Detroit Innovators 2026 Preview: Innovation and Inheritance

By: David Banas

Last season:

In his first season as head coach, Ryan Hsu led the Detroit Innovators to a 6-6 record with 0-3 series losses to the Minneapolis Monarchs and eventual division winners the Chicago Prowl while comfortably sweeping the Toronto Raiders and the Cleveland Riff. 

At MLQ Champs, Detroit matched up initially against the Washington Admirals with a resounding 175-30 win over the Motor City side. Detroit then bounced back against derby rival Cleveland, followed by the Houston Legends, scoring victories of 170-70 and 145-50, respectively. Detroit then faced the Charlotte Aviators for the last spot in the quarter-finals bracket. Despite a Sarah “Smalls” Multer catch over decorated Charlotte seeker Ryan Davis to put the score at 110-105 Charlotte, the Innovators ultimately fell to the Carolinas-based side. 

While Detroit’s story last season ended with the Aviators, this season’s story picks right back up with both teams — and Cleveland — being lumped into the new Gateway Division.

Returning players:

David Banas Jr. (NJ Dice)

Rei Brodeur (Boom Train)

Robert Butler (Trainwreck)

Sarah Dykstra (University of Michigan)

Fiona Flynn (Ohio Apollos)

Trevor Halverson (unaffiliated)

Ryan Hsu (Boom Train)

Krish Jain (Trainwreck)

Nicholas Love (Boom Train)

Amanda Margolis (Chaos)

Luc Marklin (Michigan State University)

Jackson Massey (Michigan State University)

Andrew Mueller (Ohio Apollos, did not play in 2025)

Gwen Pratt (Chaos)

Lyndsey Smeyers (Chaos)

Brooke Smiley (Trainwreck)

Brady Sowers (Michigan State University)

Maks Sviridov (University of Michigan)

New players:

Christian Antaran (University of Michigan)

Thomas Chang-Davidson (Bay Area Bakers)

Brooke Erwin (Purdue University)

Jon Jackson (unaffiliated)

Corey Johnston (Michigan State University)

Atlas Mitchell (Ohio Apollos)

Maggie Wang (Michigan State University)

Breakdown:

College: 9

         Michigan State University: 5

         Purdue: 1

University of Michigan: 3

Club: 13

         Boom Train: 3

Chaos: 3

NJ Dice: 1

         Ohio Apollos: 3

         Trainwreck: 3

Unaffiliated: 2

Notable losses:

Ashton Glenn

Brice Tweddle

Jenny Sun

Julien Theuerkauf

Neil Peterson

Sarah Multer

The Season Ahead:

Detroit opens their season in Week 2 against the Charlotte Aviators at home. The June 13 bout in the Motor City is highly likely to be the determining matchup of the new Gateway Division. Anything less than a series win — either a 2-1 split or a 3-0 sweep — would put Detroit’s inaugural Gateway Division title hopes in peril, especially since rivals Cleveland will have to make the trip down to Charlotte to play the Aviators. 

Five weeks later, the Motor City side travels to Cleveland to play the Riff, a journey that Detroit has not made since 2018. There, Detroit must face a team that has largely stolen Detroit’s identity of previous seasons: namely, being a young team reinforced with numerous talented college players. While the Toledo Derby between these two teams has given rise to numerous memorable games over the years, this series is a must-win for Detroit, especially if the Charlotte series in June goes awry for the Teal. 

From there, Eastern Conference Championships are only two short weeks away and, with the format of the Conference Championships still up in the air, it’s anyone's guess what the implications of finishing first vs second — or even third — have for the Motor City side.

Season Potentials:

While smaller than last season’s franchise roster, this year’s group is decidedly more seasoned with the team being composed by a majority of club players (more on that below), many of whom competed in the 2026 USQ Cup semifinals or finals. This team can reach new heights and win its first divisional crown ever — despite being a founding member of the league — in the new Gateway Division with the comfort of hosting Charlotte at home. 

Similarly, Detroit could just as easily be swept at home by a franchise they have never beaten and one that ended the Innovator’s season at MLQ Champs last August. Whether Detroit wins or loses the Charlotte series, any Riff fans reading this article should not get their hopes up as a Riff series win in July might be a bridge too far. The Innovators should expect to go either 6-0 or 5-1 or, at the very worst, 3-3.

Why They Will: “the Yankee West”

In Michigan history, there is a concept that historians use called “the Yankee West.” This term refers to the large and significant contributions made by New Yorkers — predominantly, the families of migrating second sons of Western and Upstate New York farmers — who journeyed along the newly opened Erie Canal to settle in the Michigan Territory. They shaped much of the state’s early development including but not limited to Michigan’s first constitution. 

The Quadball parallel is no different: former New York Titan Leo Fried helped push the Innovators to new heights in both the 2021 and 2024 seasons before returning to the Titans in 2025. Additionally, former Titan — and former Upstate/Western New York Rochester Whiteout — Jon Jackson will arrive in the Motor City for the first time. Jackson’s pedigree is unquestioned, having won gold at USQ, MLQ, and IQA championship events. His presence will help fill not only the voids in the chaser game from last season, but also increase offensive productivity in the chaser game after former assistant coaches Jack Levy and Ethan Wanous’ departures after the 2024 season.

Sports can be an incredibly beautiful yet cruel expression of human creativity. Last season was no exception with the injury bug biting Detroit especially hard. Riley Hodder, Jenny Sun, and David Banas Jr. all suffered season-ending injuries that prevented them from playing extended, meaningful minutes for Detroit. Additionally, numerous other players, such as Rob Butler, Sarah Dykstra, and Luc Marklin, played through nagging injuries that impacted their performance. Those injuries have now healed and Detroit’s 2026 team comes into the season much closer to being one intact piece than last season’s injury-riddled roster.

Beaters? Beaters. This year’s roster features 11 players — including three utility players — out of the 24 rostered who are donning the black headband for the Innovators this summer. In the past, playing beater has consumed much of head coach Ryan Hsu’s time and efforts, as well as those of assistant coach Brooke Smiley. With a plethora of beaters this summer, both Hsu and Smiley should be afforded more time to coach instead of worrying about both coaching and playing.

Why They Won’t: “Depth and Dearth”

While the Innovators have the depth at beater this season that should afford Hsu and Smiley opportunities to grow as coaches, what the Motor City side does not have is seekers. Not only is Neil Peterson absent from the franchise this summer, but so too are Brice Tweddle, Jenny Sun, Julien Theuerkauf and Sarah “Smalls” Multer, all of whom have put in seeking minutes in the last two seasons. 

The loss of Smalls looms especially large, given that she was the Innovators’ best performing seeker last season with two pulls against Toronto and catching against Aviators seeker Ryan Davis. That leaves exactly two players on this year’s roster who have seen extended seeker minutes throughout their careers: recent MSU grad Jackson Massey and aging vet David Banas Jr. Massey had limited time in yellow for Michigan State over the past season and a half due to his importance in the MSU chasing game — and the average nine person rosters MSU would field — and Banas Jr. has not gone for the flag runner extensively for Detroit since the 2021 season. 

Much work will have to be put into either refurbishing these two or training up a new standout in yellow. With the skill of Charlotte’s seeking corps in individuals such as Ryan Davis, Tony Bonadio, and Cole Tibbs, combined with how close last season’s game against Charlotte was, Hsu and company will have to figure out how to approach this predicament.

Alongside Theuerkauf’s absence in the seeking game, his absence will be felt in the chasing game alongside fellow Michigan Quadball absentee Ashton Glenn. As a chaser, Theuerkauf recorded eight goals, 10 assists, and seven stops in 2025. The speedster Glenn put up 15 goals, 14 assists, and 15 stops. While most of Theuerkauf’s goals came during the FROP period where he was allowed to run amok on defenses with little or no beaters, it is Glenn’s absence that is most troubling. Glenn’s 14 assists tied for the most on the team with fellow keeper Rob Butler, but it was Glenn’s defensive prowess and team-leading 15 stops in the chaser game that will be felt the most. While offensive machine Nick Love returns after his first — and very successful — season of competitive club quadball, and with Jackson’s addition, these holes might be filled. That, however, is yet to be seen.

Perhaps the most troubling reason why Detroit will not succeed this season lies in what has historically been their primary source of strength: collegiate players. Of the 24 players rostered for the season, a mere nine are either current or recently graduated college players. Not only is this the first season where club players are in the majority on the team, but the 2026 season is the lowest number of college players on Detroit since the franchise’s inception. Additionally, this is only the second season that Detroit has not filled out a full 30-person franchise roster, the other coming in Hsu’s inaugural season last year. 

While Hsu channeled energy into his alma mater, this is still a far cry from Head Coach Kaegan Maddelein's heyday from 2022-2024 which saw him invest in multiple college programs in the state. Indeed, of the three college players who were MLQ rookies for Detroit last season, only one returned in Sarah Dykstra, who played college ball in undergrad for QCanada’s Guelph University. Now in her doctoral program at the University of Michigan, Dykstra took the last USQ season off. 

Retaining first-year collegiate rookies like Maggie Wang, Corey Johnston and Christian Antaran will be crucial for not only Detroit’s franchise sustainability but also in retaking their title of the collegiate MLQ team, a crown that now squarely sits upon both Washington and divisional rival Cleveland’s brows. There is also the rumored departure of multiple Detroit stalwarts at the end of this season, and precious few collegiate players to pick up the slack. Far from scoring a divisional championship, Hsu’s most important goal should be the retention — and recruitment — of college players into the franchise program. In an age of shuttering franchises, Detroit is at a tipping point, one heavily influenced by the presence — or dearth — of collegiate players.

FBN’s Detroit Preview last season closed with the query that “The looming question is thus: can Hsu hang with the likes of proven North Division veteran coaches Kennedy Murphy, Cody Narveson, Sinan Keyder, and Jack Moseley?” Hsu led the Innovators to a 6-6 record and a 2-2 record at MLQ Champs which gave rise for one FBN writer to opine “The Innovators showed they could win real games against quality opponents.” The wins against these “quality opponents” were going 4-0 against perennial North Division cellar dweller Riff, 3-0 against the winless Raiders, and 1-0 against the winless Legends (this author is not counting the Austin forfeit as a win for the Legends).

In divisional play, Hsu’s Detroit was swept out of Minneapolis comfortably by the Monarchs, albeit with a close game two. Then, Detroit set franchise worst records for most points given up to Chicago in a single game at 240 and the worst score differential against the Windy City side for Detroit in their 30 meetings at -220. Against their first round MLQ Champs opponent and fourth place East Division finisher, the Admirals, Detroit was outplayed to the tune of 175-30. 

Against Charlotte, in a game where the Innovators were largely outclassed in the first half, a desperate Multer catch for the Motor City side pulled the score to 110-105. As Charlotte inched closer to the set score of 160, Detroit called a timeout at 140-125. In an elimination game where the winner goes straight to the quarterfinals and the loser goes home, Hsu elected to put out a line that had scored zero goals and let in five during their shifts against Charlotte earlier in the game. The line continued their struggles, giving up another goal while scoring none, pushing the game to match point before the Aviators flew away with the win on a statement dunk from Davis on the medium hoop.

The question remains: Can Cogsworth and company gear up to rectify the errors that cost them a bracket spot last season?