Detroit Innovators Season Preview: Gearing Up…..For What?

Author: David Banas

Last Season:

The Innovators reached new heights last season with the Innovation Station cranking out their best ever record in franchise history, finishing at 10-2. This is the best record since longtime Lake Erie Elite player Alex Mitchell coached the team in 2019. The Motor City side earned second in the reunited North Division last summer. Indeed, the Innovators were one game—arguably, a mere three drives in Game 1—from claiming a North Division Championship in a soggy, rain-soaked series in Chicago. The Innovators then swept their next three opponents, including a 6-0 SuperSeries win against perennial division contenders Minneapolis and Detroit’s derby rival Cleveland. At MLQ Championships, Detroit drew eventual champions New York where they lost both games in convincing fashion (195-70, 145-40) in the quarter-finals.

Returning Players:

David Banas Jr. (NY Slice)

Rei Brodeur (Boom Train)

Robert Butler (Boom Train)

Ashton Glenn (University of Michigan)

Riley Hodder (University of Michigan)

Ryan Hsu (Boom Train)

Nicholas Love (University of Michigan)

Amanda Margolis (Chaos)

Luc Marklin (Michigan State University)

Jackson Massey (Michigan State University)

Sarah Multer (unaffiliated)

Neil Peterson (Chaos)

Gwen Pratt (Michigan State University)

Lyndsey Smeyers (Chaos)

Brooke Smiley (BosNy)

Brady Sowers (Michigan State University)

Jenny Sun (University of Michigan)

Maks Sviridov (University of Michigan)

Julien Theuerkauf (Chaos)

New Players:

Sarah Dykstra (University of Michigan, played for the Toronto Raiders in 2024)

Krish Jain (Ohio Gemini)

Anna Klein (University of Michigan)

Levi Medeiros (Brew Cities, played for the Toronto Raiders in 2024)

Alan Pachla (Michigan State University)

Brice Tweddle (Michigan State University, practice squad in 2024, main roster in 2023)

Trevor Halverson (Ohio Gemini)

Breakdown:

College: 13

University of Michigan: 7

Michigan State: 6

Club: 12

Chaos: 4

Ohio Gemini: 2

Brew Cities: 1

Boom Train: 3

BosNy: 1

NY Slice: 1

Unaffiliated: 1

Notable Losses:

Willow Elser (While Elser was not a player, their loss as longtime manager of the team cannot be overstated. Their drive, passion, and organization were key forces in the Innovators’ success as a franchise. They will be deeply missed.)

Leo Fried

Ryder Fried

Jack Levy

Kaegan Maddelein

Sarah Maxey

Ryan Swanson

Ethan Wanous

The Season Ahead:

Detroit opens their 2025 campaign on the road against Minneapolis on June 14. This series is expected to be a wildly different affair than last season’s SuperSeries in Detroit, not just because of the Innovators’ large roster turnover of key players from last season but also because the Monarchs have picked up several key pieces, including Ryan Mehio, Bitzy Archibold, and recent Collegiate D1 Champ Ryan Cleary. If Detroit has any aspirations for competing for a North title this summer—or even a second-place finish like last season—a statement series win is a must for the Innovators. 

The Innovators are back in action a short two weeks later on June 28, this time in the Six across the border. No matter the result of the previous series against the Monarchs, this is a must win series for the Innovators. A win against the Raiders means that Detroit’s ticket to MLQ Champs will be all but punched and the team can focus on development the rest of the season without risk. A sweeping loss at the hands of the rascally raccoons could very likely put the Innovators in an 0-9 hole to start the season with a revamped Chicago that made the MLQ Finals last year looming large. That potential 0-9 would be the worst ever start for the Motor City side, even during the underperforming 2015 and 2016 years when the North Division only played nine games during the regular season. 

After their cross-border clash, the Innovators face reigning North Division Champ Chicago on July 19. While bereft of their strategic advantage last season—namely, the Innovators were a question mark as both teams’ first series was against each other—the Innovators can take some measure of comfort in that they will be playing Prowl at home. 

Regardless of the Chicago result, three weeks later, Detroit takes on the Cleveland Riff in Detroit. This is a do-or-die series, if not for qualifying for MLQ Champs then for divisional pride in the local Toledo Derby. Detroit has not lost a series in the rivalry matchup since 2016, a matchup in Cleveland that the Innovators won the first game on a Tawfik Abbas flag catch on runner Mike Pascutoi before dropping the next two games to the Dan Daugherty led side.

Season Potentials:

In a season of uncertainty, it is yet to be seen whether or not Detroit will be able to compete with Minneapolis and Chicago for a divisional title this year. At the bare minimum, Detroit must beat Cleveland this year to guarantee the Innovators a place in the play-in bracket at MLQ Champs. Realistically, Detroit should look to compete with Toronto with that series being a coinflip determined by series availability, injuries, and if/how many players get stuck at the border given the current political climate. Toronto was the unfortunate recipient of this treatment last season as head coach Sinan Keyder and several other players were held up at the border which resulted in a Game 1 blowout. The Minneapolis and Chicago series, however, might be a bridge too far for this Innovators side.

Why They Will: Young Top Talent!

Newly minted head coach Ryan Hsu’s appointment to the USNT could usher in a renaissance of development and excellence in the Motor City side. Additionally, he was finally reunited with long-term beating partner Rei Brodeur when both played for Boom Train this past season. Hsu has also brought in a fresh, new coaching staff with fellow Boom Trainite and former UM teammate Rob Butler joining him as an assistant coach alongside Brooke Smiley and Lyndsey Smeyers. This is a young staff—one of the youngest in team history—so the chance to start fresh from what was essentially an old guard dominated leadership group is a potential opportunity. 

While not the youngest team that Detroit has fielded—that distinction belongs to the 2022 squad—there is a chance for Hsu to leave his own mark on the team, especially as he has espoused coaching Detroit for the long-term. Prior to Maddelein’s tenure, this was an Achilles’ heel for the franchise, with the head coach spot being a rotating door of willing (and semi-willing) individuals. While the departure of Leo Fried stings, key collegiate pieces from last season’s second place finish have had a season to develop, particularly Smeyers (albeit on a club team), Gwen Pratt, Brady Sowers, Luc Marklin, Nick Love, and Ashton Glenn. Can one (or a combination) of these players step up to fill Fried’s absence? 

Last year’s beating corps, while experienced, was a shallow one. Indeed, during the 164 drives played in the Chicago series, only five were not played by a beater named Brodeur, Hsu, Smiley, or David Banas Jr. The Innovators were never truly able to establish a solid third pairing with Katlyn Knudsen, Maks Sviridov, Dustin Minnick, Riley Hodder, and Ryan Swanson being amalgamated into some semblance of a third pairing. This year, rising MSU star Brice Tweddle has joined the main roster, Hodder has had a year to develop as UM’s premier starting beater (no longer in Brodeur’s shadow from the previous season), and utility player Julien Theuerkauf has been rumored to be donning the black this summer. Pair that with “Mad” Maks Sviridov also having another year of experience, the sky's the limit for this Innovators’ beating corps. As the piece de resistance, after a disappointing showing at Nations Cup where he was overshadowed by Joe “Captain America” Goulet in seeking, Neil Peterson has resoundingly shown that he still has the chops to be an elite level seeker, being the centerpiece of Chaos Quadball’s seeking game in their quarterfinals run at USQ Cup 2025.

Why They Won’t: Too Hsu-n?

Perhaps the most glaring hole is the significant number of departures from the previous season. Maddelein, both Frieds, and Wanous’ absence leave large talent gaps in the chasing corps in both the shot-blocking and physicality departments. Additionally, the Innovators’ coaching staff has managed to muster only 26 players, the only iteration of the franchise in its decade of existence not to fill out a full 30-person roster. For collegiate talent, the team is down from 17 college players to 13, perhaps a symptom of the sports decline.

The biggest issue facing Hsu’s Detroit is the level of competition that this year’s North Division will bring. Excluding perhaps Toronto, every side has added significant additions to their rosters. Chicago has seen the return of former North MVP Matt Brown, the transfer of star Monarchs beater Nadja Melby, and the talented addition of BosNy’s Justin Cole. Cleveland now boasts a full 30-person roster including Boston University’s Martin Meinert, QC Pitt’s Kevin Oh, Case Western’s Adam Thompson, and Bowling Green’s Rachel Krieger, a growth of college players that was engendered by the nascent Rust Belt League conference. See above for the Monarchs’ significant additions. 

While Hsu is Maddelein’s chosen successor and was allowed to grow into that role as an assistant coach last season, his only season of USQ leadership raises more than a few eyebrows. During his tenure as University of Michigan’s head coach, Hsu led the regional and national powerhouse to a middling 6-6 D2 record, dropping games to in-state rival Michigan State for the first time in over a decade of play and to solidly D2 Purdue. Nationals for the Maize and Blue was more of the same where in pool play, the heavily favored MQ side dropped an ugly game to Emerson, including allowing the Kieran Collier coached team to race out to a 40-0 lead. This game cost them an easy first round bracket matchup, instead eventually facing Sam Houston State University, resulting in a perfunctory 205-70 blowout loss. Additionally, as a part of the coaching staff of Boom Train—the previously defending USQ club national champion—that leadership squad saw the worst ever finish of a defending national club champion in the post-split era, also earning the infamous distinction of being only the second pot 1 team to drop a game to their pot 5 team in the form of the Texas Copperheads. 

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? 

Only time will tell.