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JUNIOR WAXER PLAYERS MOVE
UP HOCKEY LADDER He pointed out a major objective of the tier two Junior A team is to assist players in their quest to move up the hockey ladder. For those on this year's team that means placement in the Ontario Hockey League, going the scholarship route by way of a university in the United States or playing Canadian university hockey. Herrington cited three players who could find themselves in the OHL next season. Mid-term scouting projections from a Central Scouting report revealed defenceman Jimmy Ball, 15, and forwards Daniel Sisca, 15, and Joel Kitchen, 15, could be taken in the early rounds of this year's annual draft. As many as eight Waxers are committed or are weighing the option of attending university in the U.S. Brett Barrer, a 20-year-old left winger, is headed to the State University College of New York at Plattsburgh after accumulating 21 goals and 35 assists during the regular season with the Waxers. Planning to major in business, Barrer was relieved to get the offer he was looking for after some doubts he would reach his objective. "It was touch and go for a while. There were times when they would talk with you and then they wouldn't for a while. But towards the end of the year they called me and said 'Here it is. Here's what we'll give you.'" "I'm pretty excited. That's the whole reason why I played hockey was to try and get a scholarship. I'm glad that it finally came around," Barrer said. Tom Lawson, 20, sported a 3.38 goals against average in 32 games and will be stopping pucks and majoring in sports management at Bowling Green University in Ohio. "It feels pretty god," Lawson said. "Bowling Green was my number one choice of schools. The calibre of hockey there is good and it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to go there." David Colucci, 19, and Mike Clarke, could find themselves enrolled at Elmira College in New York. Splitting time with Mississauga and the Waxers, Colucci amassed 19 goals and 25 assists while playing centre and right wing. Clarke scored five goals and added 34 assists on defence. Rob Bumbaco, 20, is expected to attend Niagara University after scoring 21 goals and 27 assists as a right winger with Niagara, Huntsville and the Waxers. Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, or Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, might be the next stop for 19-year-old Chris Petracco after tallying 18 goals and 17 assists on the left wing for the Waxers. Ian Malcolm, the Waxers leading scorer with 47 goals and 42 assists, could find himself playing along side Barrer at Plattsburgh, or remain in Canada at the University of Toronto or Western University. Others expected to remain in Canada include forwards Bryan Lachapelle, 19, at Laurentian University and Locky Gelinas, 20, at Seneca College.
"One of the goals of this organization is to create a future for some of these guys. We have taken more of a developmental interest rather than the win at all cost," Herrington said of the Waxers program. While Herrington was happy to see six of his players moving on to bigger and better things, he conceded his work will be cut out as he hopes to find able replacements for next season's edition of the Waxers. "It makes it tough to start over. We're building half a hockey club over for next year," he said. Herrington has been going to various tournaments in search of potential recruits. Based on what he's seen so far, he is optimistic a couple of potential prospects will find their way to Markham this fall.
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