The New York Saints

By Ted Montour

The Saints were a founding franchise of the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League, and won the very first League game 11 - 8 over the Philadelphia Wings, before some 6,000 fans in the Meadowlands Arena. They won the championship of the second, and last, Eagle Pro season over the Washington Wave, and then moved to Long Island to help found the MILL. They would play in, and win, the first sold-out game in MILL history, in 1990 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

    
    
    Charlie Russo
While anchoring the MILL / NLL in the field lacrosse hotbed of Long Island, owners Mike Gongas and Charlie Russo and the Saints have not won another pro championship. Last season, they finished sixth, with a 6-win, 8-loss record (3-and-4 both at home and away). They ranked sixth, as well, in attendance, with an average of just over 7,000 faithful a game.





In 2001, Roy Colsey got his first-ever All-Pro selection, to the First Team, and tied with John Tavares for the NLL regular-season lead with 51 goals, and led the League in shots and shots on goal. He was also 3rd in penalty minutes with 52, behind Toronto defenders Pat Coyle and Dan Ladouceur. NLL Second Team All-Pro goaltender Gord "Gee" Nash led the NLL in minutes and saves, and was a respectable fifth with a 12.48 goals-against average.





It was a toss-up for the biggest off-season news for the Saints. In June, the NLL announced that Gongas and Russo were the new owners of the Columbus Landsharks, saving the expansion franchise, not to mention the League, from what would otherwise have been an embarrassing set-back.


      


The other item was the Gavin Prout soap opera, which saw the eventual number-one entry draft pick from Loyola and the OLA Senior Major Series Brooklin Redmen, trying to dissuade the Saints from selecting him, expressing an interest the Washington Power and the New Jersey Storm. Prout was openly courted by Storm celebrity owner Jayson Williams and that gave rise to rumors that Williams had, or would, sign Prout to a non-playing personal services contract, to enable him to sit out long enough to become a free agent and play in New Jersey.



Sal LoCascio

Despite the swirl of speculation, the Saints took Prout first overall and, wthout much further ado, signed him. The entry draft also yielded Forward Ramar Clash (a great lacrosse name and P.A. announcer's dream) from Hofstra. While the Saints were not that hard hit in the earlier expansion draft, they did lose Forward Gewas Schindler of the Onondaga Nation, to the Landsharks (yeah, but it was approved by the NLL and the other owners).



Gavin Prout

The Saints suffered more losses from expansion itself, giving up western Canadians Brad Dairon, Scott Frizzel and Ben Prepchuk, but they also acquired Kris Bryde (from Ottawa via Columbus), who led all NLL rookie goal scorers last winter, and Ontarians Kevin Lunnie, John Rosa, Darren Mutch, Rusty Kruger and Josh Black (a '99 entry draft pick of the Bandits).


Gee Nash will start every game for the Saints, barring injury or other mishap. The defence will be led by returning veterans Brian Spallina, Tom Naglieri and Joe Ghedina (142 face-offs won last season, third in the League). Rosa and Mutch will both make their presence felt as well.


Colsey and Mark Frye, the Saints' top two scorers last year, will key the offence, and Prout will have an immediate impact, but Colsey will have to share the ball with both Prout and Bryde if the Saints are to make it out of the Eastern Division along with the Wings and Power. Jonas Derks led the OLA Sr. B League with 37 goals and 35 assists for the Brooklin Merchants, and Kruger and Black (who saw limited action with the Ottawa Rebel late last season) can be expected to contribute as well.





On the inter-divisional side of the Saints' schedule, they will face Albany and Vancouver twice each, as well as Calgary, Buffalo, Columbus, Rochester, Toronto and Ottawa. This makes for seven games against fellow contenders, and six all told against first-year teams (I include the Landsharks in this latter category). And yes, I think the Eastern can produce three play-off clubs, although it may well be a scramble for the Division-winning first-round bye.



Messieurs Gongas and Russo deserve some kind of owners' All-Pro recognition, for anchoring the MILL / NLL through some lean times of their own home arena, for building a contending box lacrosse team in field lacrosse-mad Long Island, and for bailing out the Landsharks. In the first season of Divisional play in the NLL, look for the Saints to return to post-season play.



The Saints Shockwave Site!



GAMES PLAYED

New York 14, New Jersey 9
Buffalo 16, New York 13
New York 20, Calgary 14


12/18/00

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