Photo Credit Charlotte Rush

Head Coach Troy Schwab took the time to talk about some standouts for the Rush this weekend as they look to keep moving forward this season. Hampton Roads posed some challenges for this team and Schwab also highlighted some growth of some players and what their next opponent, the Generals of Richmond bring them.

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At the Elite level we are a very young team this season and I would expect to see great strides in players development this season. I believe we have seen great Development and Growth from the whole team over the 2 months they have been here. Wilder Outman, Gaige Silby, Cameron Deitsch, Adriano Bongiornio and the list could keep going with guys who have taken positive strides already this season. 

There are players on the Elite team that are pushing to get a look at the Premier level and that could happen at some point here soon. Ben Pearson is a player who has played the majority of the year at the Elite level and has recently started to get minutes at the Premier level. 

Gabriel Santamaria is adjusting to the smaller ice surface and the North American game. During practice you can see his high-end skill level and his ability to make plays and it is starting to translate to games. He took the opportunity to go play games at the Elite level this past weekend to further help his adjustment and development. Gabriel was also recently named to Team Spain U20 National Team and will take part in a World Championship tournament this December. 

Both teams have had immediate success this season and only recently have started to come into any type of adversity. Elite had 6 forwards who play significantly minutes out of the lineup on Sunday and the challenge was for other players to step up and took advantage of the opportunity in front of them. Daniel Stefan, Richie Cox, and Kelley Clark are a few guys who took advantage of the situation in front of them and helped the Elite team to 4 points this weekend. Premier had a tough back and forth start to the weekend and ended up losing the first game in overtime. We were very sloppy with our exits and weren’t able to play fast. That and not defending hard put us in a bad situation of going into Sunday off of two losses. The challenge was to start playing more for each other, sacrifice for each other, and play a more team game. Rhett Evjen has a huge blocked shot and we come down the other way and score to go up 1-0. That was the play that got us going on Sunday and led to us coming out of Hampton with 3 of 4 points. 

Excited to get back to the Pineville Ice House for a couple of games next weekend. The Richmond Generals are a team that always plays tough, hard, and for 60 minutes. Gonna need to bring our best at both levels if we want to get our expected 8 of 8 points.”

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