Last year, Brock Men’s Lacrosse had another strong season under head coach Justin Kennedy. During their regular season, Brock was ranked second in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) with a record of 9-3 and placed second in the Baggataway Cup with two wins and one loss.
Certainly though, their semi-final loss against McGill University was a heartbreaker for the team. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it was argued that the Badgers went into the semi-final game against McGill not properly rested as the team only had seven hours to prepare to play against the undefeated team.
Would the outcome have been different if the team had more time to mentally prepare against McGill? Either way, that was in the past and that’s one thing that all sports teams will stress, which is the factor of forgetting and moving on.
#5 Josh Kelly and #88 Cole Martin / Brockpress.com
The Badgers had a very talented team last season with Brandon Slade, Parker Baile and Nicholas Beaudoine all being named CUFLA All-Canadians. Connor Ham was an honourable mention in just his first season. Ham had 30 goals and a total of 43 points in his rookie season. Slade led the Badgers and the entire league with 63 points; 27 goals and 36 assists.
During the summer, Kennedy added more talent to an already championship contending roster. Kennedy was able to add nine new players to the roster, as the Badgers try to bring the Baggataway Cup back to Brock since 2009. Players who will be playing their first year as a Badger are as follows:
Alex Pace: Coming over from Nova Scotia, Pace has an impressive resume. He was named LNS Male Athlete of the year, Rookie of the Year in 2015 in the ECJLL, was a member of the U-18 Nova Scotia Men’s field team and a member of the U-17 Team Canada box team.
Connor Aquanno: The Nova Scotia native, Aquanno has great speed and agility ever since he started playing box lacrosse at the age of five and field lacrosse at age 11.
Dylan Laprade: Laprade played Junior A lacrosse with the Barrie Lakeshores, which speaks for itself in terms of his athleticism.
Kyle Pedwell: A St. Catharines native who plays the attack position transferred to Brock after spending two years at Detroit College. He was on the Detroit Titans roster, but never saw any action. Pedwell earned a spot on the Detroit Athletic Director’s Honour Roll while attending the college.
Adam Kirchmayer: After playing a year with the Guelph Gryphons, the Welland native has transferred to Brock. In his season playing for Guelph, Kirchmayer had one assist in 12 games.
Mackenzie Mitchell: Transferring from Carleton, Mitchell was able to score 11 goals and 13 total points after playing eight games with the Ravens this past season.
Josh Harris: A player, whose roots derive straight from St. Catharines, played four seasons with the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers. Harris played 60 games, scoring four goals and seven assists. His best season with the Tigers was 2016, where he scored all four of his goals and picked up four assists.
Tyler Rehanek: A team Ontario player was the recipient of the Ryan Haber Memorial Award in 2013 among the Ontario Minor Field Lacrosse League.
Brett McKinnon: McKinnon played for Virginia Episcopal School in which he and his teammates were named to play on the VES All-State Team. The 6’1”, 220-pound pure athlete will crush anyone who gets in his way.
After adding nine new players the men’s lacrosse roster, it’s clear to see that the coaching staff will have a ton to work with in terms of placing players where they should be and utilizing them to their maximum potential in specific areas and scenarios.
The Badgers season will begin on September 10 at home versus Western. However, they’ll travel to Trent on Sept. 3 for exhibition game and will host the Six Nations All-Stars on Sept. 4.
The men’s lacrosse team hopes for another successful season as they’ll be the host of the Baggataway Cup this season, at the one-year old Alumni Field. Baggataway Cup will take place on November 4-6.
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