Sparky and Blaze: The heart and soul of the Carolina Chaos

Every week, when the Carolina Chaos take the field as a team, all eyes turn to the five-time Oren Lyons Goaltender of the Year, Blaze Riorden.

The five-time first-team All-Pro goalie is regarded by many as the heart and soul of the Chaos defense and team, whether he’s making spectacular doorstep saves that don’t seem possible or trekking coast to coast to score a goal in transition. He’s a legend of the medicine game and one of the greatest to ever stand between the pipes in the history of the sport.

He has nine career games with 20-plus saves, including two this season that led to wins. There have been only 10 other 20-plus save performances combined among all other goalies since 2019.

But in his eyes, he’s not the heart and soul or the most valuable player on the team, despite winning the Jim Brown Most Valuable Player Award in 2021 when the Chaos won the Premier Lacrosse League championship. That title is reserved for Austin Kaut, his best friend and counterpart, who helps defend the Chaos goal.

“We got a huge win, we’re in San Diego, we felt good, and I just texted him and I said, ‘You’re the most valuable player on our team.’ And I meant that wholeheartedly,” Blaze said. “Our roles could be reversed, and we would be just as successful if Austin Kaut was in net, and I truly believe that. And when he’s not in net, he makes the same impact. And I don’t think a lot of guys in the league have that type of humility or true love for being in a locker room.”

“He’s a top one or two teammate in any league, like on any team,” Riorden said. “What he does for the Chaos without even trying makes him the heart and soul of the team.”

On a surface level, fans see him running out onto the field to pick up a ball for someone who scores their first career goal or dishing out water during timeouts. These are great things the team loves, but that’s a minute fraction of what Kaut is doing each week. Behind the scenes, when the cameras aren’t on and the game isn’t unfolding, that’s when Kaut is impacting everyone the most.

When the team runs out of Gatorade Fast Twitch in the locker room for pregame hydration and energy, Kauter is already on his feet searching every nook and cranny in the facility for more. He supplies the team with buckets of bubble gum and smelling salts (“the good ones, not the fake ones”) throughout the season. He’s like a producer in the truck coordinating the levels of all the sound and which cameras to run hot so the fans get the best experience of the players on the field from their homes.

Kaut and Riorden are both left-handed goalies, so when the Chaos are slated to play a righty in net, Kauter will switch hands in practice and play righty.

“[I’ve] done it in plenty of practices, coming up to games, just to show the offense, ‘Hey, you’re going to see the stick in this area,’” Kaut said.

And it’s not a half-hearted effort when he does; he’s deliberate in every movement and treats each shot like an opposing goalie would. When the Chaos are working on finishing inside, Kauter is trying to stuff his teammates and shows them that they aren’t going to score easy goals in games if they can’t beat his weak hand.

When guys are shooting from deeper, he copies the stances and hand placement of the right-handed goalies Carolina faces so his teammates can visualize what a game setting will look like. He’s meticulous with his film work on other goalies, so he can elevate his teammates’ performances because he wants to win just as bad as everyone else, even if he’s not getting any minutes of game action.

He’s the team DJ, and his tunes are elite. Before a game, you could hear a range of songs like “Ganjaman” by Alfons, to “Up” by Cardi B and even “What’s the Difference” by Dr. Dre.

The range from reggae dance and electronic music to present-day pop-rap and late 1990s rap is just a tease of the tunes blaring from the Chaos speakers. Kaut isn’t playing the music all for himself; a lot of the tunes he’s dialing up are requests from his various teammates, and he just decides the order to let them flow.

“Kauter plays songs for multiple guys in our locker room,” Troy Reh said. “It speaks to how good of a teammate he is. He knows certain songs that guys like and will mix those into his lineup each game day.”

Kauter coordinates social events for the guys so they can build chemistry and he’s the funniest guy on the team, according to Blaze.

Austin Kaut is all these things while simultaneously being a 12-year veteran in professional lacrosse with 1,047 career saves (eighth all-time). The colloquial sports phrase “there’s no I in team” is directly portrayed through Kaut’s actions each week.

“He is single-handedly in charge, and loves the responsibility and takes it as if it’s one of the positions that he has to play on this team to be the guy that creates a brotherhood in our locker room,” Riorden passionately explained. “And our locker room is the most challenging locker room to build a brotherhood in, because in the last three seasons, we’ve had constant change.”

Kaut was adamant that one thing the Chaos locker room would never lack is “camaraderie,” and he’s the builder of it. It doesn’t matter if the team is getting blown out or winning games; the fruit of his efforts has built a succinct brotherhood that has remained a staple despite more than 10 new faces and an entire new coaching staff this season.

And if you ask Kaut what his role within the Chaos is, he’s honest and direct.

“[Blaze] is the best goalie in the world, if not the best player in the world, and it was always going to be my job to do anything I can, to support him, and help him when he needs,” Kaut said. “I’ve kind of just taken it as picking the bull by the horns, per se, and kind of turned it into just being a good teammate too. You know, every young guy in this league is going to have a time when they might not be the number one guy, and they might be more of a supportive role. And you know, my time was as of four years ago, when I joined the Chaos.”

In 2013, Kaut won the Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Award, given to the best college goalie in the country while playing for Jeff Tambroni and Penn State.

In Happy Valley, Tambroni’s team lives by the mantra “Teammates for Life.” A term derived after the tragic passing of goaltender Connor Darcey, who was Kaut’s backup before earning the starting job at Penn State.

Darcey was known for having the “Heart of a Competitor” on the field and would outperform Kaut, the four-time All-American, in practice. But off the field, he was an energetic and fun person that everyone wanted to be around. And that’s who Austin Kaut is for the Carolina Chaos.

Kaut exemplifies the spirit of Connor Darcey and is the teammate every Chaos player wants to be around.

“We call him Sparky, because he has this spark in him that sparks our entire team,” Riorden said. “His energy, it’s like it’s the most contagious energy, whether it’s 7 a.m. and he’s knocking on my door to drop me off a Starbucks coffee and waking me up, or it’s the last song at the bar before the lights come on, it’s like the energy doesn’t waver. Having a steady guy like that, when things aren’t going right, the energy is still there and when things are going great, the energy is still there. He keeps us afloat, and he means everything to this team.”

At training camp, Riorden doesn’t take many shots so he can stay fresh and keep his body healthy for games. In past seasons, the Chaos have brought in Mike Adler for training camp to take on shots with Kaut to keep Riorden fresh.

This year, Kauter told Carolina Chaos general manager Spencer Ford not to add another goalie to the 29-man training camp roster so that more field players could try out and work to earn a spot on the roster. If you exclude the specialists (faceoff and goalie), the Chaos had 25 spots available for field players.

After having the league’s worst offense in 2024, Kaut’s selflessness allowed Carolina to add 14 offensive players to the training camp roster (56% of field spots). Owen Hiltz and Josh Zawada were unable to travel to camp, bringing the number to 12, but the team still had intense battles at attack and midfield.

Kauter’s decision also allowed for undrafted rookie Jackson Eicher to be one of the last invites to the Chaos training camp, and he now leads the team with 12 points (7G, 5A) in the regular season.

And in Blaze’s eyes, Sparky was the best player throughout training camp for Carolina. He stopped shots at a “74%” clip according to Blaze, and made everyone earn their spot. He’s a competitor who will work to get the best out of himself and his teammates each day.

“It’s important that it’s not twisted that Austin acts like this because he doesn’t have any other options,” Riorden, the five-time All-Star, said. “Austin Kaut could be a defined starter in this league on a lot of teams, and he has the ability to start over me at any time.”

Kaut has appeared twice in relief of Riorden this season, including a five-save fourth quarter against the California Redwoods that further proved he’s capable of playing a larger role as a goalie when called upon.

Kaut’s ability to be ready whenever he’s called upon makes him a luxury for Carolina. The added impact of what he does off the field is what makes him irreplaceable.

“It’s easy to be a good teammate, because you can be a good teammate by not saying anything and just doing your job, like your specific job,” Blaze explained. “Not a lot of people would be able to do what Austin Kaut does, which is continuously put other people first. He fills in every single hole while continuing to get himself ready to be the best version of himself when his name is called.”

While Riorden shines week in and week out and earns his rightful recognition as the heart and soul of the Caroline Chaos for his great performances, the real heart and soul of the team is silently working behind the scenes to make sure each teammate can perform to the best of their ability.

In a league where 152 players have the opportunity to showcase their talents each week, Carolina’s most valuable player does it quietly because of his love and respect for his teammates and the game.

“Kauter is an all-time great player, great teammate and he’s the heart and soul of the Carolina Chaos,” Riorden said.