Men’s hockey captain named
Badgers give Brody Silk the C on eve of season opener
It certainly wasn’t an overnight decision, but Marty Williamson feels Brody Silk is the right man for the job.
Silk has been named team captain of the Brock Badgers men’s hockey team which opens the regular season Friday night at home against the York Lions.
“Brody is going to be really important this season,” said Williamson, who enters his second season behind the Badgers bench.
“Carzy (Chris Carr, assistant coach last season) and Murray (Nystrom, former head coach) talked the year before and they talked about what a workhorse he was, and then I came and he had the shoulder injury and he rehabbed. He just wasn’t himself.
“But it was a big summer for him, and I’ve just been so impressed with him from training camp on. This is the Silky I knew from when he played in Sudbury, and I hated playing against him.”
Silk, a former captain of the
Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves, knows Williamson wants a leader on the ice and vocal in the dressing room.
“Definitely a bit of both,” Silk said. “Obviously as a captain you want to lead more on the ice, but off of it we have a young team so I expect them to look up to me and I expect to bring it every night for them.”
Two-sport athlete Connor Brown, a former captain of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, Jeff Corbett and Jake Ringuette will serve as alternates for the Badgers, who are coming off an appearance in the USport National Championships last season.
Williamson’s lineup features 16 new faces from the start of the 2017-18 campaign, including goaltenders Logan Thompson and
Mario Cavailaire. The pair will join returnee Alex Brooks-Potts between the pipes.
Corbett, Ringuette, who comes to Brock after three full seasons at Lakehead University, Skylar Pachecho, Dexter Weber and Welland native Connor Walters highlight an impressive Badgers blueline. Walters is coming off a Memorial Cup run with the Hamilton Bulldogs. At forward Silk will be joined by Brown, Adam Lloyd, Cosimo Fontana, Brandon O’Quinn, Nate Looysen and Ayden MacDonald as returnees.
Former Niagara IceDog and two-sport athlete Justin Brack will also make his Brock regular season debut after sitting out last season with a knee injury.
Brayden Stortz (Welland) and Jared Marino (Niagara Falls) join Walters as the three local connections on the Badgers roster.
“We’re not going to be a highscoring team, it’s just not our makeup,” said Williamson. “We need to work awfully hard, and our motto is, if we can get to three to four (goals) we believe we win — so that’s what we try and do. We don’t give up an awful lot.”
Silk is confident the Brock team can make it back to the national championships again.
“We are a fast team. With Marty behind the bench we have a chance to go and do what we did last year. It’s good for Brock hockey.”