As the 2014-2015 academic year comes to a close, Pioneer athletics looks to the future. Every school year brings new students to campus, and with new students comes new student-athletes. Recently, the athletic programs at DU have begun to sign new recruits for the upcoming 2015-2016 season.
Men’s soccer has signed six new student-athletes to their roster. Shae Smalley (Columbus, Ohio), Frank Carsonie (Hilliard, Ohio), Ryan Barlow (Coppell, Texas), Ryan Schaefer (Burien, Washington), Tosh Samkange (Sammamish, Washington) and Andre Shinyashiki (Sao Paulo, Brazil) have all signed their National Letters of Intent.
Shinyashiki will be coming to DU all the way from Brazil, where he has led his club team to 117 consecutive wins and two consecutive national championships.
Carsonie and Smalley played together on the Columbus Crew’s Academy Team in Ohio. Schaefer and Samkange also played together while in Washington. On the College Soccer News 2015’s top prospect list, Barlow was ranked 75th, followed by Shinyashiki at 79th, and Samkange at 110th.
So far, women’s volleyball has welcomed four new athletes to the roster. The first two recruits signed their Letters of Intent during the fall signing period. Rebecca Latham (Austin, Texas) and Emma Willis (La Jolla, California) have recently been joined by two more student-athletes: Olivia Novotny, a defensive specialist from Germantown, Tennessee and Caroline Pearson from New Trier High School, just outside of Chicago.
Pearson helped lead her high school team to a 3rd place state finish and she was named to the 2014 USA Volleyball Junior National Program. DU volleyball ended their season with the best record in Pioneer history with 27 wins and seven losses. The new recruits are coming to the program at the perfect time.
Men’s basketball signed Harker Heights, Texas native C.J. Bobbitt at the end of April. Bobbitt is a 6’6” forward who will bring talent to the team as well as sheer size.
Bobbitt broke his high school’s record for most rebounds with 641 and he is also second all-time with 1,298 points scored in his four years of high school play.
DU signed Joe Rosga (Minneapolis, Minnesota), as well.
After losing seven extremely talented players, four of whom have moved on to the NHL, Denver hockey has some big skates to fill. The program most recently signed two forwards: Troy Terry (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) and Dylan Gambrell (Bonney Lake, Washington). Terry and Gambrell have both played in Colorado and played for the same Thunderbirds U16 program.
Terry is only 17 years old, but he was already ranked 107th by the NHL Central Scouting in preparation for the 2015 Draft. Terry also won Gold with Team USA at the Junior World Championships.
Gambrell played for Coach Jim Montgomery in 2013 on the Fighting Saints where he won the Clark Cup. Blake Hillman (Elk River, MN) also played for the same Fighting Saints team and will be coming to DU in the fall. Logan O’Connor (Calgary, Alberta) and Jarid Lukosevicius (Squamish, British Columbia) submitted their Letters of Intent in late 2014 and will be joining to the Pioneer hockey program come fall.
