, the addition of Harvard’s Luiza Nicolae will prove invaluable.
As always, this squad’s greatest challenge comes from their placement in a pretty unforgiving East Division. With four strong opponents to come and two seasons of lost time to make up for, it’s critical for the Black Bears to use their preseason effectively and come together as a team. Regardless of the outcome, this MLQ season will be a huge momentum boost for Ottawa’s quidditch rebuild. Claws up!
Prediction: 1-14; 0-12 ( East Division) & 1-2 (Scavanger Showdown)
