Davenport bulk up coaching staff

On November 20th, Davenport University announced that a trio of coaches would be joining the program to assist the college's three squads heading into the winter 2023 semester. The new coaches include NA mainstays Luke "Viathan" Carstens and Nick "Noot" Samodurov alongside Talen "Talen" M., who is stepping into his first coaching role.

Of the three new additions, Viathan will have the highest profile role, working alongside Colin "koi" Thor on the division one team. Notably, he has been on the server with the squad for the majority of ESEA Advanced Season 43 thus far, helping the team to their strong 9-1 start to the season. As for Noot, he will be working with the division two squad. They are also currently in Advanced, with the team currently posting a modest 5-6 record.

The final addition Talen, will be taking over head coach duties from Grant "GKaay" Kino on the division three squad. The team primarily compete in ESEA Open and currently have a 7-4 record. Interestingly, Talen will be doing double duty in this role while also playing for Take Charge in ESEA Advanced.

It is important to note that Viathan, Noot, and Talen are currently working in a volunteer position with the school, however koi hopes this experience can help springboard them into permanent position with Davenport.

Regarding these additions to his staff, koi told Dust2.us:

We added the coaches as a way to help me offset some of the regular day-to-day duties I have as the head coach of the CS:GO Program. Previously, I was responsible for individually working with each roster, which if we wanted to just focus on collegiate goals, would be completely fine. However, by adding the coaches (especially Noot/Talen). it has helped me take a bit of a step back and focus on a lot more of the admin duties and development surrounding D1. I pushed heavily for additional staff after my breakdown about a month ago, this job can be crazy stressful if you have high expectations for all the rosters.

As for my role, it's changing constantly, especially as I'm transitioning more and more into an overarching program manager type figure. That being said, as of right now I still control the majority of the tactical aspect of DU and plan to continue to do so as we unify all of the team's respective playstyles ahead of the Winter 2023 semester. This should allow for a fairly fluid transition of players between the tiers, something we'll be experimenting with very soon.

With these coaching changes, Davenport's three squads are now:

Davenport University D1:

• Spencer "Pugg" Moore

• Collin "CoJoMo" Moren

• Tommy "corn" Eckhart

• Nate "spek" Smith

• Denis "swicher" Baranov

• Colin "koi" Thor (Coach)

• Luke "Viathan" Carstens (Assistant Coach)

Davenport University D2:

• Brandon "BeBO" Miller

• John "arcade" Rogel

• Ryan "tactile" Branigan

• Lane "RiFT" Hardesty

• Ben "N07" Pringle

• Nick "Noot" Samodurov (Coach)

Davenport University D3:

• Luke "BeanieHut" Doorn

• Ian "Fraq-KTR" Burr

• Anna "lyeku" Lu

• Austin "Tex^" Berget

• Jt "Adeft" Mullins

• Talen "Talen" M. (Coach)

• Grant "GKaay" Kino (Assistant Coach)