NLL Insider

Ian Hawksbee (Photo: Matt J. Wiater)

A great piece of Mann Cup trivia ”happened” this past summer and ignited a brawl that won’t soon be forgotten.

Who hit (argue amongst yourselves on whether you thought it was high/legit or not) Colin Doyle in Game 1 of this year’s Mann Cup final, sparking the now infamous Brampton Excelsiors and New Westminster Salmonbellies line brawl?

Many will probably chime in with Bobby Snider, who was near the incident and later handed a three game suspension for it, but the correct answer is today’s #34 ranked ball player, the Edmonton Rush’s Ian Hawksbee.

Hawksbee may have grabbed headlines while the world (via web and contless TV spots of the brawl) was watching, but the previous eight month’s worth of work with both the Rush and Salmonbellies was what put Hawksbee this high in our rundown.

The Rush’s defender was, probably in a lot of people’s minds, the franchise’s MVP last year, handed an increased workload in ‘09, which resulted in Hawksbee’s most impressive season of his four-year pro career, spent with both the Rush and Stealth franchises.

“We talked to Ian at the beginning of the season and asked him to take on a little more responsibility and be the guy the Rush wanted him to be when he was brought here,” said former Rush GM and coach Bob Hamley in a report by the Edmonton Sun on Hawksbee’s all-star nod last year. “He’s fulfilled that and more. He’s a physical guy that doesn’t mind when it gets a little heavy and he’s one of the top looseball guys in the league. He carries a lot of responsibility with us and he’s accepted it all, played very well this year, and I think he’s very deserving of being at the all-star game.”

Hawksbee finished fourth in league loosie numbers, stakced behind only the likes of Brodie Merrill, Geoff Snider and Steve Toll.

The Rush D backbone followed up his impressive pro campaign with maybe an even bigger WLA season in New West, not only helping lead the Bellies to yet another Mann Cup showing, but also grabbing the league’s defender of the year nod.

Although Derek Keenan has moved around a lot of bodies since taking up shop in Edmonton, Hawksbee’s spot is one that was seemingly never in doubt, and with a Rush roster that looks like it will make noise this winter, hopefully the former St. Catharines Athletics’ name gets thrown around at the top of the deck a lot more.

A great, bang-on quote from Lauren Ward last year in regards to Hawksbee, “Game in, game out, win or lose, his work ethic never slips. If Edmonton was a team full of Hawksbees they might really have something.”

Fact: Although Hawksbee has been playing in the West in the NLL and suiting up for the Salmonbellies for the past five summers, the Rush defender is actually from the St. Catharines arena in Ontario, where he first started making a name for himself with the Athletics and before that, the Spartan Warriors. In his last year of Jr. B ball, Hawksbee’s Spartan Warriors swept the Green Gaels in the OLA final (and every team before that), only to lose to them in the Founders Cup in an epic battle that many still feel was one of the best ever Founders tournies in the sport’s history. Current everyday NLLers also on that pretty stacked team? Jon Sullivan (Minnesots Swarm) and Ian Llord (Buffalo Bandits) both played with Hawksbee in the Warrior’s back court. Both Sullivan and Hawksbee got the call-up to play for the A’s the next summer, Lord a year later. The best defender from that Founders Cup? Hands down Marvin Barr, who handcuffed both Daryl Veltman (Halton Hills Bulldogs) and Andrew Burkholder (Spartan Warriors) en route to that unreal tourney win. Also with the Gaels that year, the late Rick Passfield, who played just as clutch as anyone else that year down the stretch.

# (last year)
34 (NR) Ian Hawksbee, Edmonton Rush
35 (NR) Phil Sanderson, Toronto Rock
36 (11) Ryan Cousins, Minnesota Swarm
37 (NR) Tyler Codron, Toronto Rock
38 (33) Luke Wiles, Washington Stealth
39 (47) Steve Toll, Rochester Knighthawks
40 (19) Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock
41 (37) Sean Pollock, Minnesota Swarm
42 (NR) Mike Carnegie, Calgary Roughnecks
43 (NR) Scott Stewart, Edmonton Rush
44 (NR) Kaleb Toth, Calgary Roughnecks
45 (NR) Matt Disher, Edmonton Rush
46 (23) Ryan Ward, Edmonton Rush
47 (NR) Kyle Ross, Boston Blazers
48 (NR) Matt King, Calgary Roughnecks
49 (NR) Mac Allen, Rochester Knighthawks
50 (NR) Nick Inch, Minnesota Swarm

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