Going into this season The Black Wolves look to have a young but talented defense and transition unit. The Philadelphia Wings were known to draft promising college long poles and use their athleticism to help the team out on the floor. A few of those poles moved with the franchise to New England. Players such as Mike Manley has really improved in his indoor game coming out of Duke. Mike played some box in a outdoor rink while growing up in Penn Yan New York but did not have a strong background of playing in Canada. Manley is big, physical and has a great sense to get the ball. This past summer being his third MLL season with the Rochester Rattlers Mike had no problem bringing the ball up in transition and scoring with the rocket of a shot he has. He was a real threat from the 2 point line and beat all other MLL players in the fastest shot competition during the All Star game. This being his third NLL season I look for him to grow even more into a great player for this team to have.
Brett Manney is another strong defensive player who is very quick plays great position and can bring the ball up the floor with ease. He will be looked on to fill the void left by the retirement of Kyle Sweeny. Two more Americans to watch out for are Cuse Alums Joel White and Brian Megill. Joel played JR A ball for the Six Nation Arrows in 2009 and was a draft pick of the Rochester Knighthawks. In his one year with Rochester Joel won the NLL championship before being included into the Paul Rabil deal in 2012. The past two seasons with the Wings Joel has been a top contributor coming out the back door. For Megill he traded his Dpole in for a shorty and showed great promise as a rookie. He can only get better in year two with gaining more floor time and It was said he looked very in shape during camp.
In the offseason moves the Black Wolves front office made helped get this solid unit better. On draft night they brought in two great prospects who slipped down on draft boards. First they drafted Rod Squire out of Six Nations. Rod is coming off winning back to back championships for Onondaga Community and for the Six Nation Chiefs. While playing for the Chiefs he has got to learn from some great NLL defenders such as Sid Smith.
He also brings a winning attitude to this new team. Another strong prospect Sheldon Burns who has won a NCAA championship while starting at LSM for Dowling College. Also Burns was a big part of the 2011 Minto championship with the Whitbey Warriors. Sheldon has spent the past two summers playing in the MSL with the Brooklin Redman. The Black Wolves made a trade on draft night to bring in Mike McNamara from Colorado. Mike has been one of the best defenders on the Chiefs the past three summers winning Mann Cups.
Playing Junior B for his hometown Hamilton Bengals before moving to the Six Nation Arrows to grow as a player was a great move for Mike. In the NLL Mike came on strong in his last year with the Bandits in 2013. He is big strong and not afraid to drop the gloves he is what this team needed in their 2015 lineup.
A defender who has a shot but did not even play college lacrosse but chose football is Bill O’Brien. Bill was a three year starting defensive end and outside linebacker at Sacred Heart. Playing close defense in high school for Laffeyete high school in Syracuse Bill comes from a strong lacrosse background. He was high school teammates of the older Thompson brothers and it is also the same high school Black Wolves teammate Brett Bucktooth went to. Bill was a member of the winning presidents cup Onondaga Redhawks this past summer. He also made a few cuts for the Iroquois Nationals field team. Bill works for Thompson Brothers Lacrosse company so he s around lacrosse full time.
The Black Wolves defense shows great promise as well had a great goalie Even Kirk between the pipes. The team also has quality back ups in Kevin and Team USA hopeful Chris Collins. This team shows a lot of promise on the defensive side of the ball it will be exciting how things unfold by the time January 2nd comes around.
