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Who did he replace?

Hopefully, we can get Jones and Bizjack to STL for a visit. Pistol, one question for you. You cite offers from USC for Jones. Is that So Cal or So Carolina? They both refer to themselves as USC.

I don't know if you'll picked up, in his bio, that Forte had a 95.5% FT year, which is 4th best all-time in the NCAA. I remember that our Euro was a 90% + FT shooter, but it's strange that the two best FT shooters on the team are Coaches.

She is , in effect a P5 level recruit based on her OKL commitment. I guess with injuries you can never have too many good young backs. Looks like we will have superb depth next year, even if Larson needs to sit out. Nice to have a coaches daughter in the program! Have you heard about any departures? Some of last years' reserves would seem to be likely candidates to move on. Katie just seems to be continually improving the team.

I bet this was part of the discussion with K Shields. This could really be a helpful recruiting tool for her. It shows a real commitment to both soccer programs. Good job, A D May.

AD May refers, in the Brunts podcast, to a picture of the seniors with all the trophies they have won while at SLU. Would it be possible to get that picture posted in the Women's Soccer thread of Billikens.com. Thanks to anyone who is able to get that done.

Courtside, thanks for the great information on Women's recruiting, especially on the local scene. It certainly points out that there is a lot of D1 talent coming out of high schools in the STL/ILL/MO/KA region. While I wish more of the local top players were headed to SLU, I guess one problem Katie might be having this next recruiting year could be playing time, with such a young team. Certainly a few spots will be up for grabs next year, but depending on injuries, not many especially if Lawler can return to form and Cytron is as good as expected. (It does look like Hannah L. is a possible redshirt this upcoming season). Anyway, your report was probably the best recruiting report of any sport that I have read on Billikens.com. Thanks!

KS is truly going National in her recruiting. Utah this year and Portland next! It would be nice to add one or both of the St. Dominic 2022s. St D. has become a real power. I have seen Paloucek a few times this year and you are right. She is outstanding. Constant, aggressive motion and a powerful shot. It's too bad that WG was so bad this year as her talents were wasted. She could have really helped one of her neighbors, Nerinx or Kirkwood, even St J is not that far away from Webster. While I am not the soccer expert some of you are, I have seen quite a few boys and girls HS games this year and I honestly believe that if SLU could close the MO/ILL borders, including the entire KC Metro area, that they could have a national power. Losing top area players to Clemson, Wisc and Xavier, for example hurts, even though KS and her staff are doing an outstanding job with local recruits. I know it's a dream world to get all of them, but I think this MO/ILL/KC Metro has shown itself via ECLN and GA leagues, to be a top-quality hotbed for girls soccer. I would love to have gotten Duff (NH) (Clemson) this year and Howard (LAF) (Wisc) next year along with the St D 2022 "twins" into Katie's program. Outstanding players like Lawler and Cytron have learned that the grass is not always greener leaving the area for other "national" programs and frankly, I think SLU can now be considered one of those "national" level women's soccer schools. Not so with the men's program, although I do believe that some local players are just as talented as some of the out-of-area recruits that we are getting. I know it's not the early 1960s, but doing a better job in local recruiting, and I think this appears to be happening, can go a long way to instilling a broader base of local interest in SLU Men's soccer. I find it interesting that many/most of my friends who follow soccer are talking more about the Women's team than the Men's

AGREE. Thanks Courtside.

Courtside, any word on who the two high profile 2022 recruits are? Unless you are part of the SLU staff, there is no reason that I'm aware of, to not talk about them. Are they local kids? Quite a few top HS Juniors have announced their College commitments , although they are just verbals and not binding on either parties until NLIs are signed e.g. the top goal scorer at Lafayette (Howard?) announcing for Wisconsin.

Tonight's championship game is on ESPN 2 at 7:30. BTW, I saw Hannah Larson a couple of weeks ago and while she had a large knee brace on, she seemed to be walking fairly normal so hopefully that means her injury is not a career ending one

Thanks for your always great input/knowledge of the A-10.

Thanks for the info on incoming recruits. Honestly, it seems like a state secret on the SLU Official website. All I have able to find about incoming recruits is about the group who are now on the team as FR. Here's wishing Hannah Larson the best. Hopefully her injury doesn't keep her from playing next year, although I know the season is coming up in just a few months.

Congrats and ALL of them back next year plus Lawler and Cytron (and anyone else Coach can add???)

I have not read or heard any specifics about HL's injury. If she has to miss next season that would be a tremendous loss from an offensive standpoint, but fortunately we have the depth to pick up at least some of the slack.

With BH announcing that she is returning next year, that means we will be returning our entire starting lineup from the Wash. NCAA game. Add Lawler and Cytron to that group, along with Larson, who couldn't play that game (I think that's correct) and we have an unbelievable top 14 with great depth on the bench, starting the next season. Hopefully Lawler is good to go next season, which is only a few months from now. I have to believe that any knowledgeable poll voters will start the Bills out in the top 15-20. No other team could have more coming back.

I for one will be p!$$ed if they increase my ticket price. They have held my ticket purchase $$$ from last year and if they didn't invest all the revenue from season ticket holders in a CD type investment then shame on their finance people I will consider it a slap in the face if they now ask for additional money to get my same location this year.

If that is correct then we could lose FO and ML. You seem very certain of your interpretation of the rule. I'm curious to know if you have a cite to support it.. I'll grant you it is confusing, but I haven't read anything that clearly states what you say. I referred to the possibility of FO and ML being able to transfer since that seems to be where some olf the confusion occurs, but, of course, all the rest of our players who have never transferred e.g. TJH, GJ, YC, could also leave SLU at this point and/or in the future.

Didn't we have a 180+ player sitting on our bench most minutes last year? Hopefully he gets some time this year to show what he can do. He is pretty much the forgotten Billiken in most discussions of 21-22.

Roy, you make some valid points re the fiscal aspect of retaining Shields. However, there is one other important point-the value in name recognition (our SLU brand) that having a top level national women's soccer program brings to the school. This is discussed once in a while when we get into the value of having a top men's basketball program-having our name out in front of high school students as they consider colleges. It's a tough thing to quantify, but it has value. How many HS students thought, or even knew, about Gonzaga before it became a household name due to MBB? Women's BB and Soccer are the two sports programs that can receive publicity along with the same two sports for men so if I had a decision to make about adding an extra $100 - $200 K to a coach of a top women's team in either of those sports or retaining a Field Hockey or Swimming/Diving program I would have a very easy decision to make. Look at the tremendous increase in attention for SLU right now due to the Women's Soccer team and imagine what it would be like if we could become a consistent, top 10, nationally recognized program. If any readers have yet to listen to the interview of Katie S in the Midtown Madness podcast, you really need to do it to get an appreciation of this HC.

Great job with the interview. She is one very impressive coach and person. If possible, I would love to see SLU come up with a bucket on $$$ to keep her and turn her into the "Mark Few" of Women's College Soccer.

Thanks for posting and for all the info you have been providing

Sorry to say, but I am less than excited by this addition. I hope TF can come up with at least one, if not two, that exceed Williams' contributions next year. I know a lot of Billikens.com members trust the recruiting of TF and staff, but I am starting to wonder if TF has lost his recruiting fastball. Look at the top players from the Metro and we are missing out on most of them. As much as we like to love our local recruits, and TJ and Yuri are nice A 10 players who I'm glad chose SLU, we need to start winning some battles for at least a few of the top players coming out of high school. I don't want to become Transfer U. Three of the annual, top HS programs in the area-Vashon, CBC and Chaminade- have seen all of their top 100 level players depart STL. If we don't start winning some recruiting battles, especially in the Metro area, TF is going to lose his rep as a good recruiter and I don't want that to happen. Locking down St Louis is not possible but it is what Travis talked about when he was hired. While it looked good in the early days of the TF era with JG and CAG, it isn't happening anymore. Finally, I do want to point out that I have been and hope to remain a big TF fan who wants him to succeed.

The next time I learn something from Chapley Media will be the first time I learn something from Chapley Media, but he continues to dazzle us with all the Billiken "information" he has on page one of Billikens.com.