Chicago Prowl 2026 Preview - The Cat’s Out The Bag!
By: Ashton Butler
After a tough season ending in Game 3 of the semi-finals against the New York Titans, the Chicago Prowl debuts a new roster filled with young cubs. We have officially seen the passing of the torch from newly appointed US National Team coach Kennedy Murphy to the new king of the jungle, Tad Walters. Walters is a feisty veteran who has spent multiple years as an assistant coach for the Prowl. Walters is incredibly knowledgeable within Quadball with a high IQ for building lines, creating adjustments and coaching from the sideline, and of course being an elite beater who can compete with anyone across from him.
Walters has a different challenge ahead with a younger squad and coaching staff, including Greenhouse Award winner Veronica Hoffman, returning assistant coach Nevin O’Donnell, and first-time assistant coach Camila Rodriguez. Despite many changes in the roster, the Chicago Prowl remains atop the league in expectations, and it is up to Walters and his coaching crew to help develop this mix of veterans and youth into a Benepe Cup Champion.
Returning Prowl Members:
Ryley Andrews (Boom Train)
Nojus Ausra (Boom Train)
Matt Brown (Boom Train)
George Blackwell III (Chaos)
Nathan Digmann (Boom Train)
Anna Holmes (Boom Train)
Matt Melton (Boom Train)
Michael Mrowiec (Boom Train)
Kennedy Murphy (Boom Train)
Ally Peachey (Boom Train)
Benjamin Peachey (Boom Train)
Camila Rodriguez (Boom Train)
Melanie Rolfe (Boom Train)
Matt Troy (Boom Train)
Tad Walters (Boom Train)
Amelia Winke (Trainwreck)
Liam Zach III (Boom Train)
Ariana Zhang (Illini Ridgebacks)
Team Additions:
Jason Anderson (Illini Ridgebacks)
Kevin Fantozzi (Illini Ridgebacks)
Braedy Guenther (Brew Cities)
Veronica Hoffman (Illini Ridgebacks)
Cori Jobman (Trainwreck)
Boris Jukic (Unaffiliated)
Andrew Parchim (Trainwreck)
Niamor Romain (Illini Ridgebacks)
Erik Rothenberger (Illini Ridgebacks)
Savannah Scheffel (Illini Ridgebacks)
Fianna Sullivan (Illini Ridgebacks)
Ojas Turekar (Trainwreck)
Player Breakdown:
Club Players: 21
Boom Train: 15
Trainwreck: 4
Chaos: 1
Brew Cities: 1
College Players: 9
Illini Ridgebacks: 9
Departures:
Sol Alexander
Justin Cole
Kailey Fugate
Darian Murcek-Ellis
Nevin O’Donnell
Leah Osborne
Mae Overholt
Spencer Reisig
Jim Richert
Marcos Sandoval
Sohum Sharma
Caleb Williams
The Next Generation
The Chicago Prowl has definitely been known for their core group of stars since before the move from Indianapolis. Despite a core of elite players for many years, the surrounding pieces have yet to fit the puzzle to reach the Benepe Cup. Going into this season, the roster on paper looks a bit depleted from a year ago. It is difficult to look past the major loss of USNT chasers, Darian Murcek-Ellis and Justin Cole.
Despite not playing a game in the regular season, Murcek-Ellis finished with 16 goals across the Prowl’s five games at MLQ Championships a year ago and could definitely be held as the best athlete in the sport. His departure to Kansas City creates a major challenge for the Prowl when they pull up to Conference Championships and potentially at MLQ Championships.
Cole is another big loss for the team as he contributed 25 goals and 10 stops across the entire season as a line pair with Nathan Digmann. Mae Overholt will also be a major loss for this roster as she scored five times in six games throughout the regular season. In the absence of Ally Peachey during the 2025 season, Overholt's contribution through her ability to make plays with her feet and find openings in the defense was crucial for the team, providing depth when it was needed.
However, despite the losses in star power at chaser, the beater depth has taken a major hit as well with the losses of veterans Sol Alexander and Caleb Williams and younger players such as Sohum Sharma. Alexander finished last season in the top 3 on the roster in stops, drives played, and average dodgeballs across the regular season. When he was on the field, Chicago was only scored on 11 times across all games in the 2025 season. Meanwhile, Sharma, going into his sophomore season this year with the San Antonio Soldados, was a shining player who has blazing speed and elite hustle. He only got better throughout the season, finishing with three stops in just 20 drives. Finally, Williams, who unfortunately had their season cut short due to injury after just 11 drives, has consistently been a high-level beater for Chicago since they joined the team with a plus/minus of 60 and with 1.54 average dodgeballs between all three regular seasons on roster.
Nonetheless, many of the key players of past years are returning, such as USNT personnel Murphy, Matt Brown, and an anticipated return of Ally Peachey. They are surrounded by high-level talent who have played together for a long time, such as Nathan Digmann, Liam Zach III, Nojus Ausra, Benjamin Peachey, Riley Andrews, and many more.
However, despite a strong core, a winning formula has been found within their defense. With their new young era of Illini Ridgebacks, this team is set up for success both for now and in the future. The line of Ridgebacks starts with second-year player and USNTDA Chaser Ariana Zhang. Zhang is the ultimate role player for this roster, as her athleticism does nothing but make the game hard for the opponent through her defense. She is a great athlete and one of the better players at making contact, crowding passing lanes, and marking opponents.
Combining this with eight other Illini Ridgebacks, which includes Greenhouse Award Winner and USNTDA beater, Hoffman. She returns to the Prowl after taking a summer off as a veteran who will aid in the development of the other Illini players on the roster who join her. In her 2024 campaign, Hoffman finished with a statline of eight stops in 55 drives and an astounding 30 plus/minus, which was in the top 15 across the league.
The depth of this Illini roster goes even deeper as key players at their most recent Nationals, such as MLQ rookies Erik Rothenberger and Kevin Fanozzi, combined for 31 goals. Additionally, Seeker Boris Jukic had 4 flag catches at the tournament, contributing to the Ridgebacks’ semifinal run. This roster certainly brings a lot of offensive firepower, and if the Prowl can retain their elite defensive presence, they will be a difficult team to claw out.
The Season Ahead:
This season will look somewhat similar to the Prowl as they return to only having two regular season series followed by the Central Conference Championship. This season will kick off for the Prowl at home in Chicago where they will host the Minneapolis Monarchs on June 20th. The rivalry between these two franchises has consistently gotten closer year after year, with Chicago narrowly pulling out a series sweep against Minneapolis in 2025 with a combined margin of games one and three just 20 points. However, despite the Prowl being on a winning streak in the series since 2022, the Monarchs are coming off their best season as a franchise, making it to the semi-finals after an electric series against the Boston Forge.
One unfortunate similarity for both rosters is that both teams lost USNT talent to the Kansas City Stampede, with Murcek-Ellis from Chicago and Ryan Mehio from Minneapolis. Minneapolis has definitely taken some major losses of key pieces to their core, such as Beater Nathan Podolsky and Chaser Ben Zimet, but they have found former USNT and USNTDA talent to fill those roles. Alex Tidler transfers from Kansas City for his second MLQ season, and Emma Vasquez most recently played for Chicago in 2024 will be back for vengeance . While Chicago may have an advantage, Joseph “Cool” Goulet’s return makes any series winnable for Minneapolis and must-watch Quadball.
Chicago’s second series will come on July 11th in Canada against the Toronto Raiders. Toronto is coming off a very disappointing season as they finished winless in 2025 after a crushing week one defeat to the Cleveland Riff. However, in their recent history since the pandemic, Toronto has not missed an MLQ Championship two seasons in a row. They will be looking to come out and make a name for themselves in the season with new acquisitions and former Ottawa Black Bears, Hailey Yhap and Alex Naftel. Yhap and Joanne Lam will be in a battle against their most recent USQ teammates, as both played with Boom Train in California. Toronto will retain a lot of their strong contributors in years past, such as Chasers Bryan Melchior and Lachlan Craig, Beater Alex Scherger, and Seeker Christos Kaldis. Toronto did not compete in their scheduled series against the Prowl a season ago, so hopefully, an opportunity to compete from home will create a better chance for competition.
Why They Won’t:
Chicago has a tall task ahead of them with big shoes to fill with unproven talent at the MLQ level. The Prowl has consistently been known as the team that can bring a team that is 30-deep. This team will need to work fast in figuring out their lines and what will work not only to win early but also to find what lines will work for them when the championship season comes around. A season ago, Chicago had an issue with having their core players in regular season matchups, as Andrews, Cole, and Ben Peachey all only played in one series each and Murcek-Ellis hadn’t played at all leading up to the championship. While resting and preparing for championships might sound great in theory, with so few opportunities for live reps with one another, the Prowl need to find a way to seize the opportunities to play with one another in actual games before MLQ Championships to keep people fresh and to knock off the rust from not playing in actual action.
Chicago’s next biggest need is to answer two major questions on offense and how to spread the offensive load among chasers not named Nathan Digmann. First, who is going to step into the role to be the secondary main scorer for Chicago? Nathan Digmann, in each of the last three regular seasons, has been the leading scorer for the Chicago Prowl and has done so by a margin of at least eight goals in each season. In many cases, especially in tight games, Digmann is looked at to give the ball to and make a play. While he is a superstar and deserves that opportunity, there needs to be another chaser on the team to step up to handle the ball to create different looks for the offense to keep it from becoming one-dimensional or too reliant on him to win them games on offense in the half-court.
The second question for this Chicago roster is what chaser will create offense when Digmann is off the pitch? While they have great playmakers in Ally and Benjamin Peachey along with Murphy, this tends to be a line together. When this line is not on the pitch, who is going to step into the role of being the ball carrier who helps to get others open and create the offense? Matthew Troy is a name that definitely needs to vault into this conversation, as he finished with 11 assists a season ago. Troy is a player who requires a lot to stop from a defense, as he is physically capable of driving on four chasers. Putting players around him to be in the correct spots to finish goals and win one-on-one opportunities after beaters are drawn will be crucial for this team. Nonetheless, this core has dealt with the losses of many top-end scorers from season to season, both from MLQ and USQ. Most recently, Vincent Reyes put on a masterpiece at USQ Nationals, scoring at will especially on lines without Digmann. Now is the time for the young Illini players and the returning veterans who want opportunities to step up to be in the running as the most improved candidate.
Why They Will:
Major League Quadball is about as wide open as a season has ever been. Chicago is in a great position with a head coach in Walters, who was around when there were only two regular-season series. He understands how few opportunities there are to not only win games but also develop. With major losses in the beating cores to San Antonio and New York, Chicago’s beaters have risen to not just the strongest but also the deepest in the league. Matt Brown is widely regarded as one of the best beaters in the world and could easily be labeled the best. Brown has been able to seamlessly pair with any beater he has been with in his career, but his connection with Rodriguez was special. Once Brown has had enough, dealing with the duo of Head Coach Walters and Nojus Ausra makes it no easier. Walters and Ausra are both giants with cannon arms that can both outmuscle you for a ball and make every throw on the pitch. This group of four is the strongest in the league, and it is surrounded by young, hungry beaters ready to continue to improve, such as Hoffman, Ojas Turekar, and Amelia Winke.
Chicago hangs their hat on defense and their fundamentals. It is difficult to find a Chicago Prowl game with dropped balls, flubbed passes, and missed defensive rotations. The Prowl has discipline unlike any Quadball team. While some might have that discipline from their intensity, no team has the organization like the Prowl. It gets even stronger from their defense. Defensively, Chicago has one of the strongest lines of chasers in the league. Starting with keepers – Digmann, Troy, Andrews, and newly added Andrew Parchim all have a knack for making contact and making an offensive threat rethink their decision to drive in.
When avoiding these chasers, you go to the other side, where you are dealing with hounds on defense who will not leave you alone in Zhang, Murphy, and Zach III. Behind this line, if you are lucky to pass to the back without it getting disrupted by a beater, you are dealing with elite hoop defenders such as Ben Peachey, Ally Peachey, and Matt Melton. So… in other words, good luck scoring! On top of being elite athletes, they are constantly communicating their play calls, rotations, and positions. This is a team set to create turnovers and get out and run, and immediately following a fast break goal, they turn around and create a full-court press and harass the opposing keeper from step one.
The Chicago Prowl has been an elite contender for years. They have been talked about every year from the moment they touched down in Chicago. Above all, they have a pack mentality for a hunger to finally reach their peak in MLQ. Head Coach Walters is one of the best motivators in the sport, and this team is set up for success under his leadership with the desire to finally bring the Benepe Cup back to the Windy City! Will this be their year? Only time will tell!
