maple leafs
September 18, 2025
Leafy’s 2025: rolling out the purple carpet
Dash the black squirrel permanently smiled while posing and waving on a rolled out purple carpet. A Goshen College backdrop sat behind them as flashing cameras captured smiles and laughs at this year’s annual Leafys Award ceremony. Student-athletes, staff and GC athletic supporters gathered in the Umble Center on Sunday to celebrate overall GC athletic accomplishments and accept awards from the 2024-25 academic and athletic school year. The emcee for the night was Dante Stanton ‘24, who currently works with the ABC57 news team as a weekend morning anchor and reporter. Stanton, along with other faculty and staff members, presented...
April 29, 2025
Bollinger named men’s volleyball head coach
Wyatt Bollinger will take over the reins for men’s volleyball, replacing Jeff Phillips as head coach. Phillips will remain on as head coach for the women’s volleyball team. The move was announced by the athletic department on April 23, less than a week after The Record published a story covering Phillips departure from the men’s team. Phillips joined Goshen College in 2023, and coached both the men’s and women’s teams for two years before stepping back from the men’s side this spring. Bollinger transferred to GC for his senior year, and holds the single season record for assists per set....
March 5, 2025
Capps fired after three seasons
The Goshen College athletic department fired Kyle Capps on Wednesday morning. Capps was the head coach of the men’s basketball team. Capps was the head coach for three seasons, and posted a record of 8-76 across his entire tenure. During the 23-24 season his squad went 0-28. In the Crossroads League, he finished his career 1-53 – the lone win came against Taylor University on Jan 26, 2023, when the Maple Leafs won 72 – 65. GC finished last in the conference every year Capps was at the helm. His career winning percentage of .095 ranks lowest among all former...
November 30, 2023
Fall athletes on the end of a career
As the semester comes to an end, so too does a collegiate athletic career for many Maple Leafs. Being an athlete at Goshen College means different things to different people, so I talked to seniors who finished their final season to hear their thoughts. Mathurin Allawai began playing soccer when he was growing up in Chad. He said, “I didn’t want to play soccer at first; I was more of a student … [but when] I was 4 years old my friends would tell me ‘Come, let’s play soccer’ since I was always in my room studying. They brought me...
November 30, 2023
Men and women race together at nationals
The cross country teams ended their 2023 season in Vancouver, Washington, at the NAIA National Championships. The women finished 15th in the nation, and the men finished 16th. This was the first time the women’s team made it to the championships, and the men’s fifth straight visit. For both teams, it was their best overall performance in school history. Mercy Chebet was named an All-American for her 34th-place finish out of 331 runners. Chebet was in 128th place at the one-mile mark of the 6K (3.73-mile) race, but moved into the top 40 — the cutoff to qualify as an...
November 9, 2023
Softball and baseball on the horizon
With only three months until their first games, the Goshen College softball and baseball seasons are fast approaching. The baseball team is coming off a 2023 season with an overall record of 10-38. The softball team finished the 2023 season with a 24-26 record. Baseball has added 13 new players to their program this year, while softball has added only two. Currently, the teams are holding unofficial workouts and will begin official practices after Christmas break. Mckenzie Richardson, a senior, said the softball team practices bonding by holding a team activity at least once a month. Richardson talked about “captain-led...
November 9, 2023
A new season begins for women’s basketball
On Oct. 27, the women’s basketball team kicked off the season at the Cougar Classic hosted by the University of Saint Francis. They played Concordia and Cornerstone, with both games ending in losses. The next weekend, the Leafs’ first home game against Judson University resulted in a commanding win. Led by Syanne Mohamed’s 19-point and 12-rebound double-double, the Leafs bested the Eagles 82-56. They followed up with a 63-60 thriller win against Trinity Christian College on Monday. Zion Neat, a senior guard, hit a crucial three-pointer late in the game to bring the Maple Leafs within one point. Soon after,...
November 9, 2023
Representing your ethnicity
The Black and African-American population only represents 11% of Goshen College’s student-athletes, and yet, 68% of traditional students who are Black and African-American are student-athletes, according to Justin DeWeese, assistant athletic director of communications. Brielle Agnew is one of the Black athletes on campus, and the only Black woman on the volleyball team. Agnew, a senior majoring in biology, said that her background in volleyball has been much the same her whole life: mostly “white, skinny, blonde girls with long hair. That’s what it started as, and that is what it was when I first started playing. It’s probably more...
November 2, 2023
New faces on men’s basketball
The men’s basketball team opened their season in Winona Lake, Indiana, at the Lancer Tipoff Classic against Madonna University. They fell to the Crusaders 81-61, with sophomore Karson Jenkins leading the team with 22 points and 6 rebounds. The following day they played Kentucky Christian University, where they lost 77-76. The team was marshaled by Judah Simfukwe, a returning sophomore, who scored a career-high 27 points. Jenkins picked up 14 points and 4 rebounds, and freshman Kevin Cota led with 7 boards. The Maple Leafs were ahead of KCU 37-33 going to the half. In the second half, the Leafs...
November 2, 2023
Volleyball highlights from 2023 season
The Goshen College volleyball team ended their season on Saturday with a 3-0 loss to No. 17 Bethel University. After the Pilots won the first set 25-13, the Leafs almost captured a win in the second set — but lost 25-23. They then lost 25-11 in the third set. Goshen ended the season 8-24, with more wins than the past three seasons combined and its most wins in a season since 2017. The Leafs won 31.3% of the sets they played this season; in 2022, they won 14.4% of their sets. Season leaders for the Leafs include junior Sadie Brenneman...
November 2, 2023
ASA brings the community together
This past weekend, the Association of Student-Athletes presented a “trunk or treat” event open to the Goshen community. The RFC was transformed into a family-friendly Halloween party full of balloons, glow sticks, music and laughter. As the kids walked in through the main entrance, they were greeted by athletes and given glow sticks. They then made their way through a tunnel of balloons and faux spiderwebs as they entered the gym. Inside the gym, teams set up booths that portrayed their sport. Kids were able to shoot baskets, pitch, hit a baseball, hit targets with a soccer ball, high jump...
October 12, 2023
Community and opportunity
Of the 88 international students at Goshen College, 65 of them are student-athletes. For international athletes who are searching for a spot on a college roster in the U.S., the application process varied greatly. According to Matija Margetic, a sophomore from Croatia on the tennis team, his most important step in being recognized was getting into contact with an international sports agent. “I ended up hiring an agent because I had already seen an agent work with some of my friends, which was really, really helpful,” he said. “Okay, I cannot get any responses [alone], let me do that. …...
October 12, 2023
Volleyball wins no. 8
The women’s volleyball team earned their eighth win on Saturday during homecoming weekend, which gave the Leafs their most wins since 2017. Goshen defeated Indiana University South Bend in four sets. GC won the first set 25-17 and continued their strong performance with 16 kills in a second-set win over the Titans, 25-15. The Titans came back in the third set with a 25-15 victory over the Leafs, but GC responded quickly with a 25-11 victory in the fourth set to close the match out. Emily Lynch, a junior, picked up 16 kills in the game — the most she...
September 28, 2023
Women’s soccer starts conference play
The women’s soccer team started the season with a perfect 5-0 start, their best since 1997. Following the undefeated start, they lost two and tied two games and had a record of 5-2-2 before entering conference play. In their opening conference game, the women traveled to Huntington University where they lost 2-0. Both goals for Huntington were scored within a span of 62 seconds. After Wednesday’s 5-0 loss to Marian University, the women’s current record is 5-4-2 on the season. The women’s soccer team faces tough competition in the Crossroads League. Three of the 10 teams are nationally ranked in...
September 14, 2023
Painting with a most unique canvas
The swirl of the purple and white checkered flag as it’s carried around the field, the cheers of the crowd, or the groans as the ball goes out of bounds once again — this is what the average fan sees at a Goshen College soccer game. However, what they might not see is how the grass is maintained for optimal performance, how the trash cans in the bleachers get emptied or how the sidelines are straightened for the ball to sail over. In fact, most people have no idea what actually goes into getting the soccer field ready to hold...