Wisconsin Soccer Central

Heading into the 2011 season, a Wisconsin native is the country's top-ranked senior men's college soccer player.

Creighton forward Ethan Finlay (Marshfield) earned that honor from Joe Mauceri, whose "Joe's Big Board" feature made its debut on TopDrawerSoccer.com this week. A senior list will be posted each Thursday during the season, with an underclassman list on Friday.

Finlay was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, a semifinalist for the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy and a second-team All-American last season, when had 15 goals and four assists.

Marquette midfielder Calum Mallace was ranked 32nd on the senior list, while Akron midfielder Tony Walls (Wauwatosa East/UW-Green Bay) was 48th. No players with state ties were included on the 25-player underclassman list.

• On the women's side, the All White Kit website introduced its 2012 Women's Professional Soccer Draft Board, which essentially is a ranking of the top college seniors. Seven players from Wisconsin teams made the top 75, led by UW-Milwaukee forward Sarah Hagen (Appleton North) at No. 4 in the "Franchise Player Potential" category. Marquette goalkeeper Natalie Kulla is 12th and Golden Eagles defender Kerry McBride (Milwaukee DSHA) is 15th, followed by University of Wisconsin forward Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead) at No. 26 and her teammate, defender Meghan Flannery (Milwaukee DSHA) at 37th. Marquette forward Rachael Sloan is 53rd and UW keeper Michele Dalton checks in at No. 74. AWK writer Chris Henderson provided comments on the first five state players.
• For the 12th consecutive season, UW-Milwaukee is favored to win the Horizon League women's title. The Panthers, who have won conference titles the past 11 years, received seven of the eight first-place votes – coaches aren't allowed to vote for their own team. UWM also has won six Horizon tournament titles and is 69-4-3 in league play since 2000. UW-Green Bay was picked to finish seventh in the eight-team league, followed by Youngstown State, which is coached by Will Lemke (Edgerton/UW-Rock County).
• UW-Milwaukee men's coach Chris Whalley added former Maryland player and coach Mike Marchiano to his coaching staff. Marchiano, 23, was a part of two NCAA championship teams with the Terrapins during his playing career (2005 and '08) under coach Sasho Cirovski, a former UWM player and assistant, and was a volunteer assistant at Maryland the past two seasons. "We are very excited about adding Mike to the staff," Whalley said in a news release. "He has a proven pedigree winning two national championships as a player and competing in the ACC. And he's been a member of the staff at Maryland, which is one of the finest programs in the country. With our connection with Sasho Cirovski, Mike comes highly recommended from one of the best coaches in the country and we are happy to have him on board and help this program get back to dominance in the city, state and region."
• Wisconsin Lutheran men's coach Joe Luedke (Wisconsin Lutheran/UW-Milwaukee) named former Warriors goalkeeper Matt Eisold (Burlington/Wisconsin Lutheran) an assistant coach. Eisold replaces Martin Togher (Cardinal Stritch), who departed the program after three years and recently was named a women's assistant at Concordia (Texas), another NCAA Division III program.