The Buffalo Bandits today announced the remainder of the team’s coaching staff for the 2014 National Lacrosse League season. Current Bandits assistant coaches Dan Teat, Rich Kilgour and Rusty Kruger will be joined by Steve Toll, Dave Pym and Rob Buchan to round out the team’s staff after the Bandits made Troy Cordingley the seventh head coach in franchise history earlier this month.
Teat will enter his third season as assistant coach of the Bandits in charge of the offense. The Brampton, Ontario native and 14-year NLL veteran forward played five seasons with Buffalo from 2004 to 2008 and scored 630 points (298+332) in 195 NLL games before retiring in 2010. Teat won a Mann Cup championship as an assistant coach with the Brampton Excelsiors of Major Series Lacrosse in 2011.
Kilgour will return for his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Bandits. He joined Buffalo’s coaching staff prior to the 2011 season after a year away from professional lacrosse following his retirement from the NLL in 2009. He spent the entirety of his 18-year playing career (1992 to 2009) with the Bandits, serving as captain for 12 seasons from 1998 to 2009. His teams made the playoffs 13 times and won four championships (1992, 1993, 1996 and 2008).
Kilgour played in 200 career regular season games as a defensive specialist for the Bandits, scoring 317 career points (94+223). He was a part of the 1993 champion Bandits, the only team in league history to go undefeated through the regular season and playoffs (10-0). Kilgour’s jersey number 16 was retired by the Bandits and lifted to the rafters of First Niagara Center on April 16, 2011.
Kruger returns for a second season with the Bandits as an assistant coach and scout. The Orangeville, Ontario native and 11-year NLL veteran forward spent the 2008 season as a member of the Bandits. Kruger, who will work as an eastern region scout, scored 242 points (125+117) in 115 NLL games before retiring in 2008. Kruger has won three Canadian junior men’s lacrosse Minto Cup Championships (1993, 1995 and 1996) with the Orangeville Northmen, and was also named MVP of the 1995 championship.
Toll will join the Bandits as an assistant coach and eastern scout. The St. Catharines, Ontario native and 14-year NLL transition player scored 400 points (154+246) in 196 NLL games and has served as an executive in the Canadian Lacrosse League. In his career, Toll won four NLL Championships and was awarded the first ever NLL Transition Player of the Year Award in 2007.
Pym enters his first season with the team and will serve as an assistant coach, western scout and video coordinator. Pym most recently spent the 2013 NLL season as a western scout for the Toronto Rock. Prior to that, he served as head coach in Calgary for three seasons, guiding the Roughnecks to a pair of regular-season Western Division titles.
Rob Buchan will be entering his first season as one of Buffalo’s western scouts. Buchan is currently an owner of the Western Lacrosse Association’s Langley Thunder.
