2009 Preseason Rankings - Kim Deal

July 25, 2009
By: Kim Deal


Preseason Midwest Conference Rankings:

1.) St. Norbert College

Returning 9 starters which include all 4 from the league’s top defense (3 goals against in conference play; 0.33 per game). They also have returning Adam Sanchez who was tied for the league lead in goals (10). St. Norbert loses two starters in Ben Vanden Avond and John Cremer. Neither will be easy to replace with talent similar to the talent that the Green Knights have had over the years. However as is almost always true with St. Norbert, there will be players ready to step in and contribute.

2.) Carroll University

After graduating almost their entire midfield, aside from Conference Player of the Year Craig Carlson, Carroll looks to replace 3 All Region players in the same season. To add to their losses defenders Bram Daelemans (second team All-Conference) and Nate Lembke-Windler (first team All-Conference) have also graduated. Despite the heavy losses in the midfield, the Pioneer’s are returning all but one from their back line, starting goal keeper and both starting forwards from their 2008 campaign.

It will be interesting to see if Carroll can maintain their dominance from 2008 despite the heavy losses. As an outsider looking in, I see their shots per-game dropping dramatically but their defense stepping up to help the Pioneers to another conference playoff berth.

3.) Grinnell College

Trying to build on their 6-2-1 conference record and second round exit from the Midwest Conference Tournament, Grinnell graduated All-Region player Andrew Walsh and his 23 conference points. Despite the loss of Walsh, the Grinell Pioneers are returning two other All-North Central Region players in JP Prouty and Alex Exarhos who scored 3 and 2 goals respectively.

Although Grinnell finished their conference schedule second in shots, they were still a distant third in goals scored. If their shooting percentage is not raised in 2009, they may have to rely more heavily on one of the conference’s best goal keepers in Ben Schemper and inside defender Andrew Mullins.

4.) Beloit College

The 2008 Buccaneers had a difficult time defending shots in 2008, giving up 59 in conference play. This ranked them third after Monmouth and Knox, two teams that combined for two conference wins. Nathan Lipps was continually asked to keep the games close by having to defend countless shots. Thanks to a late season surge, the Bucs almost snuck into the conference tournament missing out to an overachieving Lawrence squad.

Look for Beloit, by losing only 2 players, to make a move into the conference top four teams, unless they continue giving up as many shots as the previous season.

5.) Lawrence University

Lawrence featured one of the league’s better out of conference schedules, locking horns with Aurora, Oshkosh, Wheaton and Carthage. Their results showed a team that needs a lot of work but having such a difficult schedule made them ready to face the vastly improved Midwest Conference. The regular season ended with Lawrence beating every team that missed the conference playoffs and losing to every team that made the playoffs. It is clearly a team dedicated to getting better and may be the surprise team in 2009.

Having only one player in the top ten in shots (Tristan Lipe) and none in the top 10 for goals or points means Lawrence needs to find more fire power on the offensive side of the ball. Having graduated Chris Carlson who led the team in shots, while only making 9% of them, may be a blessing in disguise. Three other seniors graduated with Carlson, thus making Lawrence one of the conference’s younger teams.


Ranking the rest of the conference is as challenging as actually playing the games. So many teams in the Midwest Conference struggle with player retention and recruitment that the season really needs to be played out to get a feel for where a particular team truly stands. Soccer has always been a game of numbers and talent; the more players one has, the more competitive a team can become. Three teams have new head coaches, Ripon College (Lance Gordon), Lake Forest (Chris Bergmann) and Knox College (Jeff Bernhardt). All three are looking for resurgence of their respective teams and a ticket to the Midwest Conference playoffs.

By all counts, 2009 will be a good year for any one of a number of teams to make a push to take the conference crown. The top three or four teams have all lost significant talent, at multiple positions, and may be primed to fall from the Midwest Conferences elite.

Nice job Kim. When are we getting together for that beer? Or do you still have something against overweight red heads?

I don't think Lawrence deserves to be out of the top four. They have always been on the fringe and it may be just a matter of time for them to make the move into the top three or even top two.

Otherwise I like your list.

st norberts will win conference

they didnt lose anyone and always have good teams

I like the rankings but come on, Carroll went undefeated, i don't care if they lost their whole squad, they deserve first if only on paper!


errr....Who knows, it's a crap shoot at the top anyway. Should make for a great season though.

1. St. Norberts - Look to be the strongest team in the conference. Carroll did go
undefeated last season, however the loss of many starters places
St Norberts on top.

2. Carroll - Give them second spot mainly for their undefeated season and coaching.
Question here is how much playing experience did the underclassman get who
will fill these open positions. Second spot could be prime for the picking.
Who's ready to challenge??

3. Grinnell - On the rise. Looking to improve on a sucessful season. Have pieces in place
to mix things up this season. Will be favorites in many MWC matches. Will
There be upsets this season??? Time will tell.

4. Open for the taking. - Lawrence gets the edge here, however, I see this could be open
for the taking. Of the remaining teams many of the head to head
games between each other were 1 goal differentials. You could
make a good argument for many of these remaining teams.

I agree with Kims view, that until play starts, will things start to play themselves out.
I personally think there will be 2 surprising teams this season. Time will tell.

It's so hard to give Carroll the top spot with all of the players they need to replace, part of me thinks they need to slide to the third or even fourth spot. As I said before, I like Grinnell's chances to take the crown this year, they have always been a team that can take care of all the bunnies, same as St. Norberts really, but I could see St. Norberts slipping if only for one game. Which would be the difference in this type of conference.

Beloit is always an interesting team to watch. I like Wilkins but am not sure that he has the skill to carry an offense by himself. They really need someone to step up. If they do, then I could see Beloit sliding into the third spot as well.

grinnell is generally one of the bunnies

cpschult wrote:grinnell is generally one of the bunnies

You think they're a bunny? I don't know that they are ready to win the conference crown but i fully expect them to make the tournament again. They tend to play solid defense and always bring good games to the top conference teams...jmo

I don't know that they've ever had an intimidating team. In the four years I played at Carroll I never had anyone warn me about dangerous players on their team. I'd say Grinnell, Knox, and Monmouth were at the bottom of the barrell during my four years.

With all the coaching turnover maybe things have changed. /Shrug

Drago, you might want to get ahold of Stas's brother cause he said he was taping every home game and some away games..so if you wanted to add highlights to some games to the website....

and cpshultz.....I havnt been to practices cause I hurt my ankle bad and just hurt it again this past weekend in Indiana.....probably not gonna be ready by preseason...

Craigaldo wrote:

and cpshultz.....I havnt been to practices cause I hurt my ankle bad and just hurt it again this past weekend in Indiana.....probably not gonna be ready by preseason...

>.< I can push around most of the guys that have been coming to the practices. Granted there has only been like 8-15 of the guys who will be playing this year.

Well, at least you've been playing so you will be in shape.

Craigaldo wrote:Drago, you might want to get ahold of Stas's brother cause he said he was taping every home game and some away games..so if you wanted to add highlights to some games to the website....

and cpshultz.....I havnt been to practices cause I hurt my ankle bad and just hurt it again this past weekend in Indiana.....probably not gonna be ready by preseason...

Sounds good. I'll talk to Stas once we get going with the season. I'll need some ideas on how to post the stuff, it's hard to get a high quality video for an hour and a half.

A highlight video would be fun, not sure if i'm up to that though.

cpschult wrote:grinnell is generally one of the bunnies

Grinnell finished:

2008 - 3 (2 losses)
2007 - 3 (2 losses)
2006 - 3 (1 loss, finished ahead of Carroll)
2005 - 8 (7 losses)
2004 - 7 (6 losses)

I am not sure when you played but they have been getting better and better. They are a solid team and a solid program. Give them a closer look this season, they may surprise.

i played from '02/'03 - '06/'07

'02 - 4 losses
'03 - 3 losses

Part of my points was they never had truly threatening player. Yes, you are in for a tough game playing them.. but that's about it. Man how would you feel being on a men's team being coached by a women? I don't know if I could handle that.

I am excited to back in the area so I can do some write ups on games. Hopefully I can make it to more than afew!

St. Norbert loses two starters in Ben Vanden Avond and John Cremer

sorry to disappoint but I have one more year in me. I broke my arm freshman year and recieved a redshirt. SNC only lost 1 starter from last year.

Only one starter!!! Just a curious question, about how many do you have come to tryout at SNC each year?

We get about 10+ but only 8 or 9 that will actually make the team. 4-5 will see time throughout the year

BenVA wrote:St. Norbert loses two starters in Ben Vanden Avond and John Cremer

sorry to disappoint but I have one more year in me. I broke my arm freshman year and recieved a redshirt. SNC only lost 1 starter from last year.

Aww snap... wtf how is norberts always so loaded.

BenVA wrote:We get about 10+ but only 8 or 9 that will actually make the team. 4-5 will see time throughout the year

i think he means total guys? I'm curious how many you guys cut!

Last year we cut 6 if I remember correctly but we kept a practice squad. This year we have less numbers coming in so we may not have many cuts. 2 or 3 maybe

BenVA wrote:Last year we cut 6 if I remember correctly but we kept a practice squad. This year we have less numbers coming in so we may not have many cuts. 2 or 3 maybe

from what i hear carroll has 60 or so guys coming in.. quite a few drop out after the first day when they realize what college soccer is like


ps welcome to the forums benva!

Our enrollment is only a third of carrolls if I remember correctly. That may have a lot to do with it.

Thx for the welcome, was sad to see what d3kicks let happen... Glad to see a new place for mwc talk

BenVA wrote:Our enrollment is only a third of carrolls if I remember correctly. That may have a lot to do with it.

seriously? I had no idea? I really thought Norberts was either bigger or the same size as Carroll. I like the High Schools up north, between Appleton North, Depere, Xavier, and Oshkosh schools...there is some serious talent up there.

One weird thing about that, to me anyway, is that you don't have the best indoor facilities and have to come down to Milwaukee to get the competition (or at least the FC Magic do)...I figured a colder climate would demand a great indoor park.

Yea our enrollment floats around 2100. As far as indoor it easy to explain. We are the only post high school team that plays indoor. UWGB stays on campus and does their own thing.

The only mens team in the area is team miller. We just don't have the same level of adult players as milwukee. I play with fc magic in the summer but mid week trips to mil in winter just are too difficult. I'm glad they did well though, it opened up some doors for us for next summer.

That is unfortunate. One great thing about Milwaukee is we have so many cultures that have moved here from all over the world. I never thought I would live in a place where you can play whole teams from Croatia, Serbia, Mexico, Cambodia...it's flipping sweet.

Sure some of them like to hack a bit more than i would like but it's all in good fun and maybe i have it coming.

Did you play in the FC Magic game against the Armada? it was a finals game, you were down 2-0 or 3-1 and came back to win at the very end. I meant to video tape that but forgot my damn camera. It was an awesome game though.

No, I was unable to play in any of the indoor games. I did hear about it and wish I could have seen it.

cpschult wrote:i played from '02/'03 - '06/'07

Grinnell is a bit up and down, I will give you that but they have been on a decent rise for a couple of years. In terms of talent, they may still be a couple years behind but they are closing the gap.

NCAA is generally pretty up and down every two and three years. You can't always have a wiley veteran team and you can't always have a young team (unless you are IC and cant keep your players because you live in the dirt capital of the world).

Ginnell was decent enough last year, one of the main reasons they beat Norbert was the damn wind. They snuck a goal in in the first half, if i remember right, and just held on for the most part. If they played them 4 more times, I don't know that they'd have won a single game. The talent just didn't seem to be there but kudos to them for taking advantage of a down day for Norbert. Lord knows it happens to everyone at some point.

Ben you got a "grey shirt"...redshirt is for D1

And I will not be in shape by preseason. I couldnt run from end of April til July and now I cant run til mid August....When I get healthy im gonna have to work my ass off

st norberts 9 w's and 0 l's for the season! bank on it

carroll will be lucky to slide in at all

they lost way to much

Craigaldo wrote:And I will not be in shape by preseason. I couldnt run from end of April til July and now I cant run til mid August....When I get healthy im gonna have to work my ass off

You always do. You should be 100% by the time conference really comes down to it.

It should be a fun season. I am ready to get back at Carroll and grinell. I think as a team we are much more focused and dedicated. A lot of my teammates really kicked it up a notch after the way last season ended.

I am still shocked you lost to Grinnel. No offense but I thought you were a far better team.

We Made a mistake, they capitalized and played solid d the whole game. Props to them but I'll make sure it doesn't happen again this year.

Plaintiff93 wrote:st norberts 9 w's and 0 l's for the season! bank on it

carroll will be lucky to slide in at all

they lost way to much

dont know who you are. We will be just as good as last year. And im assuming your a St.Norberts fan/player...lose to Grinnell again...

LOL, the only thing I can bank on is playing St.Norberts for the conference championship on that horse pasture, oh wait...sorry it is a soccer field

Craigaldo wrote:

Plaintiff93 wrote:st norberts 9 w's and 0 l's for the season! bank on it

carroll will be lucky to slide in at all

they lost way to much

dont know who you are but you can . We will be just as good as last year. And im assuming your a St.Norberts fan/player...lose to Grinnell again...

Jeez craig, didn't know you had it in you. He actually plays high school, not sure why he seems to favor St. Norbert. BTW, plaintiff, you might want to watch a game before you make predictions, i know reading stats and all can be fun but it also makes you look less educated than your Pewaukee education would imply.

btw, spread the word. Just talked to D3Kicks and they will not be cleaning up the site...

Why not? That doesn't make too much sense, especially since they were getting so much traffic. A couple posters have dropped some posts over here, which has been good to see.

How's that ankle coming craig? Are you swimming or anything to stay in shape?