New season, new look for Edge
Coming off successful first year, city’s pro hoops team has endured a roster makeover; coach Plumb and reigning MVP English may not be with team on opening road trip
Following a hugely-successful first foray into professional basketball, the Edge from St. John’s are poised the kick off a new National Basketball League of Canada season this weekend on the road.
Change is the buzzword with the 2018-19 edition of the Edge, who return with only three players back from last season — Carl English, Dez Lee and Jarryn Skeete.
English served as the interim general manager of the Edge over the summer, and is largely responsible for piecing together this year’s roster.
That’s because the architect of the first Edge team, coach Jeff Dunlap, left after the season to take up an assistant coach’s job with Cal State-northridge in his native Los Angeles.
Doug Plumb, who served as an assistant under Dunlap, has taken over the Edge’s coaching reigns this season.
Speaking of Dunlap, there’s a chance he may miss the first two games of the season — Sunday in London, Ont. and Wednesday in Windsor, Ont. That’s because the league has suspended Plumb for a pair of game after violating the league’s tampering rules.
The Edge, however, are appealing and a decision could come as early as today.
If Plumb is indeed suspended, the Edge will be guided by Stu Julius, who is listed as an assistant coach/consultant.
Julius and Doug Partridge are assistants, with Julius working road games and Partridge, the former Memorial University women’s coach, working home games.
Steve Marcus, back from last year, is also an assistant coach, and will be travelling with the team.
And one more note on the two road games to kick off the season: English, the reigning league MVP, may sit out the first two games as he’s recovering from a recent medical procedure.
There’s also one more change — albeit slight — with the Edge: their uniforms.
The team will still have its blue, white and gold colours, but the Edge logo (the one with reversed ‘E’) will no longer appear on the front of the home and away uniforms.
Instead, the team’s home whites read, “St. John’s Edge” while the road blues read simply have “Edge”.
The biggest difference from last year to this season is both uniforms have the player number displayed both on the front and the back, which is a requirement of the NBL Canada.
Last season, the Edge had a 29-19 overall record, and reached the second round of the playoffs before being dispatched by eventual league champion London Lightning.
St. John’s averaged a little over 3,400 fans per game at Mile One, second only to the Lightning in average home attendance.
The Sudbury, Ont. Five make their debut in the league this season. However, there will be no Niagara River Lions club this year.