The Spartans head into their 10th season as a club as one of the favorites for the NCDA National Championship, after making it to at least the quarterfinals of the last four National Tournaments. Part of this is due to the fact that the Spartans only lose five players from the Nationals 2012 roster, part of this is due to the fact that teams like Central Michigan and Saginaw Valley are projected to be losing some key players, but this year will be one of the best chances State has ever had of hoisting the trophy come April. With several key players coming back, the Spartans look to be a tough out this year. They lost some key members of the team, including arguably one of the best players in the history of the team in Andy Malnor, graduating senior Ray Matiyow, 6th year seniors Dominique Carruthers and J’mel Johnson, and graduate student Jason Durocher. This means that the Spartans will have to get a good recruiting class of young students to fill the void left by these five players. Despite having a new President and Vice President, State will likely not miss a beat when it comes to recruiting as Captain Sam Hiller, former Captain Ian Childs, and former President and Vice President Kevin Miller and Zach Bauer are all still with the program.
The Spartans have already added some matches to their schedule this year, apart from the Michigan Dodgeball Cup in February and Nationals 2013 at Kentucky in April. This October, State will travel to Columbus, OH, for the first time in three seasons to play a round robin tournament against some elite teams. At that tournament will be Ohio State, Kent State, Saginaw Valley, and Kentucky, all of which are dangerous teams, which will be a good barometer as to how good these Spartans can be. Michigan State is also likely to play a round robin at Saginaw Valley in the fall, to go along with the 2012 MSU Invite in East Lansing. In the Spring Semester, Michigan State is looking to go to Depaul for the 2013 Chicago Dodgeball Open, and also to host the 2013 Michigan Dodgeball Cup. Then they will pack their bags for Lexington, KY, to do battle in the 2013 National Tournament.
The key to the Spartans becoming a National Champion is for the whole team to improve. Players like Riley Robson, Josh Brawley, and Andy Lieblich need to have their “sophomore leaps” and improve in their second season with the club. Even some veteran players, like Sam Hiller and Ian Childs, can improve on their throwing or catching abilities, and even the best all around players on the roster like Eric Paul and Alex Acton can work on their decision making. With the losses of the five graduating players hurting State, they need to add in key pieces from recruiting but they also need to build from within. If everyone on the team can improve just a little bit, then this could be a very dangerous squad come April.
Some of the major Spartans coming back include former All-Stars Alex Acton, Ian Childs, Sam Hiller, Andrew Koczara, Kevin Miller, and Eric Paul, along with potential future All-Stars like Zach Bauer, Mike Van Ermen, Chris Kramer, and Andy Lieblich. But keep an eye out too for a few under the radar guys, like Charlie Wilshire, Riley Robson, Josh Brawley, and Kyle Totzke, who could all make a huge leap this season.
This will be the last go around for many of the Spartans, which makes recruiting that much more important. State needs to replace not only five guys from last year’s Nationals roster, but also a multitude of players from this year’s team. Keeping the continuity of the same Captain for a second year in Sam Hiller, who is trying to stay the course set up by former Captain Ian Childs, but adding two new Assistant Captains in Zach Bauer and Kevin Miller could help the Spartans tremendously.
The chief competitors to Michigan State winning a title this year will be Grand Valley, James Madison, Kentucky, and Western Kentucky. All four of those schools return plenty of players, including their best players from last year. Grand Valley is always an elite team, and was one player short in overtime of making the Finals at Nationals 2012. Captain Mark Trippiedi and Assistant Captain Dylan Fettig are two of the best players in the league, and the Lakers have always been a thorn in MSU’s side. If State is going to win the MDC and Nationals, they’ll have to take down a fierce GVSU squad. Kentucky was league runner-up last season, the first time one of the league finalists had not been from Michigan in the past four seasons. They return the vast majority of their roster, including Wes Hopkins, the hardest thrower in the league. The Wildcats will also have the advantage of playing Nationals 2013 at home, and they play MSU early on in the season, making for an interesting first tournament for the Spartans. James Madison beat MSU 2-1 at Nationals 2012 in their first meeting, and State would love to get some payback. However, JMU will undoubtably get better after their first season, so the Spartans will have to improve as well to knock them off. Western Kentucky also returns most of their players, and while they have a new Captain in Alex Sorrells, former Captain, and possibly best Hilltopper ever, Felix Perrone will be back. WKU barely missed upsetting MSU in the Sweet Sixteen at Nationals 2012, and each year they seem to be getting closer and closer to knocking off a Michigan school. As always, MSU will have to deal with Central Michigan and Saginaw Valley, although those schools have lost a lot of players after last season, and other schools they’ll compete against include Depaul, Moody Bible, Western Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio State, Kent State and Maryland.