This morning began what for most of the team is the second week of training camp. This is going to be the first weekend with just the full team as last week featured several free agents trying for spots. Nearly all players were in attendance for the morning session, with less than a handful missing, but they should be set to go for the evening and Sunday practices. The Black Wolves haven’t made a numbered tryout roster publicly available, but several of the key new players and returners were somewhat easy to identify.
The bus from the Mohegan Sun pulled in just after 7am. This gave the players about 45 minutes to focus on their individual preparation and warmups before the formal team based part of practice began. All four goalies were on the field first, taking turns in net as players came out for shooting practice. Just before 8:00, Assistant Coach Tracey Kelusky started running organized shooting drills which allowed the goalies to move around in the cage more as they worked in shooting off of feeds. The team went through various warmups and shooting drills until the real fun started.
The activity that really got the team’s intensity up was the loose ball drill at midfield. It started as a one on one drill where Kelusky would roll the ball between the two players. The winner would pass to the corner for a give and go before trying to finish on goal. This gradually worked up to four on four and was one of the most physical drills all day.
The next twenty minutes went into some full field two on one transition work before getting to the classic one on one matchups. Between this and the following two man drills, Quinn Powless stood out among everyone. He was able to work his way inside of nearly any defender he matched up against and was even praised by coach Blane Harrison for his off ball work in the middle of the action when running in two on twos. As one might expect in a tryout situation, being a rookie called out by name as a good thing was a rarity on the day.
The final half hour was a live four on four scrimmage including. Most of the players pegged for transition were also taking full shifts on offensive sets to see how they work in those spots. The competition level was certainly high and almost led to two players dropping gloves, but heads cooled before things escalated. The last thing for the team was to run some timed cross field sprints with their respective scrimmage teams. Most of the team finished together, but the white team was led by Kevin Crowley and Marty Bowes, who were several strides ahead of the pack. The black team saw Brian Megill and Bill O’Brien finish almost a full field width ahead of the rest of the group.
Takeaways
The whole team was competitive throughout the session and each person had their turn making a play or two. The two most vocal leaders seemed to be Kevin Crowley on offense and Mike Manley on defense. Among the draft class, Powless had an excellent day. He absolutely has the ability to create on his own when needed, so it will be interesting to see how he works in with the rest of the offense as it is established. Mark Cockerton was another player that mostly excelled when finishing inside. He doesn’t have the size of Crowley or Powless, but if he is given room to operate, he will cause damage. On defense, Bill O’Brien was impossible to ignore. He was probably the most physical player all day, but at a few points the aggression did cost him.
Kelusky also seems like a natural as a coach. He was the main person orchestrating the activities of the day and knew when to correct things as they were needed. This allowed Harrison to mostly be evaluating players and see how they fit together.
When the team split by position, it became obvious that it will be very difficult the crack the lineup as a defender. Not that forward will be easy, but the numbers at the defense and transition spots are the deepest. The staff will have many difficult decisions to make on both fronts as they look forward to the rest of camp and the upcoming scrimmages.
That’s all we have for this morning’s session. The team still has a Saturday evening practice and another on Sunday before heading to Buffalo for a scrimmage on December 6th.
