A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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My defensive analysis of the 2009 San Jose Stealth is going to come in two parts. This first part will go over the roster changes because that is more than enough info for a single post. The second part will be on the player roles on the floor and I actually need to see them in action this weekend to even come up with my initial expectations.
Outside of the goal we have the following change ups.
In: Will Dalton(R), Paul Rabil(R), Ryan Marshall*, Kyle Hartzell(R), Brett Manney(R), Travis Gillespie*, Mike Grimes*, Mike Kirk*
Out: Andrew Guindon*, Paul Dawson*, Steve Panarelli, Zach Heffner, Tim Booth, Todd Fairlie
Remaining: Luke Hinton, Curtis Hodgson*, Eric Martin, Kyle Sorensen*
Injured: Steve Holmes
Sabbatical: Shaydon Santos*
(R) Rookie
Despite only having four defensive runners returning, assistant coach Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Famer Art “The Mailman” Webster remains behind the bench. So the system should remain the same and I trust the system that Coach Art has been running the past couple years. It should only improve with the athletes the Stealth have brought in this year. I wish there were more than four players returning from last years squad but this reminds me of the 2007 Stealth who had 14 new players on the roster at the start of the season and managed advance to the Western Division Finals after a rocky start. The offense should be capable of over coming any rocky defensive starts and the goalies this year did not miss training camp, so the first game won’t be the first real action they’ve seen. (That is not meant as a dig at Cosmo either, the way Cosmo finished seasons more than made up for how he started them. I’m just saying it’s going to be different.)
I expect Curtis Hodgson to step up and be the new anchor for the defense this season. He’s matured the past few seasons and has had outstanding summers in the WLA playing for the Burnaby Lakers. Curtis is the two time defending Gord Nicholson – Defensive Player of the Year in the WLA. So despite Eric Martin getting most of the press as the Stealth’s top defender, Curtis has a strong argument and a couple pieces of hardware to show that he’s just as good. Kyle Sorensen is the highest selected player in the 2006 entry draft that is still playing every week and if he only does one thing this season I hope it’s beating up Ryan Boyle again in New York.
Watch NLL Fight Sorensen vs Boyle 02/24/2007 in Sports Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
The two biggest surprises to me were the release of Andrew Guindon and Steve Panarelli being acquired by Boston, then released and the Stealth not reacquiring him. I love the performance of both of them, especially Guindon and I’m sad to not see them playing for the Stealth this season. Since no one has picked up Guindon I suspect he’s had some stuff going on in his life outside of lacrosse that’s preventing him from playing this year. Good luck Andrew with whatever you’ve got going on. It’s something I’ll definitely being asking about this weekend if I get any contact with the team. Panarelli was just picked up today to the Philadelphia Wings practice roster and I give it two weeks before he’s on the active roster and on the floor.
All the new rookies are American’s, so like Steve Panarelli last year and Steve Holmes in 2007 they should be able successfully learn the game and contribute immediately. What they lack right now in box knowledge they’ll make up for in raw athleticism, the #1 example being Paul Rabil. He’s built like an NFL linebacker and should have immediate impact when he gets on the floor.
Will Dalton replaces Tim Booth at the face off X. They went head to head during training camp and Dalton won the competition and took Booth’s spot. It’s a bad break for Booth, he was right at 50% in face offs last season which means he wasn’t leaving us at a deficit and Booth was definitely a good enough athlete to stay on the floor on defensive and go 1 on 1 with most forwards in the league.
Kyle Hartzell hails from D3 Salisbury University on the Maryland coast and played this summer with the San Francisco Dragons and fellow Seagull alumni Eric Martin. Kyle’s father played in the NFL, maybe Kyle is the next Jake Bergey?
Brett Manney, could you please get a publicist and send me some background on yourself? Much appreciated. I’ll do a whole post just about you if you get me the info.
In case you’ve been living in a cave, Cosmo has left the building and it could have been prevented. In his place stands Matt Roik, all 6’5″ of him. Check him out when he stands in the cage, his waist is at the crossbar of the goal. He’s one tall dude. I’d say Aaron Bold is still stronger, but Roik’s got more NLL experience. Bold on the other hand knows Coach Art’s systems and what his defenders are going to be doing in front of him. It wouldn’t bother me if they split time if that gets the best results. Lost in the mix is little Tyler Richards. Tyler actually split time with Roik during the summer at New Westminster in the WLA and was voted 1st Team All WLA, Goalie of the Year *AND* Co-Rookie of the Year and took his team to the Mann Cup finals. Not a bad summer for a 22 year old.
That roughly covers the personnel. Sorry if I didn’t go in to more detail about all the defenders, but honestly, they are defenders – if they are doing your job right no one ever going to talk about them anyways. So consider me not talking about you here a compliment. I’ll finish the job after seeing the boys play their first two games.