Welcome to the first of five in the NALL Team Previews feature. We start off with the furthest west team, the Kentucky Stickhorses. Kentucky got some interesting players in the rookie draft as well as the past weekend's National Draft. We will start with the Rookie Draft.
The first ever Stickhorse draftee was Brian Caufield out of Albany. I would talk about Brian, but I'm pretty sure that I've already talked enough about him in the Voices of Lacrosse feature on him as well at the NALL Profile I did on him. So if you want to learn more about Brian, you're covered. They also drafted Taylor Embery (Colorado School of Mines), Max Schmidt and Brain Farrell (Both from Maryland), Jovan Miller (Syracuse, but has already signed with Colorado), and Porter McKay (Denison). Schmidt has a very impressive list of honors, including 2011 USILA honorable mention All-American and 2010 Pre-Season honorable mention All-American. Brian Farrell was a 2011 USILA Second Team All-American as well as a Tewarraton Award nominee. Both should be important factors for the Stickhorses.
From there we move to the National Draft that took place this weekend. There are a few names that you should keep an eye out for with Kentucky. With their first pick in the draft, they got their starting goaltender. Pat Crosby (Pictured above, middle) is one of the strong young American goaltenders out there. He's tried out for the US Indoor team before and looks to improve his game in the NALL.
With their second pick, the Stickhorses drafted a player with some MLL experience with the pick of Long Island Lizards long-stick middie Ricky Pages. Just the other day I did an NALL Profile on him, so if you're interested in learning more about Ricky just click the link. He's a guy with a ton of potential in the indoor style of the game.
In the third round Kentucky picked up another guy with some MLL experience, even if its very minimal to this point. Joel Zalesky out of Seton Hill (Not to be confused with Seton Hall) went 15th overall to Kentucky. Zalesky has been in the MLL for three seasons, all with the Hamilton Nationals franchise. However, he has only played in one game. In his one game he has 1 assist and 4 shots. Zalesky had a very successful college career playing for D-II Seton Hill. He set a school record his senior year with 44 goals and 31 assists, a school leading 75 points. He was also named as a D-2 All-American and the Eastern Coast Conference player of the year.
In the 4th round Kentucky picked up a former member of the Boston Blazers practice squad, Ajemian (Pictured above, Right). Ajemian played no games in the NLL, but was on the Blazers roster for two seasons. He was also a member of the Boston Cannons of the MLL for one season, but only played in one game. At Fairfield in college Ajemian served as a captain his senior year and was named to the All-NEILA team as well as being chosen for the annual North/South NCAA All-Star game.
The rest of the draft went like this for Kentucky: (5) Emmitt Printup, Onondaga, (6) David Mitchell, Cornell, (7) Dave McCarty, Albany, (8) Ed Prevost, North Carolina, (9) Mike Unterstein, Hofstra, (10) Ryan Maciaszek, Nazareth, (11) Chase Williams, Bellarmine, (12) Corey Malampy, Widener U, (13) Joel Derechinski, Gordon College, (14) Julian Maliszewski, (15) Peter Mezzanotte, (Towson), and finally (16) Brandon Dube, Ednicott College.
Who do you think is the best player on Kentucky's roster? Anyone you're excited to see get a shot? Comment below! The next team featured will be the Charlotte Copperheads, next Saturday. Keep checking back on the site for the latest NALL news.
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