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South Carolina QB turns heads with latest NIL deal

South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers isn’t just rewriting the Gamecocks’ playbook—he’s changing the NIL game, one action figure at a time. Fresh off a breakout 2024 campaign, Sellers has signed a unique and headline-making NIL deal with Collegiate Legends, becoming one of the first players in the country to be immortalized as a collectible action […]

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South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers isn’t just rewriting the Gamecocks’ playbook—he’s changing the NIL game, one action figure at a time.

Fresh off a breakout 2024 campaign, Sellers has signed a unique and headline-making NIL deal with Collegiate Legends, becoming one of the first players in the country to be immortalized as a collectible action figure. The $3.7 million On3 NIL Valuation attached to the redshirt sophomore now places him at No. 5 in college football and solidifies his spot among the sport’s most marketable names.



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Lu Adds To Sophomore Resume, Named Golfweek’s All-America Honorable Mention

Story Links SEATTLE – After being selected as a WGCA All-American honorable mention last week, Vivian Lu added another accolade to her resume on Wednesday as the sophomore has been named honorable mention of Golfweek’s 2025 Women’s College Golf All-America team. Lu is one of nine Big Ten women’s golfers named to […]

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SEATTLE – After being selected as a WGCA All-American honorable mention last week, Vivian Lu added another accolade to her resume on Wednesday as the sophomore has been named honorable mention of Golfweek’s 2025 Women’s College Golf All-America team.

Lu is one of nine Big Ten women’s golfers named to an All-America team as Washington, USC, Ohio State, Oregon, and Northwestern were represented with honors.

The Auckland, New Zealand native was named to the Annika Award Final Fall Watch List at the beginning of her sophomore campaign.

She also earned a spot on the All-Big Ten First Team and WGCA All-American Honorable Mention after leading the Husky lineup in seven tournaments this season.

Golfweek’s 2025 Women’s College Golf All-America Teams

First Team

Carla Bernat, Sr., Kansas State

Carolina Chacarra, Sr., Wake Forest

Kary Hollenbaugh, Jr., Ohio State

Jasmine Koo, Fr., USC

Maria Jose Marin, So., Arkansas

Meja Ortengren, Fr., Stanford

Andrea Revuelta, Fr., Stanford

Kiara Romero, So., Oregon

Mirabel Ting, Jr., Florida State

Lottie Woad, Jr., Florida State

 

Second Team

Eila Galitsky, Fr., South Carolina

Megha Ganne, Jr., Stanford

Lauren Kim, So., Texas

Paula Martin Sampedro, So., Stanford

Farah O’Keefe, So., Texas

Catherine Park, Jr., USC

Louise Rydqvist, Sr., South Carolina

Amanda Sambach, Sr., Virginia

Kendall Todd, Sr., Arkansas

Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, Fr., Oregon

 

Third Team

Hannah Darling, Sr., South Carolina

Anna Davis, So., Auburn

Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, So., Texas A&M

Caitlyn Macnab, Sr., Ole Miss

Marie Madsen, Fr., NC State

Lauryn Nguyen, Sr., Northwestern

Patience Rhodes, So., Arizona State

Rocio Tejedo, Fr., LSU

Avery Weed, So., Mississippi State

Ashley Yun, So., Northwestern

 

Honorable Mention

Brooke Biermann, Michigan State

Vanessa Borovilos, Texas A&M

Pimpchompoo Chaisilprungruang, Charlotte

Lauren Clark, Kansas

Beth Coulter, Arizona State

Cindy Hsu, Texas

Grace Kilcrease, Oklahoma State

Chloe Kovelesky, Wake Forest

Mackenzie Lee, SMU

Vivian Lu, Washington

Ava Merrill, Vanderbilt

Megan Propeck, Virginia

Catherine Rao, Princeton

Paula Schulz-Hanssen, Arizona State

Andie Smith, Duke

Megan Streicher, North Carolina

Clarisa Temelo, Arkansas

Karen Tsuru, Oregon

Kelly Xu, Stanford

Reagan Zibilski, Arkansas

 





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Benton Maass named Assistant Hockey Coach

Story Links HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech Head Hockey Coach Bill Muckalt has named Benton Maass (pronounced MASS) an Assistant Coach with the Huskies. Maass comes to Houghton after one season as an Assistant Coach at Lindenwood. He played collegiately at New Hampshire and Minnesota State and appeared in 122 professional […]

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HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech Head Hockey Coach Bill Muckalt has named Benton Maass (pronounced MASS) an Assistant Coach with the Huskies. Maass comes to Houghton after one season as an Assistant Coach at Lindenwood. He played collegiately at New Hampshire and Minnesota State and appeared in 122 professional games in the AHL and ECHL.

“I developed a great relationship with Benton over the past year and know that he will be a great fit and valuable asset to Michigan Tech,” Muckalt said. “Benton is a tireless worker and has developed a skill for identifying top talent. He has demonstrated that he can relate and communicate effectively with today’s student-athlete and will work with our defense and penalty kill.”

“First off, I’d like to thank Athletic Director Suzanne Sanregret and Head Coach Bill Muckalt for the opportunity to join the hockey staff here at Michigan Tech,” Maass said. “The hockey program has a long and storied history, and I’m excited to get to work with our student-athletes as we prepare for a successful upcoming season, both on and off the ice!”

As an Assistant Coach at Lindenwood, Maass helped develop the Lions in their third year of NCAA Division I hockey. The 2024-25 season included the most wins in program history, with key victories over Notre Dame, Omaha, and Wisconsin. Five players from the roster went on to sign professional contracts.

Maass played 64 games as a defenseman for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays during the 2023-24 season and tallied 27 points with eight goals and 19 assists, serving as an alternate captain. He skated in 55 games for the Stingrays in his first season with 11 points and 44 penalty minutes. He also played three career games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears and was on the 2023 Calder Cup Championship Team.

The native of Elk River, Minnesota, was initially selected by the Washington Capitals in the sixth round of the 2017 NHL Draft after playing for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in the NAHL and Elk River High School.

Maass played five seasons of college hockey, tallying 51 career points on 13 goals and 38 assists in 162 games. He began his collegiate career at New Hampshire from 2017-21 before transferring to Minnesota State for the 2021-22 season. At UNH, he was a three-time Hockey East All-Academic Team member and was an alternate captain for the 2020-21 season. The Mavericks won the MacNaughton Cup and Mason Cup as CCHA Regular Season and Tournament Champions and advanced to the Frozen Four NCAA Championship Game.

Former Husky Tyler Shelast will begin his fifth season as an Assistant Coach in 2025-26 after being the Strength and Conditioning Coach during the previous eight seasons. Coach Muckalt is in the process of hiring another Assistant Coach.



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How 3M Arena at Mariucci became a go-to site for suburban high school graduation ceremonies

For the first two weeks of June, the grass surrounding 3M Arena at Mariucci glitters with graduation cap-shaped confetti. The 23 high school graduations hosted there this year come almost back-to-back, sometimes three or four in a day. Once the mess from one school is cleaned up, in come thousands more revelers from another. Over […]

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For the first two weeks of June, the grass surrounding 3M Arena at Mariucci glitters with graduation cap-shaped confetti.

The 23 high school graduations hosted there this year come almost back-to-back, sometimes three or four in a day. Once the mess from one school is cleaned up, in come thousands more revelers from another.

Over the past 15 years, Mariucci in Minneapolis has increasingly become a go-to location for large suburban high schools looking for an indoor, air-conditioned commencement venue that can accommodate about 6,000 people. For those schools, gone are the days of weather-dependent football field graduation ceremonies or limiting tickets to only the number of family members who can fit into the school gymnasium.

Hosting the ceremony offsite can take some pressure off school administrators, said Jim Skelly, the spokesperson for Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools, which held four of its graduation ceremonies at Mariucci on Sunday, each one spaced out by three hours. But, he clarified, it’s still a lot of work for both school and facilities staff.

“I’m sure the students have no idea how much goes into this,” he said.

Holding multiple commencements in one day is a feat of planning, time management, traffic and parking control, communication, and people-wrangling to ensure that one school crowd can get out before another one comes in, said Craig Flor, the arena’s director of operations.

The university also upped security measures and police presence this week after a shooting injured two people outside the arena after Wayzata’s graduation ceremony on Friday. The U has long required Mariucci attendees to walk through metal detectors and have their bags searched.

After 15 years of hosting such ceremonies, the team has streamlined the logistics, Flor said. And many of the schools start their part of the planning process more than a year in advance, especially if they want a coveted weekend ceremony date, which also have to be planned around religious holidays.



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Coaches and international athletes grapple with U.S. visa uncertainties

Michael Rothstein Close Michael Rothstein ESPN Staff Writer Michael Rothstein, based in Atlanta, is a reporter on ESPN’s investigative and enterprise team. You can follow him via Twitter @MikeRothstein. Dan Murphy Close Dan Murphy ESPN Staff Writer Covers the Big Ten Joined ESPN.com in 2014 Graduate of the University of Notre Dame Jun 4, 2025, […]

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College coaches and international athletes are stuck in an unnerving limbo, saying they’re unsure how to plan for recent changes in U.S. student visa policy that could potentially wreak havoc on their rosters this year.

The State Department confirmed it has stopped scheduling interviews for new student visa applicants. A brief pause would not cause problems for most college sports teams — according to coaches and other specialists who spoke to ESPN — but if the pause stretches late into the summer, it could severely impact some athletes’ ability to reach campus in time to play in their upcoming season. Early summer is a crucial window when many incoming international students typically schedule their visa interviews.

“The main guidance we’ve gotten is don’t freak out yet,” said University of Tennessee Martin basketball coach Jeremy Shulman. “But that ‘yet’ has been the key word.”

Some coaches told ESPN that as much as a quarter of their roster might not be allowed to enter the country this fall if the pause persists.

Shulman — who expects to have 12 international players this year, the most of any Division I basketball team — said he has four players who now are unsure if they will make it to campus.

“It decimates our roster,” he said.

Vermont men’s soccer coach Rob Dow won the national championship last season with 10 international players, including five starters. Six months later, Dow said his plans to bring in “three blue-chip players” could be in doubt if those recruits are unable to enter the country.

None have visa appointments scheduled. He said he’s still trying to get more information.

“It’s just a ton of uncertainty,” Dow said. “Not really sure what is consistent here.”

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Tuesday that the pause “will go pretty quickly” once consulates and embassies are prepared. She said she expected an update in “a matter of days.”

Shulman has two recently committed freshmen who have yet to secure visa appointments. Two current players returned to their home countries to renew their visas, and they also have been unable to secure appointments. Shulman said he was “scrambling a little bit” for both his players and his program.

“We’re very concerned if we’re going to be able to get these guys even in the country,” Shulman said.

International students typically aim to complete the application and interview process well before their expected arrival date. Before the interview, they must complete an I-20, which the government calls a “certificate of eligibility for nonimmigrant student status.” Applicants also bring transcripts and other support materials the interviewer might request. People who run services to help students in this process told ESPN that 10-50% of the students they work with don’t have visa appointments yet.

A runner from Poland, who plans to compete for Texas A&M, told ESPN he is not concerned yet because Scholarbook — the international athlete placement agency that has helped with his recruitment — told him the pause shouldn’t derail his plans. He asked ESPN to withhold his name for fear of reprisal.

Others aren’t so sure, especially given the pace of recent immigration edicts from the Trump administration targeting international students. “The implication is that once they have everything figured out, they’re going to get the process back up and running,” immigration attorney Amy Maldonado said. “But I don’t trust them or believe anything they say.”

On April 22, the administration aimed to revoke all student visas at Harvard. The university sued the next day and won a temporary injunction. New plans are afoot to impose harsher visa restrictions on Chinese students.

One university international center director who spoke to ESPN on condition of anonymity said that if the pause takes a week or two, “it’ll be a minor inconvenience. If it takes longer than that, it’ll be a considerable inconvenience.”

The pause reportedly is to boost vetting of applicants’ social media posts. One Division I coach said he suggested that his current international players scrub — and possibly delete — their social media accounts since it’s unknown what the new vetting will be. Some reports say the vetting will include deleted posts.

Shulman and other coaches told ESPN it is too soon to know if visa uncertainty will force them to recruit fewer international athletes in the coming years. He termed it a “very tense and scary time.”

The pause is not believed to affect those who already have interview appointments. Current students shouldn’t be impacted unless their visa has expired and they’ve decided to travel outside the country.

Shulman said his two returning players have valid visas that expire later this year, but they went home to renew. It’s unclear why they have not been able to schedule appointments yet.

Dow, the Vermont soccer coach, said if he were not able to get those three international recruits in, it would impact the roster but suggested the deficit would still be manageable.

For other programs, he added, the deficit “might be five or six or nine or 10.”

Shulman and coaches in other sports said they aren’t enacting contingency plans yet, hoping it’s a short pause, but they can’t help but think about it.

“Families are really concerned because this is something most of them have invested a lot of time and money in the process,” said Philipp Liedgens, the director of operations for Keystone Sports Germany, an international athlete placement company. He said the recruiting process could take up to two years — only to experience these problems at the end. Some of those athletes “have no plan for anything else,” he said.

Thomas Bojanowski, the founder of Scholarbook, said he has seen a 25-30% drop in interest from future students in the past six months. Liedgens said his firm has seen enrollments for future classes drop nearly 50% in recent months.

Dow said he has been answering questions from recruits about what it’s now like in the United States compared to media reports from overseas. Universities are trying to answer as best they can. Coaches aren’t sure what to tell current players, either, when they ask if it’s safe for them to leave the country.

One Division I men’s tennis coach said he advised his international players against it.

Vermont has a trip to Europe scheduled in June. Dow said he’s still figuring out whether any of his international players may need to skip the trip because of immigration uncertainties.

Shulman said that while sports are part of this, these decisions impact them as students. Many use college athletics to get a quality education at an American university.

“These kids need and deserve this opportunity here in the States,” Shulman said of his own players. “And I’m hoping that we can get through so they get this experience.”

Last year, the NCAA reported that more than 25,000 international athletes were enrolled in schools across its three divisions. In Division I, international students comprised 30-64% of rosters in a variety of sports, such as tennis, ice hockey, soccer and field hockey, a 2023 NCAA document said.

More than 4,000 athletes come from Canada, and over 1,000 each come from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Australia, according to the latest data provided by the NCAA. The international center director said Canadians should not be impacted because they typically do not have to sit for visa interviews.



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Portland Signs Christian Mendoza Ahead of 2025 Season

Story Links PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Men’s Soccer adds another talented freshman to the class of 2025, signing midfielder Christian Mendoza. Christian is a local Oregonian product who has a great technical proficiency in the game. He has elite ball security and our fans will see the ball glued to his foot,” Portland head coach […]

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Portland Signs Christian Mendoza Ahead of 2025 Season

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Men’s Soccer adds another talented freshman to the class of 2025, signing midfielder Christian Mendoza.

Christian is a local Oregonian product who has a great technical proficiency in the game. He has elite ball security and our fans will see the ball glued to his foot,” Portland head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt said. “Christian can play anywhere centrally or even as tucked in winger. He has a growth mindset and spent all spring with us learning our system as he graduated high school earlier. He has good experience training with the Timbers first team and playing games with the second team.

Mendoza joins the Pilots as a local product. Mendoza joins after recently playing with Portland Timbers 2 at the MLS NEXT Pro level. The Timbers Academy product played in 22 games with eight starts last season, scoring one goal. Mendoza is listed as the eighth best recruit out of the Pacific Northwest per TopDrawerSoccer and 144th on the IMG Academy 200 list.

“It’s no secret that we graduated two of the best four-year central midfielders in program history in Nick Fernandez and Sebastian Nava and we think Mendoza can help build our new looking midfield,” Carlin-Voigt said. “The best is ahead of him as he transitions to the physical and high intensity running demands of college soccer.”

This past season, the Pilots finished at 7-4-7 overall and 4-0-4 in WCC play, ending the year on a 10-game unbeaten streak that was the longest on the West Coast and the third longest in the country. They earned four wins over teams that finished in the top 35 in RPI this season as well. They have achieved a top 10 ranking nationally in each of the last three seasons and led the country in goals scored between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

The Pilots have also had 12 players move on to play in MLS since Nick Carlin-Voigt took over as head coach in 2016. Eight players have been drafted, with Paul Christensen, Rey Ortiz, Kevin Bonilla, Jacob Babalai and Buba Fofanah all being taken in the MLS SuperDraft. Efetobo Aror and Nick Fernandez were taken in the first and second round in this year’s SuperDraft as well, with Fernandez signing with the San Jose Earthquakes in February. Benji Michel and Kris Reaves each signed homegrown contracts with Orlando SC and FC Dallas respectively back in 2018 while Delentz Pierre and Brandon Cambridge each signed with Real Salt Lake and Charlotte FC in 2022 and Tommy Musto signed with LAFC in 2024. 

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College soccer star from Atlanta dies unexpectedly, school announces

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – A DePaul University soccer star from Atlanta died suddenly this week, the Chicago school announced. Chase Stegall, who attended high school at Woodward Academy, died on Monday at the age of 20. “We are heartbroken by the unexpected loss of Chase Stegall, a cherished member of our community, dedicated […]

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College soccer star from Atlanta dies unexpectedly, school announces

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – A DePaul University soccer star from Atlanta died suddenly this week, the Chicago school announced.

Chase Stegall, who attended high school at Woodward Academy, died on Monday at the age of 20.

“We are heartbroken by the unexpected loss of Chase Stegall, a cherished member of our community, dedicated teammate and kind-hearted friend,” Vice President and Director of Athletics DeWayne Peevy and Head Men’s Soccer Coach Mark Plotkin said in a joint statement.

The university did not release details on his death, however, the DePaul President Rob Manuel said in an email that he was found in his on-campus residence.

Stegall played in 16 games of DePaul’s 17 as a sophomore.

He was also a part of the Southern Soccer Academy in metro Atlanta for more than a decade. That organization said they were “heartbroken” and that “his passion, energy, and character left a mark on everyone.”

His father, Milton Stegall, played in the NFL for three seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals before playing for 14 years in the Canadian Football League.

He is also survived by his mother Darlene, and his brother, Collin.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Chase’s family, friends, teammates and all who loved him. His loss will be deeply felt across our entire athletics and university family, and his memory will forever be a part of DePaul University,” the school’s statement went on to say.

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