On this past Sunday we
scrimmaged vs. St. Michael's College at Middlebury's Kohn Field. The temperature on the thermometer read in
the 40's, but it felt much colder with the infamous wind blowing across the
fields onto Kohn. No complaints, though,
anytime we can scrimmage at home in February we should be, and are, thankful!
Typically, we would
scrimmage
We felt as if we were fairly
far along in our progression as we have had a solid number of outdoor
practices. So, we were able to get some
good practice on a number of rides as well as a little more offense than we
might typically have in for the first scrimmage. The most impressive part of the scrimmage was
our depth of talent. There did not seem
to be much of a drop off at all when we subbed liberally at halftime. Although we were not able to face the high
level of talent we would have otherwise faced vs.
The freshmen look
outstanding. I am pleased to say that
two Panther siblings are right at the top of the class. Ben Raymond a freshman defenseman is the
brother of Jed Raymond, '00. Jed
seemingly has passed on his back of checks to his younger brother. Greg Bastis is a
Senior All American, Captain Midfielder.
His brother Nick is a freshman attackman. The word, "wow", was about the only
word that came to mind several times during the St. Mike's scrimmage (a few
other unprintable ones as well, "holy _ _ _ _" and "did you just
see what _ _ _ _ _ _' Bastis just did!) Just like all freshmen they have some things
to work on, but along with several of their classmates, they could make an
immediate contribution.
Seniors John West and Ben Tobey and Sophomores Jon Sisto
and Aaron Herter all missed the scrimmage due to
injuries. As a testament to our depth
you would not have noticed that 4 of our top players were missing. West practiced yesterday and looked great,
the others should return within 1-3 weeks.
We scrimmage Skidmore this
weekend, so that will be a better test for us.
St. Michael's was a success given the early date, we are ready to bump
up the competition and challenge this weekend, and then we open the following
weekend (Saturday, March 13) at home vs. Colby.