MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) announced their Scholastic Honor Roll on Wednesday, July 23rd, and the Gustavus gymnastics team made the list. 

The WIAC presents an All-Academic Award to those institutions that have a grade point average for its student-athletes that is equal to, or greater than, the grade point average of the overall student body.

The Gustie gymnastics team competes in the WIAC for conference competition with Hamline, Simpson, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater, and Winona State. 

During the 2024-25 season, Gustavus finished sixth in the WIAC out of nine teams, with a 3-8 record (3-6 WIAC). The season was highlighted by a win at Simpson where the team had season-best performances in every event and had the best performance in program history with a 190.275 and hosting the NCGA Division III National Championships where senior Lili Guy (Glendale Heights, Ill.)  competed on the floor exercise and vault to finish out her college career. 

 

Mitchell J. Kurtz

Age 58, of Plainfield, Illinois, passed from this life Thursday, July 17, 2025, at Rush Copley Medical Center after a courageous battle against cancer with family by his side.

He was born on August 1, 1966, to Kenneth T. and Karen Kurtz in Joliet, where he was raised and educated. He was a graduate of the class of 1984 from Joliet West High School, where he was a member of the ice hockey team for all four years and served as captain his senior year. Following High School, Mitch went on to play ice hockey at the College of DuPage and was also captain during his tenure at COD, wearing the ‘C’ proudly. Mitch then went on and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he was a proud member and central figure of the “Ice Cats” Hockey team.

He is the beloved father of Bryce and Olivia Kurtz; dearest son of Kenneth and Karen Kurtz; dear brother of Guy, Brett (Mari) and Chad (Diane) Kurtz; fond uncle of Zoe, Andre, Joseph, Sarah, Sophia, Brayden, Nicholas, Christopher, Emma and his Godson, Leo. Mitch is also survived by Bryce and Olivia’s mother; his godfather, Bob Galle;

and both Mike Reardon and Dennis Vietoris, who offered unwavering support and care during his illness—Mike as a trusted mentor and supporter, and Dennis as a loyal friend and caregiver. He also leaves behind his canine companion, Koda, along with many loving aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Mitch’s career began in Madison, WI, where he was an account executive with NBC affiliate WMTV. He then returned home to Joliet and was employed for many years in the Joliet area as a designer and sales associate with Brakur Custom Cabinetry and Tri Star Cabinets.

Mitch enjoyed many hobbies and was known as a true outdoorsman who loved fishing, camping, and snowboarding, especially in his favorite place, Aspen, with hockey being his ultimate passion. His competitive spirit fostered a ‘finish first’ mantra that will be remembered by all who knew him.

Mitch had a deep love for music, especially live performances. He cherished attending concerts, particularly when he could share the experience with his children. His favorite band was Led Zeppelin, whose music brought him great joy throughout his life.

Mitch’s favorite role was that of a proud father. Never missing his children’s, nieces or nephews’ hockey games, events, and rarely missing practices. One can say that the hockey rink was truly Mitch’s happy place. Mitch’s proudest achievement, however, was raising them as a single father, providing unwavering support. He treasured every moment spent watching Bryce & Olivia thrive, beaming with pride at their talents and achievements both on the ice and in their daily lives, and you could always find him in the same corner of the rink.

A memorial hockey game will be held in Mitch’s honor on Wednesday, July 30th at 8:00 p.m. at Inwood Ice Arena, 3000 W Jefferson St, Joliet, IL, 60435. All are welcome to attend and watch the Kurtz family and close hockey friends come together on the ice to celebrate Mitch’s life and love for the game.

A Memorial Visitation for Mitchell J. Kurtz will be held on Thursday, July 31, 2025, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, 3200 Black Rd. (at Essington Rd) in Joliet. All friends and relatives are invited to gather on Friday, August 1, 2025, at 10:45 a.m. at St. Mary Immaculate Catholic Church, 129 S. Division St. (Rt 59) Plainfield, IL, where a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m.

For those who are not able to attend mass, please click on this link https://www.youtube.com/@StMaryImmaculate/streams and follow the instructions to show your support for them at a time when you cannot be physically present, but your thoughts, prayers and connection are. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Mitch’s name can be made to the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Donations can be made at https://curesarcoma.org/mitch-kurtz/

Duluth, Ga. – The Atlanta Gladiators announced that the club has signed forward Ryan Nolan for the 2025-26 season.

Nolan returns to the ECHL after playing 16 games with the Adirondack Thunder toward the end of the 2024-25 season, scoring three points (1g-2a). He scored his first ECHL goal in his first ECHL game on February 12, 2025, vs Trois-Rivieres. Nolan played 38 games with the SPHL’s Fayetteville Marksmen last season, averaging a point-per-game with 38 points (17g-21a) in 38 games with the club.

The 27-yeaer-old began his professional career in the SPHL with the Peoria Rivermen in 2023, helping the team capture the President’s Cup with 20 points (11g-9a) in 24 games during the regular season. He then signed with Fayetteville for the 2024-25 season. Nolan played three seasons of college hockey at Merrimack College, and one at Michigan State University ahead of his pro debut in 2023.

“I kind of knew it was going to be a competitive camp, just from what I’ve heard, but I didn’t know it was going to be this well run and organized,” Johnson said. “It was so much fun competing against the best players in the country. It was fun meeting new kids and learning from all the seminars and coaches at the camp.”

In 59 games with the Stars, the left-handed Johnson scored four goals and tallied 23 points. 

He’ll likely play the upcoming season with the Sioux Falls Power, a Tier 1 program in South Dakota committed to player development.

All this success on the ice has been unexpected considering equestrian remained Johnson’s main athletic pursuit for years. 

“Hockey was a side thing when I was riding horses and I don’t think my parents thought it was going to go this far,” Johnson said. “Everyone thought it wasn’t going to get as big as it is for me, but it turned out to be the main thing.”

When it comes to riding horses, Johnson took after his mother, Meg, who was a co-captain on Auburn’s equestrian team and three-time champion at the Forth Worth Stock Show who continues to compete to this day. 

“My mom rode equestrian her whole life and when I’d go to the barn with her, I fell in love with riding, too,” Charlie said. “It’s you and the horse out there and it’s nobody else, and you get to bond with the animal every time you’re out there.”

Charlie followed in Meg’s footsteps and was a champion at the Forth Worth Stock Show at the youth level, but hockey eventually became his sport of choice.

Meg Johnson isn’t surprised. There’s a photo of a days-old Charlie and his father listening to a North Dakota college hockey game together. The family also previously hosted players from the NAHL’s Lone Star Brahmas.

“It has been really fun to watch the passion he has for hockey all the way up until now,” Meg Johnson said. “He’s always taken hockey so seriously and he’s been so devoted and dedicated to the game at home. It’s a lot of fun to see him compete with kids at this level.”

Charlie had plenty of athletic influences growing up. Now, whether he’s on horseback or skating on the ice, he continues to live by the values he learned from his parents.  

“It all comes from the hard work that was instilled in me through an early age,” Charlie said. “It really helped me out because all I can control is how hard you work and good things will come after that.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

The House v. NCAA settlement is confusing. So let me bullet point a few things before getting to the big news reported yesterday by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger.

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• House is a person, not the United States House of Representatives. Former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and former TCU/Oregon basketball player Sedona Prince sued the NCAA and the Power Five because the rules and regulations held by those organizations had prevented student-athletes of House’s and Prince’s era from making money off of NIL.

• The class-action settlement was for around $2.8 billion. If the conferences didn’t settle, they would have been on the hook for a sum ten times that total. The settlement allowed student-athletes from 2016 on to receive some back payments. It also permitted schools to share up to $20.5 million in revenue in 2025-26 with student-athletes in their departments. Schools making millions in media rights revenue without having to share it with the student-athletes showcased in that media was a big impetus for the suit.

• Some schools took revenue sharing capabilities as a signal to alter its strategy for third-party “noninstitutional” NIL through collectives. Some schools struggle to come up with championship rosters. Having a sizable portion of a $20.5 million cap go to football direct from the school without having to resort to third-party deals either gets the job done for some programs or is all some school ecosystems care to spend.

• Championship college football rosters cost more than around $14 million, which is about the sum most schools are dedicating toward football via revenue sharing.

• Collectives are a potential option to make up for the limited sum available via direct-from-school revenue sharing. Problem was, the NCAA and the Power Four created an entity called the College Sports Commission. The CSC created an NIL clearinghouse with Deloitte called NILGo, which was designed to approve third-party NIL deals that were 1) of fair market value and 2) for a valid business purpose.

• NILGo denied numerous collective deals.

• About two weeks ago, the attorneys for House, per Yahoo, did this: In a terse, two-page letter sent to NCAA and power conference officials Friday, Jeffrey Kessler, a co-lead House plaintiff attorney along with Steve Berman, requested that the NCAA and conferences “retract” a statement of guidance released Thursday from the College Sports Commission and, presumably, reinstate name, image and likeness deals that the CSC has denied — many of them from booster-backed NIL collectives. In his letter, Kessler describes the guidance as “not consistent” and “undermining” settlement terms, according to a copy of the document Yahoo Sports obtained. The CSC, the new revenue-share enforcement arm policing NIL deals, notified schools Thursday that it was denying dozens of NIL deals for not meeting what it terms a “valid business purpose.” The guidance specifically targeted collectives, entities that for years now have paid millions to athletes through booster donations.

• The key excerpt from that story is: The change to the valid business purpose standard potentially opens the door for the continuation of school-affiliated, booster-backed collectives to provide athletes with compensation that, if approved by the clearinghouse, does not count against a school’s House settlement revenue-share cap. This provides collectives a path to strike deals with athletes as long as those transactions deliver to the public goods and services for a profit for the organization, such as holding athlete merchandise sales, autograph signings and athlete appearances at, for example, golf tournaments The resolution creates what administrators term more of a “soft cap” as opposed to a hard cap, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it last week in an interview with Yahoo Sports. The expectation is that collectives will create legal ways to provide additional compensation, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti described Monday in an interview with Yahoo Sports from Big Ten media days.

So how does this all come back to Texas? Well, let me just leave you with a quote from Texas One Fund president Patrick “Wheels” Smith from the beginning of July, right when the House era of college athletics began and when CSC and NILGo was seen as a major roadblock for any future collective deals.

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“We are fully independent, and we should be because having independence helps Texas as much as it helps us,” Smith said. “We can move, adapt, and change and float whatever necessary.”