A Path Forward for USQ: A Case for Philanthropy and Foundations

With the publication of an open letter by US Quadball Board of Directors member Nathan Digmann on Wednesday, I felt it was time for me to do something that I used to do all the time here at The QuidKid and provide some commentary on a significant piece of news in the community. More importantly, I want to propose a path forward. It is a path that I have not previously seen publicly discussed anywhere and that I have only recently started to learn about myself through my work outside the sport. But it is one that will require the efforts of the entire community -- yet never again by asking players to dig deeper into their own pockets beyond the membership dues they already pay. Stay with me for a second here.

First, I want to acknowledge that the anger of the community is completely justifiable. Even for someone who reads the financial statements and follows league news very closely, it is shocking to hear that USQ has fallen so deeply into the red. The size of the budget shortfalls at US Quidditch Cup 2022 in Salt Lake City and the national team invitational televised on ESPN8: The Ocho in Rock Hill, S.C. this summer are staggering. I get why players are upset, particularly after the community came together to raise $75,000 in an online fundraising drive in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when US Quidditch Cup 2020 was unexpectedly cancelled and in-person activity remained mostly suspended for the entire 2020-21 season. USQ missed two years of ticket sales from its marque event and one year of membership dues because of unforeseen circumstances, and the community rallied to save the sport.

Photo courtesy of US National Team.

I especially understand the frustration of highly-involved community members like Boston University coach Harry Greenhouse, who have been working tirelessly with team captains and club presidents across the country to try to recruit and retain new players at colleges and universities. They have been doing many things to potentially bring a lifetime of joy, fulfillment and belonging to college freshmen in every corner of the country but they are also working extremely hard to guarantee a strong future for the sport by registering new dues-paying members. And none of them are paid staff. The dedication that community members have routinely demonstrated just shows the intense loyalty that the sport tends to inspire. For example, I got a message the other day from Greenhouse inquiring about the status of the program at the University of Iowa. Greenhouse lives 1,000 miles away from Iowa City but he is invested in their success and he is helping to build up the membership base of the sport in the process.

Yet while the importance of recruiting and retention for the financial well-being of the sport literally cannot be understated (reminder to pay your membership dues as soon as possible!), in looking over the financial statements and thinking about the future of the sport, it strikes me as an impossible task to continue to expect membership dues from players mostly between the ages of 18-24 to carry the overwhelming majority of the weight for the annual budget, a position that Digmann and by extension the Board of Directors clearly shares from the open letter. Digmann lists the fact that "USQ is highly dependent on membership revenue (i.e. the community) and should explore additional options to general cash flow" as one of the major ideas discussed in the Board of Directors' interview with current USQ Executive Director Mary Kimball when she was hired in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world. 

Whether the idea originally came from Kimball or the Board of Directors, it is a great one, one that I think the growth of the sport depends upon. It is also an idea that under the leadership of Kimball, USQ has taken bold steps to put into action. Most notably, in close coordination with Major League Quadball and the worldwide governing body that will soon become the International Quadball Association, USQ changed the name of the sport this summer to distance themselves from the anti-trans positions of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and open up the chance to pursue sponsorship and broadcast opportunities. Because Warner Bros, the maker of the Harry Potter films, owns the trademark to "quidditch" and has placed strict limits on the usage of the word, USQ could not explore the types of additional options to generate cash flow that Digmann is talking about, particularly naming rights for competitions at the league level. Now, USQ, MLQ and the IQA can begin to approach potential partners.

But at least for the short- to medium-term -- and here is the payoff finally -- USQ needs to look beyond both membership dues and corporate sponsors as sources of revenue. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a clear and long-standing mission of promoting gender equality and inclusivity, a mission that is distinctive and urgent in the United States today, USQ has the potential to connect with philanthropic foundations and wealthy individuals that are looking to make a difference. In the fields of promoting active and healthy lifestyles, empowering women and securing LGBTQ+ rights, particularly defending opportunities in athletics for the trans and nonbinary community, I am confident that there are donors who would have interest in USQ.

Photo courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union.

If you haven't been able to keep up with state and local news over the past few years, sports have become one of the central battlegrounds in which many issues regarding gender identity are being contested. From more than 10 years around the game, it is my firm belief that USQ is better positioned than virtually any other organization in the country to speak out about the imperative of gender equality and inclusivity in sports with the power of the example that we have set. It is an example that we can continue to set and bring to a much wider audience with the support of generous donors who share our values.

For background, outside of playing and volunteering, I am a second-year PhD student in American politics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. I don't focus on the politics of gender and sexuality but I do study money in politics, including large donors and corporate influence, and I have recently become very interested in the growing role of philanthropic foundations. With the sharp rise in incomes and wealth among the richest Americans, charitable giving has reached an all-time high. Giving USA, the longest-running and most comprehensive annual report on the state of philanthropy in America, found that total donations increased from $466 billion in 2020 to $485 billion in 2021, the highest-ever sum in nominal terms and a number that nearly kept pace with inflation after 2020, when the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to advance racial justice led to a record-breaking year.

Now, in the work that I am doing as a PhD student, I am usually quite skeptical of large donors, whether they are wealthy individuals or philanthropic foundations. I typically have lots of questions about their motives. Historically, red states have given significantly more money per capita to charity than blue states and I spent the summer reading books with titles like Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. There are also many reasons for small organizations who work with wealthy individuals and philanthropic foundations to proceed with caution. They need to remain deeply committed to their values. 

Photo courtesy of Giving USA.

But at the same time, with rising levels of political polarization, the state of philanthropy is rapidly changing. The largest Democratic nonprofits spent more than the largest Republican nonprofits in 2020, fueled by a dramatic influx of money from donors who were looking to make a difference with respect to critical political issues but not wanting to directly fund a political campaign. Philanthropic consulting firms like Arabella Advisors have carved out a highly successful business model by helping progressive donors find small, scrappy nonprofits that are engaged in transformative work.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican and whether you see the developments in philanthropy as a positive or a negative, there is clear opportunity in the changes for USQ. Like several of the nonprofits that received money from large donors from across the political spectrum in 2020 and like many of the small, scrappy organizations that Arabella Advisors connects with progressive donors, USQ is a 501(c)(3) organization. Not every sports organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit -- it is a restrictive legal status in many ways. But for a sports organization with a goal that is charitable or educational, for a sports organization like USQ that is dedicated by mission statement to serving everybody that wants to play, there are some key advantages, above all the fact that donations are tax-deductible.

Community members who participated in the online fundraising drive at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic might remember that their contributions were tax-deductible. USQ has always received tax-deductible donations from various sources both inside and outside the immediate community, but more recently it is just starting to scratch the surface of the benefits that its legal status can bring. According to a 2021-22 USQ budget slideshow shared with me in the course of doing research for this blog post, in 2018 and 2019, "grants, contributions, and fundraising events" accounted for just three percent of the top four revenue sources for USQ. The low number stood in stark contrast with the much higher share reached by 12 top U.S. sports national governing bodies: 23 percent. 

Courtesy of US Quadball.

Predominantly 501(c)(3) groups, the 12 national governing bodies are all members of the Association of Chief Executives for Sport, a professional organizations that USQ successfully joined last year. They have diversified revenue streams that balance membership and events with grants and contributions, something that it seems USQ is clearly striving for. Together, the 2021-2022 budget slideshow and the joining of the professional organization shows that USQ has been seriously thinking about grants and contributions as an area for growth for much longer than I have. They have identified current levels of charitable giving as a challenge and aimed to join the ranks of peer national governing bodies that rely upon much larger shares of donations every year. 

USQ has raised a significant amount of money from charitable giving in the past. The donations did not come from large donors or outside the wider community necessarily. One of the biggest came from the Karpoff family, avid fans of the sport in the early years who made a major gift in 2015 to fund a tackling development research project that has made gameplay much safer. It started an important conversation around the league and brought the sport in touch with an outside consultant from USA Rugby, crucial steps that ultimately resulted in the transition from one-hand to two-hand tackling. It continues to pay dividends for players today. All things considered, it is a perfect example of the type of funding that USQ should aggressively pursue, because donors are most likely to give to an organization that is close to their hearts and they often want to fund a specific program that will have a long-term impact.

In short, USQ should have the equivalent of a college alumni office that expertly identifies players, alumni and fans that can afford to make regular contributions or might have an interest in funding larger special projects. It already has several volunteers who have been working hard to maintain a donor database and keep in touch with alumni, but it needs a full-fledged new division. It needs players who maybe have experience working with their college alumni offices or who are interested in careers in the nonprofit sector to volunteer.

Still, to secure long-term health of the organization -- and to deliver upon my promise of never again relying upon players to dig deeper into their own pockets beyond the membership dues they already pay -- USQ also needs to have a routine system for reaching out to much larger philanthropic foundations from outside the community that have a history of working in adjacent areas and share similar values. 

Photo courtesy of the National Basketball Association.

Just off the top of my head, an example that might be familiar to basketball fans is the Wade Family Foundation, run by former Miami Heat star and three-time NBA champion Dwayne Wade. For readers who do not know, Wade has a daughter who came out as trans and he has been outspoken in support of her. His family foundation has worked to advance racial justice as well as LGBTQ+ rights and he was named to the TIME Magazine 100 most influential people list in 2020 for his activism and philanthropy. Beyond the Wade Family Foundation, there are entire networks of large donors like LGBT Funders who have been working for years to advance LGBTQ+ causes and more recently, initiatives like Grantmakers United for Trans Communities to support trans rights specifically that have won the support of some of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country, including the Ford Foundation.

In addition to the equivalent of a college alumni office, USQ should have a team of staffers entirely dedicated to reaching out to foundations and writing grant applications. Again, it already has several volunteers who have been working hard to apply for various sources of money but they desperately need reinforcements. This might be the best place for me personally to get back involved with USQ. It needs players who have experience working at large philanthropic foundations, even just for an internship, to facilitate connections and players who have experience working with small, scrappy nonprofits to share their success stories with fundraising. It needs alumni who come into contact with wealthy individuals in any aspect of their personal or professional life to talk about quadball whenever possible and help to direct interested parties toward a well-defined place. It truly asks that everyone who plays and anyone who has ever loved the game is involved as ambassadors for the sport.

In December and once again in July with the IQA, USQ and MLQ reached a massive audience with their announcement that they were changing the name of the sport. The coverage in mainstream media outlets like NPR, NBC News and the New York Post was overwhelmingly positive. But the work is not done. In fact, it is just getting started. Now, it is time for USQ to continue to live out their values and spread their mission as the leading mixed-gender sport that welcomes trans and nonbinary individuals in the world. We have created something special, but we need to recognize that we help to truly fly.

Jack McGovern is the Press Coordinator for Major League Quadball. He worked with US Quadball on media relations for the name change announcement and he is a teammate to USQ Board of Directors member Nathan Digmann on Boom Train Quadball Club in Chicago.

Summer Reflections and Team-by-Team Thoughts from the 2022 MLQ Championship

Another season of MLQ is in the books, and although it was another Austin Outlaws title in the end and another Boston Forge appearance in the finals, it was one of the most exciting and interesting seasons to date, with absolute chaos at the top of the East Division and in the middle ranks of the South Division down to the final weeks of the regular season. More often than ever before, there was no clear hierarchy and a number of series came down to the deciding game three. The MLQ North Division Championship also debuted at a beautiful facility in South Bend, Indiana, where the Minneapolis Monarchs repeated as division champions and the Toronto Raiders scrapped their way to the final qualification spot in their much-anticipated return to the league from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While you have probably heard more than enough of my voice by now and I have been lucky to share many of my thoughts throughout the season as a guest on MLQ Replay, I unexpectedly had some time to reflect on the MLQ Championship this week. Writing has always been my favorite medium to express myself, and although I feel like I have improved on camera and behind the mic, I know I have good games and bad games. I hope everybody knows I am always working to get better and when the broadcast goes clear, I am my own toughest critic. If you shoot me a personal message or find me at a tournament, I am eager to hear any feedback, substantive or stylistic, that you have.

Photo by Kielan Donahue.

Mostly, I just feel incredibly privileged to have gotten back involved with MLQ. I know people get involved with the sport for many different reasons and as a league with tryouts, MLQ is not for everyone -- USQ is the governing body that is dedicated by mission statement to serving everyone that wants to play and I am absolutely psyched for the upcoming USQ season. But I was initially drawn into the community because I believed in the potential of the game, under the rules developed by Alex Benepe, Xander Manshel and multiple generations of gameplay volunteers, to become a spectator sport at the highest level. I am a massive sports fan at heart and the middle schooler inside of me who just found out about the game has been so thrilled to watch the vision of Ethan Sturm and Amanda Dallas come to life since 2015. I know that when I am looking for purpose, when I am looking to make a difference, I can always throw myself into helping out. 

Without further ado, here are some takeaways from the 2022 MLQ Championship, beginning with the teams in the play-in bracket and progressing towards the back-to-back Benepe Cup champions.

Play-In Bracket

The New Orleans Curse made their first-ever trip outside of the South Division, competing at the MLQ Championship for the first time since 2016 and 2017, when the season-ending tournament was contested in League City, Texas. The Curse overcame long odds just to qualify for the event. After sweeping the League City Legends away from home for the first time in franchise history, they needed the San Antonio Soldados to take care of business on the road against the Legends in the final week of the regular season. With San Antonio keeper Miguel Esparza pulling up with an injury, the series went down to the wire but the Curse ultimately sealed their spot at the last minute, all thanks to their early season sweep. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

At the MLQ Championship, New Orleans was down a couple key players, including veteran beater Sarah Kneiling and dynamic wing chasers Dylan DeLee and Marcellus Lewis. It was difficult for the Curse to get into a rhythm on the offensive end, as they struggled to convert their transition opportunities in a fast-paced game against the Toronto Raiders and found little luck breaking down the compact Kansas City Stampede defense in a slower half-court chess match. The sure-handed ball-carrying of P.J. Mitchell and hyperactive beating of Josh Mansfield helped keep the Curse afloat -- and a quick-thinking snitch catch from seeker Sarah Yanofsky almost elevated New Orleans to a victory over the Stampede -- but the Curse unexpectedly exited the tournament after two games in the play-in bracket.

On the flip side of the do-or-die matchup with New Orleans, the Kansas City Stampede exceeded expectations with a short roster of only ten players. Led by starting keeper and head coach Adam Heald, Kansas City sliced and diced through opposing defenses in the open field and scrambled to loose balls to win broken plays. It was a supremely impressive performance from the Stampede, who proved that they could hustle their way to a victory without some of their bigger names. On the defensive end, they were organized and disciplined, packing the paint and avoiding any overcommitments. They were especially indebted to the performances of their three women, chaser Katie Branstetter, beater Brenna Duncan, and utility Keighlyn Johnson, who alternated with each other and stayed healthy in the course of shutting down their opponents with a consistently high level of activity and alertness at the hoops.

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Not predicted to win a single game by many American analysts, the Toronto Raiders made a triumphant return to the MLQ Championship with an upset over the Curse on Saturday morning. They followed much of the same formula that carried them through the regular season in the North Division: a combination of speed and physicality in the chaser game, particularly from keeper Andrew Kusters, and a timely snitch catch from utility Corey Smithson. While sometimes lacking the organization and ball movement of their opponents on offense, the Raiders proved that they are a scrappy bunch, capable of knocking off almost any team in a standalone match. They have a clear identity, which is always dangerous for an underdog.

Over the course of the season, the Raiders also succeeded in integrating several new players, namely chasers Sarah Dykstra and Levi Medeiros, into their setup. Dykstra and Medeiros helped to open up the spaces behind the hoops for Toronto and make its offense more multi-dimensional. The experience of a long, hot season (the Raiders played more unique opponents than any team outside the finals and the Toronto core topped the league if you include the series between the Canadian national team and the Charlotte Aviators) will serve them well next summer, as many of their star players take a midseason break to make a similar trip south of the border for the IQA World Cup in Richmond, Virginia.

Photo by Suraj Singh.

The team that came the closest to advancing out of the play-in bracket, the Indianapolis Intensity, capped a roller coaster of a season with feel-good wins over Toronto and Kansas City but could not get past the Charlotte Aviators in two attempts. The Intensity jumped out to a 50-10 lead in the critical rematch but with beater Matt Brown sidelined after pulling a hamstring, Indianapolis lost its edge in the beating game against a deep Charlotte corps. Kody LaBauve, Celine Richard and Perry Wang ran rampant and blew open the score. In the chasing game for Indianapolis, it was a good weekend for Hannah Miller and Ally Manzella making backdoor cuts and converting passes around the hoops. Along with the usual work of Kennedy Murphy, Tyler Piper also brought a crucial influx of tackling at point defense. It was no mistake that Piper was subbing offense-defense with keeper Nathan Digmann by Saturday afternoon. He showed himself to be one of the cleanest tacklers at the tournament.

Quarterfinalists

Moving onto the teams that survived the play-in bracket, head coach Oliver Hodge has to be so incredibly proud of his Charlotte Aviators squad. At the culmination of a demanding season, they turned in their best team performance of the year, with some of the most balanced scoring of the tournament and an offense that relied upon moving the ball and attacking from different angles. Chasers Logan Hartman and Quincy Hildreth found their groove setting picks for each other and keeper Tommy O'Connor provided a jolt of energy off the bench in replacement of the injured Trey Pressley. Madison Burns and Melissa Ross kept countless plays alive with their hustle to loose balls and well-timed cuts. It was an equal opportunity offense, with vital contributions up and down the roster.

Photo by Willow Elser.

Ultimately, behind one of the best beating corps in the sport, the Aviators are just waiting for one of their quaffle players to take the next step as a scorer. It sounds hypocritical for someone who just spent a paragraph lavishing praise upon their teamwork but out of the well-structured offense that Charlotte has now developed, they need a go-to option. They need a chaser or keeper to roughly approximate what Nathan Digmann provides for Indianapolis or Josh Johnson gives to Austin: efficient shooting from the keeper zone line and accurate distribution to the right places at the right times. Hodge seemed to approach the role during the regular season but the UNC alum is instinctively unselfish as a player and a little undersized. Rookie and current Tar Heel M-Y Manawar, who showed glimpses of his sky-high potential throughout the season, is probably the best bet to rise to the challenge in the future.

For the Washington Admirals, it took many players to push the eventual champions, the Austin Outlaws, to a game three in the quarterfinals on Saturday night. It took the steady ballhandling and clutch midrange shooting of keeper Justin Cole. It took the explosive speed and punishing throws of beaters Bernie Bergers and Katryna Hicks. It took a committee of chasers headed by Julia Baer making up for the heavy minutes usually logged by the injured Rachel Heald. But at least for me, it was the electric performance of chaser T.J. Generette that stole the show under the lights at Troy Park. Fresh off a run to the Final Four with Maryland (which followed a thrilling rookie season off the bench for the Admirals), Generette completely outdid himself in his sophomore campaign. From the season-opening series against New York to the quarterfinals against Austin last weekend, he was the player that Washington could not afford to take off the pitch on offense. He was absolutely mesmerizing with the ball in hand, going to work one-on-one against a defender in the half court. He was a video game cheat code and he made the Admirals must-see television.

Photo by Jeannette High.

No single player could lift the Admirals past the Outlaws though, especially as the Washington offense regressed slightly from the towering highs of last season. With a few exceptions, the Admirals did not play with the pace and fluidity that many of their opponents came to expect. They missed the distribution of keeper Dale Farnan and rarely went back to the point defense pairing of John Sheridan and Justin Kraemer that generated so many transition opportunities in their regular season series against the Boston Forge. Relatively speaking, they struggled to score easy goals, which made the task of breaking down a hoop zone defense, for example, all the more mentally taxing in the end. The Admirals ultimately finished with their best-ever record and became only the second franchise to notch wins against Austin and Boston, but with title experience on the roster, Washington will want more next season.

Against the preseason predictions of yours truly, the Minneapolis Monarchs successfully defended their North Division title and finished the regular season with an undefeated record for the first time in program history. By any measure, it was a summer of forward progress for the Monarchs. Chaser Emma Persons took a giant leap as a scorer, head coach Cody Narveson claimed a third consecutive North Division MVP for the franchise playing alongside a beating partner in Gracie Johnson who could have just as easily won the award, and the city assembled one of its most talented rosters ever before a large crowd of friends and family at their home series in July. 

But with a loss in the quarterfinals to an opponent led by a Team USA beater for the second consecutive year, it would be understandable if the Monarchs were feeling a bit of deja vu in Howard County. Unable to overcome the absences of chasers Terry Carlson and Alex Obanor and reigning North Division MVP April Grabner, Minneapolis fell to the San Antonio Soldados, overrun by the turbocharged beating of Daniel Williams, Kris De La Fuente and Katherine Hayworth. They could have used the passing vision of Carlson and the field awareness of Obanor as well as the pitch coverage of Grabner, but the question that the Monarchs have to answer is the same question that the entire North Division has to figure out: How can a beating corps outside of the Northeast or Texas prepare for the faster pace of play that teams like the Soldados bring to national tournaments? It might not have an easy fix, but if any franchise can come up with a solution, it is the Monarchs.

Photo by Willow Elser.

The Rochester Whiteout played the New York Titans to a tight game one on the back of a spectacular long-range shooting performance and a heavy dose of their trademark physicality in transition defense but the North Division runners-up eventually struggled to generate offense in game two and exited at the quarterfinal stage in their return to the MLQ Championship. Absent at the MLQ North Division Championship, where the Monarchs beaters outplayed the Whiteout corps, beater Erin Parkinson helped to steady the rotation for Rochester, with key shifts in game one especially. Chaser Joseph Lombardi also brought energy and sound decision-making to the pitch whenever he subbed into the game. Rochester needed more to upset the Titans however and without the accurate service of keeper Basem Ashkar, chaser Kit Powpour was not getting the opportunities around the hoops that he thrived upon during the regular season. Priority number one for the Whiteout next year is Powpour developing the same degree of telepathic chemistry with a couple more players on the team.

Semifinalists

Another team that I was absolutely sleeping on the entire regular season that proved me dead wrong at the MLQ Championship, the San Antonio Soldados let no absence, not even an injury to Team USA keeper Miguel Esparza suffered two weeks before the tournament, get in the way of their return to the semifinals in Howard County. For the second consecutive year, the Soldados overcame doubts about their roster and placed as one of the top four teams in the country. It was arguably even more impressive in 2022. San Antonio rode the combination of Jay Stewart and Matt Blackwood, two chasers who are still currently playing at the college level for UTSA, for long stretches all the way to a pair of near upsets over the Boston Forge. Stewart proved almost impossible to contain on the wings and Blackwood picked apart opposing defenses from the point with his passing and shooting. Elsewhere on the roster, Kris De La Fuente played some of the nastiest beater shifts of the weekend alongside Daniel Williams and caught a snitch for good measure. He is consistently underrated on the national stage.

Photo by Eric Lynch.

Speaking of consistently underrated, the New York Titans gave the Austin Outlaws their toughest test of the tournament for the second MLQ Championship in a row, pushing the defending champions to the brink on Sunday morning. I was relatively high on the Titans heading into the season, picking the reigning East Division winners to finish 8-4 despite their significant roster turnover, but they undoubtedly exceeded my wildest expectations under first-year head coach Frank Minson. They entered their series against the Washington Admirals with a level of focus and the type of creative gameplan that shut down one of the most feared offenses in the sport. They followed the eye-opening performance with three businesslike wins over the Charlotte Aviators and they took a game from the Boston Forge on the road.

To highlight a few reasons why New York cruised through the regular season and ended the summer going toe-to-toe with Austin, you have to begin with the play of keeper Jon Jackson. One of the most puzzling snubs from the Team USA roster, Jackson performed like a man on a mission in 2022. He was a stabilizing presence and a willing passer on offense but he really made a difference on the defensive end. The mark defense that the Titans rolled out against the Admirals was possible because Jackson is capable of reading the game like a Pro Bowl safety and moving laterally like an NBA center who can guard 1-5. In the keeper zone, Jackson took away goal after goal with his ability to block shocks, wrap the biggest drivers and stuff alley-oops. His hoop defense was far and away the best in the league and while there are more dynamic offensive players, Jackson has turned himself into the kind of stopper that Team USA desperately needed in 2016 against Australia, arguably the only fixture that matters at the international level. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Otherwise, years of development up and down the roster paid off in the beater game for the Titans. New additions Tessa Mullins and Tate Kay and regular season returnee Devin Lee were the clear standouts, but program veterans like Kerri Donnelly and more recent positional converts like Kellan Cupid logged strong minutes throughout the season. Phill Cain took their game to another level against the Austin Outlaws and fed off the energy of the crowd. From consistently competing at a high level at Warriors practices during the USQ season or working individually on their games, a number of Titans beaters made obvious strides and the beating corps as a whole seemed to have really gelled. In the end, they could not do enough to distract the deep-lying Outlaws beater pairs playing in front of a hoop zone defense but they came the closest of any team. They could have benefitted from more aggressive drives from quick chasers like Eric Pagoada, not only as a chance to score goals but as a way to force the Austin beaters to make risky throws and relinquish their tight grasp upon bludger control.

Finalists

After one of the more frustrating seasons in league history a year ago, the Boston Forge rebounded for a division title in convincing fashion and made a return to the finals at the MLQ Championship in their first summer under head coach Tom DeMouth. To start, DeMouth deserves a ton of credit. There is perhaps no harder place to coach in the sport than Boston, where a large community of veteran players is following the season and expecting the team to win every game and an even larger contingent of young players is hoping for the chance to prove themselves on the pitch and earn roster spots. By the second series of the regular season, DeMouth established a clear and recognizable structure that worked for the Forge offense and identified the players that fit the system. He put his players in the best position to succeed.

Photo by Jeannette High.

The MQC as a whole also deserves a ton of credit for producing the players that brought Boston back to contention. If the Forge had won, the story would have been about the longevity of Max Havlin and Harry Greenhouse at an all-world level and the recovery of Lulu Xu from a devastating injury, but it also would have been about a completely new generation of chasers and beaters that had changed the timeline for the Forge. Beater Serena Monteiro, from the Tufts program, took a huge step forward in 2022 and became the obvious go-to option for Boston with Xu out of the lineup against the Washington Admirals. Chaser Andrew Steinberg, from the Brown program, finally got his chance to shine after not rostering last year or in the season opener against the Charlotte Aviators. By the end of year, he had mastered a new position on the field and he was perhaps the most consistent off-ball scorer for the Forge. And keeper Ian Scura, who led the effort to revitalize the storied Middlebury program, made the transition away from former Team USA keeper Jayke Archibald perfectly seamless. He put up some of the best numbers in the league and cemented his status as one of the most important players for the national team heading into a World Cup year.

The list could go on -- chaser Athena Mayor, also from the Tufts program, answered one of the biggest preseason questions and helped to replace the production of Grace Dastous in the course of carrying her team past its rivals from New York and winning the first-ever Fan Favorite award -- but the Forge played so together all season, more than the sum of their parts. They brought an infectious joy to the pitch when warming up and celebrating goals. Without a doubt, they could have used more physicality, especially at point defense to deter some of the shots that the Outlaws were sinking, and they were uncharacteristically sloppy on the offensive end in the finals. They need to refine their base shape to find ways to support their lone chaser behind the hoops more quickly, particularly against a free beater like South Division MVP Kaci Erwin who was aggressively shading backwards, and they also need to develop a seeker. But for a young team, 2022 brought the first taste of finals experience for Boston. I have feeling they will be back sooner rather than later.

Photo by Jeannette High.

In their sixth season, the Austin Outlaws finally surpassed the Boston Forge on the all-time leaderboard with four titles. They gained the edge on the only city that has ever rivaled their claim as the center of the sport in the United States. But they repeated as champions with a completely different formula and a much younger group of players than the all-star team that took home the Benepe Cup last year. For the rest of the league, it is scary how quickly the Outlaws have reloaded. After some early season questions and an untimely injury to Team USA beater Bailee Fields, the beating corps not only hung with the best beating pairs from the Northeast but outplayed some of the biggest names in the sport for long stretches. Playing in the college national championship game only four months ago, Kayse Bevers, Kyzer Polzin and Jack Wang accounted for the vast majority of the beater minutes alongside Erwin, who switched positions at the beginning of the season. While fending off challenges from opposing beaters and winning duels around the hoops, they took away the spaces that opposing chasers wanted to attack.

The unflappable performance from the beating corps was ultimately decisive because it allowed Augustine Monroe to stay in the quaffle game, where his services were needed down to the final goal. It is easy to forget how much beater Monroe has played in recent years, even when he is taking the field alongside deeper beating rotations headed by Team USA beaters like Hallie Pace and Cole Travis. Last season, the chasing corps for the Outlaws might have been talented enough to score consistently without Number 10 but his contributions helped to keep the Austin offense multi-dimensional in 2022. Along with breakout star keeper Sammy Garza, he moved from on ball to off ball with a fluidity that few players can match. He repeatedly recognized the weak point in the opposing defense, switched the angle of attack and converted his opportunities around the hoops. 

Photo by Jeannette High.

Somehow, the GOAT was not even the best player on his own team though. Over the course of the weekend, chaser Josh Johnson produced a performance for the ages, one of the most impressive that I have ever seen on the pitch. A second-string ballcarrier who struggled with a turnover problem for the Outlaws at the MLQ Championship last year, Johnson elevated his game and became a highly efficient operator in the half court. He shook off tackles and hit shots from outside the keeper zone at every stage of the tournament, no matter what defensive looks the best teams in the East Division gave him. He was the hardest player to stop the entire weekend and he will be called upon as a key contributor for Team USA at the World Cup next summer. You can count the number of chasers and keepers who have ever played as well as Johnson on one hand. 

Yet arguably, the story of the tournament went beyond one player. The hoop zone defense that the Austin Outlaws shifted into when the going got tough against the Washington Admirals represented a milestone for the highest level of the sport. They stuck pretty closely to the cautious defensive approach for the remainder of the tournament, and it increasingly worked for the Outlaws as they became more and more comfortable with the rotations. Now, Austin is not the first team to play a hoop zone defense and many top teams have turned to the strategy in recent years, but with personnel capable of standing up drives at the hoops and blocking shots on the top hoop, the Outlaws made the look a no-brainer. Erin McBride was particularly important, as her height and strength helped her cover any of three hoops and step up against any attacking player. A big question is whether enough teams without a player like McBride can pull off the hoop zone defense, but if they can follow the blueprint, the rulebook might need to spread the hoops even farther apart to give opposing beaters the chance to tap out defending chasers. 

Jack McGovern is the Press Coordinator for Major League Quadball.

Roster Reactions and 2022 MLQ Season Preview

One of the more interesting roster reveals in Major League Quidditch history dropped two weeks ago, with notable names popping up in unexpected places, rising college stars slated to make their summer debuts and a few surprise retirements across the country. After a new champion was crowned in the club division at US Quidditch Cup and a wide range of young players burst onto the scene in the college division, the rosters were announced in a climate of tantalizing expectations that the 2022 season could be the most closely contested yet. As teams hold their first few practices and players travel from the outer reaches of their recruiting radii, I had some thoughts based on the rosters about the storylines for each division. I am admittedly a little rusty as a quidditch blogger, but I have now been back around the sport for a full MLQ season and a full USQ season, so I have no excuse! 

A Changing of the Guard?

One of the biggest questions for the league is whether the longtime dominance of the Boston Forge and the New York Titans atop the East Division will come to an end in 2022. The two rivals have finished either first or second in every season except one, with the Forge taking five consecutive division titles before the Titans finally knocked off their northern neighbors last year. Coming off USQ campaigns that fell short and heading into the 2022 MLQ season, neither team is necessarily favored though.

The Washington Admirals, fresh off a run to the semifinals at US Quidditch Cup by the Bosny Bearsharks without star players Julia Baer and Tyler Trudeau, were the early pick of MLQ co-commissioner Ethan Sturm. The Admirals have been making strides for several seasons now and the hard work of building a strong culture started to pay off last year, when Washington became the first team to defeat the Boston Forge in a regular season series and developed one of the prettiest passing offenses that quidditch has ever seen. There was a magic on their home turf outside RFK Stadium, where they believed they could beat any team, and all the key figures are coming back according to the revealed roster.

Photo by Chiddy Powers.

With fewer home series in 2022 however, Washington will have to remain focused during the regular season because the ultimate goal is the same: a deep run before a hometown crowd in Howard County at the MLQ Championship. A year ago, the Admirals ran into the buzzsaw of the eventual champion Austin Outlaws in the quarterfinals before they could gather any momentum. To avoid a repeat scenario, the capital region squad will have to earn a higher seed by winning on the road in New York and Boston, a tough proposition for the beating corps especially. 

The additions of former Maryland star Zain Bhalia and current Maryland standout Heather Farnan will provide much-needed depth, but continued development from the returning trio of Melissa Smith, Cody Nardone, and Bernie Berges is just as crucial. The three veterans stabilized a position that previously given Washington trouble last season and at times outplayed flashier opponents but the question of whether they can thrive as high-level beating speeds up and be the go-to beaters on a championship team is open. 

Another team that is highly energized by a strong USQ season and could disrupt the duopoly of Boston and New York is the trial expansion team, the Charlotte Aviators. The Aviators took a game off the Titans, who eventually reached the finals, at the MLQ Championship last year and have the beating depth to hang with any team. They also have the top-performing seeker in the league in Ryan Davis, which means that more than any other positional unit, the burden lies with the chasers to elevate their games. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Under the leadership of head coach Lee Hodge, the Aviators offense has come a long way, with a relatively one-dimensional attack becoming dynamic and multi-faceted over the course of the 2021 season. Davis has a killer midrange shot, Hodge is one of the best in the sport at working in underutilized spaces on the wing, and Logan Hartman can come out of nowhere and turn garbage into gold around the hoops. What is holding the Aviators back is a combination of two things: a lack of incorporation of their women chasers in strategic ways and an underdeveloped press on the defensive end. 

Goals do not always come easy for Charlotte, and finding ways to move the ball and get counterattacking opportunities is part of the solution. With Diana Howard transferring to the Washington Admirals roster and Erin Smekrud appearing on the practice squad, Charlotte will need its new additions at chaser who are women to step up. But the coaching staff needs to have a real plan to take advantage of their skillsets. Similarly, players like Quincy Hildreth are deadly on the fast break but do not get nearly enough chances to run in the open field because of a lack of coordination on defense. The bar is exceptionally high for a trial expansion team, but the Aviators have every reason to believe they could win the division with their  trajectory over the past few years.

Despite all the energy around the two potential challengers, Boston and New York will be hard to unseat from their thrones. New York is reenergized under a new generation of leadership, with Frank Minson stepping into the role of head coach and Rachel Ayella-Silver and Jon Jackson joining Lindsay Marella as assistant coaches. The younger members of the Titans squad have made enormous progress over the past calendar year and the beating corps is now stacked with the intriguing additions of Tate Kay and Tessa Mullins. The departure of several longtime fixtures in the quaffle game also creates a huge opportunity for a new player like Leo Fried to slot into the space behind the hoops and be a sparkplug off the bench. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

While the stage is set for a young player to prove themselves at the highest level, the hopes of the Titans to defend their division title ultimately rest with a couple veterans. Jon Jackson was a highly efficient scorer and passer for the Titans last season, at times carrying the offensive load, but he will need to reach another level of consistency in the half court for New York to hang with Washington and Charlotte. Lindsay Marella is an unparalleled weapon for a team that is breaking a press with her vision and distribution, but the Titans will need more goals from the Team USA mainstay in 2022. In the beater game, it is exciting to see Devin Lee, who joined for the MLQ Championship last season, on the roster for the regular season. Can he recapture his form from the 2019 season? 

Two hundred miles to the north in Boston, the Forge have turned over the head coaching reigns to Tom DeMouth. After the outstanding performances of many Massachusetts Quidditch Conference teams at US Quidditch Cup, the coaching staff had difficult decisions to make with the roster and its choices will fall under the microscope of the highly engaged local community if Boston starts slow out of the gate. The Forge have Charlotte and Washington at home in June, two show-me series for a team that is looking to move past a disappointing 2021 season. 

For Boston to write a different story into the history books in 2022, they will need to begin with a much-improved defense. Most importantly for the three-time champions, Lulu Xu is back in the middle of the defensive half, the ultimate stopper who covers endless ground and fends off challenges with world-class hand-to-hand skills to snuff out danger. In the chaser game, the Forge picked up two defensive stalwarts from their southern rivals: Taylor Crawford and Peter Lawrence. Crawford brings some of the best point defense and open field tackling in the game and Lawrence provides size inside for crucial matchups with opposing ballhandlers like Tyler Trudeau and Quincy Hildreth. Together, they are fascinating pieces for DeMouth to have at his disposal.

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Continued growth from the younger players on the roster is also key for the Forge. With Jayke Archibald and Grace Dastous no longer around, there are holes at keeper and chaser that Boston will need to fill. Ian Scura is the obvious choice to fill the shoes of Archibald and Ryan Pfenning is waiting in the wing but there is more of a competition for the heavy minutes that Dastous has logged over the past few seasons, not to mention the type of cutting that has carved up defenses for years. Morgan Bertram is the strongest defensive presence and perhaps has the inside track, as she posted impressive goalscoring numbers in 2021. Elsewhere, Zach Doyle was an excellent off-ball option for Boston last year and the additions of players who stuffed the statsheet in MQC play like Jordan Smiley and Chris LaBudde significantly raise the ceiling for the storied franchise.

The Ottawa Black Bears are the clear underdogs in the ultracompetitive East Division, but it will just be gratifying to have Canadian representation back in the league after more than two years of border restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For American audiences beginning to look towards the 2023 IQA World Cup in Richmond, Virginia, it will be interesting to see which members of the Black Bears squad seem likely to appear on the Canadian national team next summer.

My picks:

Washington Admirals 9-3

New York Titans 8-4

Boston Forge 7-5

Charlotte Aviators 6-6

Ottawa Black Bears 0-12

The New North

Split into two halves with a new regular season format that will culminate in the first-ever North Division Championship in South Bend, Indiana, the middle of the country is set for a compelling schedule of games in 2022. The western half of the division is probably stronger, with two teams in the Indianapolis Intensity and the Minneapolis Monarchs who should be the favorites based on the consistency of their programs and the results that they have produced in recent years. But the return of two teams in the eastern half, the Rochester Whiteout (who have played in the East Division since 2019) and the Toronto Raiders (who could not participate in the 2021 season because of border restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic), adds a significant wrinkle to the projection of a division winner. MLQ co-commissioner Ethan Sturm picked the Rochester Whiteout, a young team that ran the gauntlet of the East Division last season.

The perennial division champion Indianapolis Intensity enter the season somewhat under the radar after they fell to the Minneapolis Monarchs in a three-game sweep at home last summer. In addition, several program fixtures like Jeff Siwek, Alyssa Marassa and Matt Melton are taking the summer off or moving to other roles, lending an unfamiliar look to the roster. While certainly the depth has an untested quality with a large influx of players from the up-and-coming Columbia program, the coaching staff under head coach Nathan Digmann is committed to finding diamonds in the rough in the form of player development and the top lines already have the potential to dominate the division if healthy and available.

Photo by Willow Elser.

Beginning with the beaters, Matt Brown is returning from injury and Tad Walters is expecting to have greater availability in 2022, two facts that significantly improve the outlook for the Intensity and boost morale around the team. Added to Dany Yacoub, who thrived in their absences last year, and Ben Peachey, who switched positions and became a starter for Boom Train during the USQ season, the Intensity should have the deepest beating corps in the division. One substantial concern is the losses of Catherine Rogers, Alyssa Irwin and Sam McNew, which leaves Indy with only one woman beater on the roster in Linnea Schultz. Early in the season especially, it is worth exploring whether a female player who is listed primarily as a chaser like Kennedy Murphy or Mary Owen, both of whom have experience at beater, could pinch hit at the position so Indy is not wedded to running two male sets nearly all the time.

In terms of the half-court offense, the duo to watch is Nathan Digmann and Cole Collins. What Digmann can do is well-known. For Boom Train, he accounted for the overwhelming majority of the offensive production against top opponents at tournaments like the Crescent City Invitational and the Sin City Classic with his ability to beat defenders one-on-one and his accurate midrange shooting. But few players in the league are more underrated than Collins, who was overshadowed by playing on the same line as Creighton phenom Darien Murcek-Ellis for the Kansas City Stampede in 2021. Collins has aggressive instincts and a deep arsenal of pump fakes and double moves around the hoops. He will likely join Digmann on the starting line for the Intensity. When they sit, players like Monica Marion and Josh Horchem, both of whom were members of the practice squad in 2021, are key for stabilizing the goalscoring output. They have a knack for fighting through contact and finishing at the hoops. 

Ultimately, the Intensity come into the 2022 season with slightly lower expectations because the key members of the roster have fallen three times in a row to the same group of players: the core of the San Antonio Soldados and the USQ club division champion Texas Hill Country Heat. While there have been injuries and losing to the national champions is no cause for shame, the Soldados and Heat have utilized the same style of play, a counterattacking strategy that has revolutionized high-level quidditch by taking advantage of possession-oriented offenses. Like the gegenpressing of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool in soccer, the Soldados and the Heat want to turn defense into offense and will spring an aggressive high press when they generate the slightest advantage in the beater game. It is not clear that any of the competition in the North Division has the personnel to pull off the kind of gameplan that has caused problems for Indy, but the Intensity will need to develop a response specifically for opportunistic teams that are willing to try. 

Out of all the teams in the North Division, the Minneapolis Monarchs are perhaps best prepared to follow the blueprint of the Soldados and the Heat against Indy. While they developed their own formula for knocking off the Intensity en route to winning the division last year, the Monarchs have lost key veterans like Sean Pagoada and Luke Zak and Indy will pose a much tougher test with Brown and Walters in the lineup. Still, the upset potential is high with the last two North Division MVPs in Max Meier and April Grabner on the roster. Meier approximates what Soldados and Heat star keeper Miguel Esparza can do with his speed in the open field and his ability to stick with plays that seem dead. Grabner likewise can play the part of Team USA beater Bailee Fields in clogging up the middle of the field and eliminating passing options during the press. With a combination of speed and length in half-court defense and an ability to create fast break opportunities, the Monarchs will certainly be a tricky team to break down.

Photo by Willow Elser.

A team that came close to defeating the Minneapolis Monarchs away from home last season, the Detroit Innovators are returning under mostly new leadership in 2022 with Kaegan Maddelein in the role of head coach and David Banas, Cam Kniffen and Emma Vazquez joining the staff as assistants. Each member of the coaching staff is key for their on-field contributions but they have already put the team in a strong position by recruiting well from the Michigan and Michigan State programs. In particular, a whopping ten players from the Michigan roster at the most recent US Quidditch Cup will be plying their trade for the Innovators this summer, a great chance for growth and development over the course of the season. 

In the mean time, Detroit will look toward Banas to wreak havoc, Kniffen to organize the defense, and Vazquez to keep the ball moving in the half court and force rotations from the defense. The Innovators still need a solution at the point of attack, someone who is both an accurate distributor and an effective driver, and Maddelein is typically more comfortable working behind the hoops, but Detroit has the pieces that can make life difficult for any opponent. 

In the eastern half of the North Division, the Rochester Whiteout are returning from a two-season spell alongside the powerhouse programs of the East Division. They are bringing a roster that has almost completely turned over since the last time they competed against midwestern teams, when they won a division title in 2018. But last season especially, they showcased for the entire league the benefits of entrusting young players with key minutes against top opponents, as relatively unknown names like Mitchell Vargas and Ben Stonish accounted for just as much of the total goalscoring as more established figures like Sollie Gominiak and Alyssa Giarrosso. It was an equal opportunity offense, with lots of intricate passing and unpredictable movement. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

For the Whiteout to translate highly attractive quidditch into wins however, several things need to happen. Emily Hickmott has to continue to play like one of the most reliable beaters outside of Texas, unfazed by the speed that Ben Strauss and the Cleveland Riff beaters will bring and unbothered by physicality from her years in the Lone Star State. The backup beater pair of Josh Tombline and Madeleine Fordham has to build upon their progress last year, when they were thrown into the deep end from the opening weekend of the season against Charlotte and New York and able to hold bludger control for significant stretches. 

Most importantly, Basem Ashkar, the leading scorer and assister for Rochester in 2021, has to find a way to assert his will in close games like he famously did in the 2018 USQ nationals college division final against the University of Texas, all without taking away from the metronomic rhythm of the Whiteout offense. Finally, Kit Powpour has to take advantage of the fact that Snitch of the Fall Justin Barnard is a member of his team and pick up new moves in practice. Powpour learned from coach Harry Greenhouse during his time at Boston University and has shown every indication that he is capable of making a jump. His strength and conditioning is crucial, as Rochester cannot be pulling players like Ashkar and Gominiak from the chasing game too often because they need a snitch catch in 2022. 

Outside of Rochester, the Toronto Raiders are probably best positioned to challenge the Indianapolis Intensity and the Minneapolis Monarchs from the east. The Raiders finished tied for second place in the North Division in their debut season way back in 2019. Unfortunately, they have not been able to play across the border since then but they have presumably been following the ups and downs of their division rivals. If they have used the time away from the league wisely, they should have a huge competitive edge in the first couple series because none of their recent games are on tape and all of their opponents have had their matches filmed and posted on YouTube for more than a year. Along with the Scavenger Showdown in late July which will determine the best MLQ team in Canada, the Raiders have an exciting and long-awaited season on the horizon.

Photo by Chiddy Powers.

Finally, in the absence of the Toronto Raiders, the Cleveland Riff automatically qualified for the MLQ Championship after finishing fourth in the North Division last season but they made the most of their opportunity in the play-in bracket with a memorable and closely contested match against the League City Legends. The strong performance followed their lone victory of the regular season in a massive upset over the division champion Minneapolis Monarchs. The recipe for each of the significant triumphs was different, as different players were available at different times, but it seems like all of the key pieces are back in 2022. 

Ben Strauss, who missed the MLQ Championship, is one of the best beaters in the division and perhaps the most capable of wearing down the depth of the Indy lines. The veteran keeper John Gaffigan came out of retirement to stabilize the Riff offense and showed that his distribution is just as multifaceted as ever. And Carrie Brittson was a revelation for her ability to juke defenders and dunk at the hoops. The Riff might not defeat the Rochester Whiteout at home in their opening series of the season, but with time to practice, they have proven to be a team that is dangerous to underestimate. They will be a difficult draw for a team from western half of the division at the North Division Championship in South Bend.

My picks:

Indianapolis Intensity 5-1

Minneapolis Monarchs 3-3

Detroit Innovators 1-5

Rochester Whiteout 5-1

Toronto Raiders 3-3

Cleveland Riff 1-5

Watching the Throne

With the recent title of Texas Hill Country Heat in the club division and the split series with the Austin Outlaws last season, it is tempting to think that the San Antonio Soldados should be favored to win the South Division heading into the 2022 campaign. While there is lots of time for development over the course of the summer from players like Matt Blackwood and the rest of the UTSA core, San Antonio enters the season as a relatively top-heavy team, pretty dependent on reigning South Division MVP Miguel Esparza at keeper and rising star Daniel Williams at beater. Esparza pushes the pace like no other ballcarrier in the league and sacrifices very little in terms of efficiency for his aggressiveness. He has outstanding field vision and the moves to get around most defenders. Williams was hyped in the forums after USQ nationals as the best beater in the world, which may very well be true. He will be tested in a new way however without Bailey Fields, who is now a member of the Austin Outlaws.

Photo by Chiddy Powers.

Otherwise, the Soldados will miss the contributions of several former players from the Pegasus roster in the USQ club division, namely chaser Austin Villejo and beaters Ryan Nawrocki and Kylie McBride. Even as a wing chaser, Villejo was the most consistent scoring threat for San Antonio at the MLQ Championship last year with Esparza unavailable to play. Nawrocki going down with an injury in the quarterfinals against Indy significantly lowered the chances for an upset of New York in the semifinals. And McBride was the rock of the defense, luring her opponents into deep positions and winning beater battles to consistently spring the fast break. Along with Fields, she also enabled the Soldados to play their vaunted 18-wheeler lineup, an unconventional look with the capacity to throw teams off guard. But for every absence (which I normally do not like to dwell on!) there is an opportunity and players like Tim Nguyen, Kris De La Fuente and Maya Hinebaugh will look to step into the big shoes left behind.

If San Antonio will be trying to plug some holes in the early part of the season, the Austin Outlaws are the clear favorites, not only for the South Division but for the whole league once again. The experience that the large University of Texas contingent on the roster gained over the past few months should not be underestimated, as a group of young players encountered their fair share of adversity and battled through tough games and nagging injuries to become college division national champions. Kyzer Polzin and Kasye Bevers especially showed up in the finals under the lights, making quick work of the overextended Creighton beaters and taking care to place their beats out of the reach of quaffle blocks by Darian Murcek-Ellis and the other Creighton ballcarriers. They were locked in, intently focused in the way that they will need to be for the Austin Outlaws this summer.

Photo by Chiddy Powers.

The continued growth of the current Texas group is especially key for the future of the esteemed Austin Outlaws program because of the increasing number of veterans who are stepping away. With a few exceptions like the former Team USA chaser Simon Arends who has now transitioned very nicely to beater and the indomitable Augie Monroe who is doing his best Tom Brady impression, many of the safety valves are gone for the three-time champs. At the MLQ Championship last year, the two most reliable sources of half court offense for the Outlaws were probably Louis Sanchez and Andrew Axtell. Sam Haimowitz was their second leading scorer during the regular season. None are on the roster in 2022. 

In their stead, two other veterans, Kaci Erwin and Erin McBride, will continue tackling and scoring with characteristic consistency, but younger ballcarriers like Josh Johnson and Sammy Garza will need to improve their efficiency and physicality in the course of stepping into larger roles. They will need to find the balance that Monroe has mastered over the years of avoiding turnovers while putting real pressure on the defense by repeatedly driving with the intention to score. With respect to the beaters, Fields will slot into the heavy minutes logged by Hallie Pace last year and Taylor Tracy is ready for the challenge of matching up against the trickiest assignments from the opposing team every game in the absence of Cole Travis and Jackson Johnson. Still, Austin does not appear to be the juggernaut that they were in 2021, especially in comparison to teams outside the division. The Outlaws might have enough to win the South Division but their depth will be relatively untested against East Division foes in particular.

Photo by Chiddy Powers.

With a slight opening at the top from the relatively inexperienced rosters of San Antonio and Austin, all of the second tier in the South Division should feel cautiously optimistic heading into the season, able to realistically envision an upset victory in a low-scoring game. Composed of the Creighton core that just surged into the college division national championship game as well as veterans from the Kansas and Missouri programs, the Kansas City Stampede likely have the best chance. Backed by beaters who will restrain themselves from the riskiest throws and play more conventionally under head coach Adam Heald, the aforementioned star chaser Darian Murcek-Ellis will be able to shine on the offensive end like last year without immediately giving up a fast break goal going the other way. It will also be interesting to see Creighton keeper Joe Goulet in the Stampede setup as well after he had a small but key role off the bench for the Minneapolis Monarchs in 2021.

For the League City Legends, the name to know is Hayden Boyes, who was one of the youngest players in the league last season but became the go-to option in the half court offense at the MLQ Championship despite being pretty undersized for a chaser. Boyes has a bright future in the sport and it is exciting to think about how fast he already processes the game. Under first-year head coach Ashton Jean-Lewis, League City will have to scrap and claw through the beater game to give their chasers an opportunity, a tougher task in the South Division than anywhere else. 

While lacking offensive firepower, the New Orleans Curse have certainly demonstrated in the past that they have the capacity to scrap and claw in the beater game, a formula for giving trouble to any top team. They return experienced pieces Josh Mansfield and Sarah Kneiling, although they only have four full-time beaters and one part-time beater listed on the roster right now. The Curse will look to build on the momentum of stealing a game from the Kansas City Stampede in their final regular season series last year en route to qualifying for the MLQ Championship for the first time. 

My picks:

Austin Outlaws 12-0

San Antonio Soldados 8-4

Kansas City Stampede 6-6

League City Legends 2-10

New Orleans Curse 2-10

Jack McGovern is Press Coordinator for Major League Quidditch.