Huskies are making a statement
After an early exit from Championship Weekend last season, the Huskies have taken the league by storm, with 3 wins before Thanksgiving weekend after only winning 2 in all of 2015. We take a look at their current roster and some players that have made some impacts early in the season, and who we expect to see more from going forward!
Senior Players:
Jesse Magarvey - Midfield - Moncton mavs, transferred from Mount Allison currently plays senior for the Halifax Fighting Orangutans
Tanner MacDonald - Defense - 5 yrs for Dartmouth Bandits Junior A, currently plays senior for the Halifax Fighting Orangutans
Lee Davidson - Midfield - Hailing from North Central River, plays Senior for the Halifax Hustle and had a tryout with the Nanimo Senior A Timbermen several years ago. If you haven’t seen the physicality he brings to the field give him a search on youtube.
The Huskies are extremely young this season with 8 first year players. Huskies will look to sniper Blake Macdonald to run the offense and continue to bring physicality and grit. He is the leader of the team, and although he will be the main factor in their ultimate success, how far this team can go will be determined by their secondary scoring.
They will look to Junior, and Northwest Marley Lion veteran Dan MacEachern as the teams #1 shutdown defender.
The team recently got a boost when Phil Elford, sophomore, returned early from a box season knee injury, and has already surpassed his 2015 goal total.
New Players:
Bret Himmelman
Tanner Morgan
Ben Baxter
Kyle Langlois
Sam Mix
Alex Stokes
Joey Robb
Morgan Manuel
Tanner Morgan and Bret Himmelman, two Mi'kmaq Warriors will provide some needed depth on the defensive side of the ball (and "grit" according to assistant coach Jordan Coyle), and both have significant experience playing with the Nova Scotia U18 program as long poles.
Players expected to step up:
Morgan Manuel will be counted on during the stretch run, as he has done a great job so far replacinng graduated goalie Mitch DuTrizac. The coaches expect him to be vocal and a leader for the backend.
A big loss this season for the Huskies was LSM Colin Werle, who is away on exchange in Norway and will graduate before next season. Sam Mix has done a tremendous job so far, racking up a player of the week nomination early in the season.
They'll also look to Jamie Hore to step up as a returning player. When asked to compare this season to last, Hore said,
“It was a pretty down year; we were expecting a better season but it wasn't meant to be. I know the way the season ended lit a fire in a lot of the guys, myself included, and we've just been training all offseason getting ready for game 1. Hopefully, in that game we can send a message to the rest of the league that we're a different team this year and that we are going to bring it every possession, every quarter, every game, all season long. Go Huskies.”
The same coaching staff has returned for this season, with Glenn MacDonald, Mark Anderson, Jordan Coyle, Ian Higgins, Graham Robertson and Kevin Cahill. The Huskies have also brought Ryan Fougere on board to spark the offense.
Mark, Jordan, Ryan, Ian and Kevin are all SMU Lacrosse alumni, who are looking to translate their previous success into positive results this year.
Interested in playing for the Saint Mary’s Huskies? E-mail lacrosse.smu@gmail.com for more information on the team
