NLL Insider

John Tavares will be coaching against current Bandits teammate, Mike Accusi, in the OLA Jr. A loop next summer, along with Rochester's Steve Toll.

NLL Insider has learned that current NLLers and St. Regis Indians players, John Tavares and Steve Toll, are set to join the Akwesasne Indians (OLA Jr. A) coaching staff heading into the 2010 Jr. A season.

The Indians, who after trading high profile final-season juniors Pete Jacobs and Jerome Thompson at this past summer’s trade deadline, strung together an impressive late season run, landing the seventh seed in the OLA playoffs, but dropping the unexpected first round series against the Minto Cup runners-up, Brampton Excelsiors.

In 2010 the Indians bring back a strong group of some of the best young, upcoming talent in the province, led by both Miles and Lyle Thompson.

Prior to the start of this year’s playoffs, co-team owner Tom Smart told the Standard Freeholder that the team was in the middle of a rebuild, landing the Six Nations Arrows first round picks in both the 2010 and 2011 draft, along with an undisclosed sum of money.

“We’re in the middle of rebuilding (the team) right now and we want to give our older players a chance to win the Minto Cup,” Smart told the paper shortly after moving Jacobs and Thompson.

The addition of Tavares and Toll continues the recent trend of current pro players coaching at the junior ranks, with names like Mike Accursi (St. Catharines Athletics), Brian Beisel (Brampton Excelsiors), Regy Thorpe (Six Nations Arrows), Bruce Codd (Calgary Raiders), Jason Crosbie (Green Gaels), Rusty Kruger (Orangeville Northmen) and other NLLers holding down high profile coaching gigs throughout Canada’s junior A & B ranks.

Related links

• Victoria Jr. A Shamrocks still accepting applications for coaching role: Victoria Shamrocks
• Danny Green steps down from Shamrocks bench: NLL Insider
• Derek Kennan tabbed Whitby Warriors new head coach: News Durham Region

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