Brandon Benn made an impact in the pros this summer with the Chesapeake Bayhawks. Now the Ontario native has a chance to make an impact with his home town team after being drafted by the Toronto Rock.
“Being drafted by the Rock was a dream come true.” he said. “I’ve grown up in Orangeville and my family had season tickets for the Rock games and going to all those games at such a young age made me dream of one to play for the Rock. I am extremely excited and thankful that I was drafted by them and to now have the opportunity of possibly making a childhood dream come true.”
In Major League Lacrosse this season, the Hopkins grad had seven points, six of them goals, in his five games of his rookie year. With the Blue Jays he led the team with 34 goals in 2013.
Benn was drafted with the last pick of the fifth round by the Bayhawks before the past season. His playing field lacrosse more than junior box was concerning for NLL GMs, which was why didn’t go until the 33rd pick.
“This was the first year of my life where I have played more field games than box games.” says Benn. “I think playing in the MLL actually benefited me quite a bit. It’s a much faster game than the college game and it gave me experience playing against some of the best players in the world. It does definitely take a little bit of time to adjust back to the box game. In a way it’s kind of like riding a bike, I have played box my whole life so it definitely makes the transition a lot easier. I did play some games with Brampton this summer so that definitely helped due to the fact that a large part of the league are guys who play in the NLL. So I also was able to get some experience playing against those guys. All in all I definitely do see there being an adjustment, but hopefully I can make the transition pretty quickly.”
Toronto’s roster has taken a blow this past week with Colin Doyle to miss the season and Garrett Billings is already out until late February. Benn, and other role players and rookies, should see a bigger role with the Rock this season.
“I am not exactly sure what I expect my role to be. To be honest I haven’t made the team yet so I really don’t even have a role at this point. I’m just looking to come into training camp in the best shape possible so that I can prove to the coaching staff that I can play at this level. If I am fortunate enough to make the roster I will be more than willing to fill whatever role they see fit for me.”
