The top two students from the inaugural graduating class of Delta secondary school's lacrosse academy are excited to be taking their games to the NCAA Division One level.
Cody Nass is already in his freshman season at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh while Jon Phillips recently accepted a scholarship offer from University of Massachusetts Lowell and is headed south next fall. The pair were reunited last week at Holly Park's turf field where they spent endless hours during their Grade 12 year as part of the DSS lacrosse academy.
Both were already proven prospects before their very first academy session but the extra time only developed their games further.
"The main part was just having a stick in your hands for three hours every other day," explained Nass who was back home for the Christmas break. "When you look at the best players in the game, they always have their sticks active. It also allowed us to help the younger players in the academy too."
"You never can go wrong getting extra time (to play lacrosse)," smiled Phillips. "It was pretty nice to be getting credits to play the game I love."
Phillips was already on the Lowell Mass' recruiting radar screen when he proceeded to lead B.C. in scoring at last summer's U19 Field Lacrosse National Championships. His standout play escalated talks to the point where he made an official visit to the school in November and signed a National Letter of Intent soon after.
"I loved everything about it," said Phillips. "The neat thing is I am going to a brand new program where I hopefully will be one of the key players and a leader. We're definitely going to be the underdogs the first season but I like that kind of a role. We're going to show some people we are capable of making some noise."
The holiday break allowed Nass to finally catch his breath from what has been a whirlwind few months.
Last July, his box season took a dramatic change when he was dealt by the Delta Islanders to the New West Salmonbellies. His new team went on to reach the Minto Cup
national junior "A" finals before falling to to the Whitby Warriors. The extended post-season run meant Nass missed his first week of classes at Robert Morris. He arrived just in time for the start of training camp.
The fall season featured mostly training and a couple of exhibition games.The Colonials now have about a month of preparation before beginning their schedule in mid-February.
"I love everything about it," said Nass, of the experience so far. "It's lacrosse, lacrosse all the time and they set you up to succeed in school too.
"They really stress the importance of strength and conditioning. You are lifting five times a week and there are 5 a.m. runs and workouts too."
The Colonials have typically loaded up on Canadian talent and the current team is no exception with 14 players coming from north of the border.
"It's going to be a real young team but we still should do well in our conference," continued Nass. "The years to come are going to be even better though."
Nass will return from Pittsburgh sometime in early June and immediately begin his box season with the Islanders where he will be reunited with Phillips and new head coach Greg Rennie.
The trade with New West included his playing rights being reverted back to Delta, along with Eli McLaughlin.
"I really feel like me and Eli can bring a lot to the Islanders," added Nass. "It was just a real good experience to play in the Minto Cup. I definitely learned a lot from it.
"The one thing about playing in Delta over other teams in the league is we are all such good buddies. That's what made the trade so hard. But in the long run, I think it's going to pay off."
