NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS — The reigning Fraser Cup champions enter their seventh season in the North American 3 Hockey League on Saturday, October 17 against the Louisiana Drillers. The Texas Brahmas were on a path to a second championship after finishing at the top of the NA3HL last year, only to have the playoffs canceled due to the COVID-19 health pandemic. After recording a total of 261 wins during their six-year tenure in the league, the team has been putting in the work during the extended break to result in another successful season.
Head coach Ryan Andersen will spend his second season at the helm of the Brahmas and added new assistant coach CJ Sweigart to the leadership of the team.
“We couldn’t be more excited to get the 2020-2021 NA3HL season started,” said Anderson. “The Covid-19 pandemic obviously threw a wrench into what we hoped was a strong run at another Fraser Cup Championship. Our organization worked unbelievably hard during the extended break. We are very excited about the talent that has chosen to make Brahmaland their home. I am also very excited to work alongside my new assistant coach CJ Sweigart. CJ has come into our program and has added an extra dimension that was missing previously. He is extremely knowledgeable and I am very excited to learn from him and work alongside him. Training camp has been very competitive and I am pleased with where we are going into our first weekend of games. It is a very long season and we are ready for the grind and the journey ahead.”
The Brahmas return eleven skaters in Andrew Maccallum, Benjamin Mondou, Blake Rothstein, Danny Barry, Ian Erdman, Jack Cooper, Richard Indermill, Shane DiTullio, Tyler Blanchard, Leevi Selanne and Seth Wyatt-Manning.
Several new faces will also be in the lineup this season, including Cameron Colberg (Texas Tigers), Danny Finegan (Team Illinois), Dolan Gilbert (Ohio AAA Blue Jackets), Gabe Coppo (Calumet High School), Jacob Kalandyk (Leamington Flyers), Jaron Ketterman (Gilmour Academy Prep U18AAA),Jaxon Taylor (Canton Chiefs Varsity), Joe Dorion (New Hampshire Junior Monarchs), J.P. Mariaro (Jr. Coyotes U18 AAA), Logan Gorbitz (Rocky Mountain RoughRiders 18U AAA), Luke Busher (Anaheim Jr. Ducks 18AA), Mason Mara (Florida Alliance 18U AAA), Matt Wheeler (Texas Jr Brahmas 16UAA), Michael Dalaly (Chicago Young American U18), Michael Imala (Team Illinois), Padraig McEnery (New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs), Robby Rabroker (Notre Dame Argos), Tyler Larsen (L/A Nordiques), Alec Secord (Culver Academies Prep), Zach Crawley (Pens Elite U18) and Tyler Hildebrant (Chicago Mission).
The 2020-21 Texas Brahmas season kicks off this weekend with a three-game home stint against the Louisiana Drillers. The contests will be played at NYTEX Sports Centre on October 17 (8:30 p.m.), October 18 (4:15 p.m.) and October 19 (12:00 p.m.), as well as broadcast on HockeyTV.