Athletics double Mountaineers
Tom Whitty is head coach Steve Toll’s kind of player.
The veteran is a low maintenance, hard-working defender for the St. Catharines Athletics, exactly type of athlete Toll loves to coach.
“His lacrosse IQ is very smart and he just works hard too,” Toll said. “He’s a very coachable kid and he wants to learn and get better and he has all the fundamentals. He runs the floor well, he does lot of things well.
“He kind of reminds me of Randy Mearns, a defender who has great leadership skills as well. He doesn’t say a whole bunch but he leads by example how he plays.”
Whitty, a 20-year-old graduate of Eden High School, feels it’s vital to have a good working relationship with the coaching staff.
“Communication, listening to the coaches, they have been around a lot longer than you have so whenever they say something, you eat it up,” he said.
Toll is well aware how important Whitty is to the A’s, even if he rarely scores.
“You need a mixture of guys. When he gets a chance — he has one (goal) already this year — which is good, but we want him to play good defence, lead by example, and he’s doing all that for sure.”
Whitty joined the A’s after starring as a forward in minor lacrosse.
“As soon as I came to junior I looked at the offensive guys that were around and thought it would be tough to make it at that spot so I went to the D end,” he said.
The adjustment was seamless.
“I played basketball and rugby and other sports and had the defensive mindset and defence in hockey so I could play defence a little bit and develop into a defender in junior,” he said.
He quickly learned how important his defensive teammates were to be successful.
“You need a lot of trust with the guys around you and if you don’t have it, you have to built it,” he said. “Defence wins championships. We try and be the best in the league every night. We trust our O to do their thing and we do our thing.”
Whitty played over the winter with the Paris RiverWolves of the Arena Lacrosse League.
“The experience I got this winter definitely helped with my confidence and being in my fourth year I’m stepping up a little more,” he said.
The Arena Lacrosse League is a developmental league which is officially associated with the National Lacrosse League.
“It’s kind of like an AHL (American Hockey League) kind of thing,” Whitty explained. “There are a lot of practice roster players and younger guys trying to make it.
“It helped a lot. I was going up against guys who were 26 years old, that’s just normal there.”
Away from the rink, Whitty is majoring in Food and Agricultural Business at the University of Guelph. He hopes to work for the family business, Whitty Farms, when he graduates.
The Athletics, defeated the Mimico Mountaineers 10-5 Wednesday at Jack Gatecliff Arena to improve their Ontario Lacrosse Association junior A record to 6-3.
Carter Zavitz, Bradley Fannell and Jake McNabb had two goals each while singles went to Kealan Pilon, Latrell Harris, Mason Kamminga and Braydan Mayea.
Nick Damude made 41 saves in goal for the win.
The A’s have yet to play a game with their full roster.
“It’s frustrating. You just want everyone back so we can see what we have and get going on all the things you want to teach. We haven’t even had the same lineup for two games in a row,” Toll said.
“I think good because everyone is getting a chance to play and see what they have. Overall, you want to have everyone here but it’s good to see other players playing.”
The A’s visit Oakville Thursday and home to Whitby Saturday at 7 p.m.
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