U23- Team Canada Open Roster

Nation,

Several weeks ago Ultimate Canada announced the mens and womens rosters that will represent Canada at the inaugural u23 world championship in Florence, Italy. The tournament will be held July 19-25 2010.

For various (and valid) reasons, The United States will not be fielding teams at this event, and Canada will only be sending teams in the men's and women's category. Regardless of the lack of US participation, this will be a unique opportunity for some very good players to represent our country at the national level.

Open Roster

The open team's head coach is the young but experienced Kevin Cheung, most notably from Team Fisher Price. Kevin's barely too old for the tournament himself, but he has national championships, a world clubs championship (Perth 2006) and a Worlds title (2008) on his resume already.

Cheung's roster is as follows

U23 OPEN TEAM (World JR year in brackets if applicable)

Cam Harris (2008)
Russell Street (2006)
Jeremy Norden
Will Ranson
Daniel Dantzig (2008)
Graham Landon
John Norris
Adrian Yearwood
Thomson McKnight
Richie Tam
Aaron Liu (2008)
Dave So
Scott Hislop (2006)
Andre Gailitis
Kevin Fong
Blair Underhill
Thomas Black (2008)
Gord Harrison
Kevin Horgan
Kielan Way (2006)
Mike Adams
Nathan Dandurand
Raynaldo Arteaga
Michael Jones
Ernie Lin (2006)
Andrew Watts
Bobo Eyrich
Mark Lloyd (2008)

Analysis

A very talented squad will represent our country in this division. Many of the players listed have assumed key roles with various college teams throughout the country and with club teams in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.

Clearly, past participation in world juniors was not a requirement for selection. This makes sense for several reasons

• Players start and stop playing during the 18-23 age period
• Some players peak and some plateau after junior age
• Sometimes junior selections are wrong (It's not easy!)
  

With so little time this summer for the team to practice and play together, you would think it would be a major challenge for team cohesion. However, looking at past world junior rosters, college experiences, and club play, we see that many of the players have experience with other members of this team.

For instance, the University of Western Sharks will be heavily represented by star handlers Mark Lloyd, Scott Hislop, Andrew Watts and the 6'6 Kevin Horgan.

National college champions Carleton Ravens will have speedy Rey ("Rey-Rey") Arteaga and the dominant Kielan Way (Phoenix newcomer Mike Adams is also on the roster). Toronto will have a slew of club players familiar with each other, notably Cam Harris, Adrian Yearwood, Daniel Dantzig, Thompson McKnight, and Michael Jones.

Bolstering the team will be emerging talents like Mephisto's Nathan Dandurand and Dalhousie star Bobo Eyrich.

Cheung has selected some players he is very familiar with as teammates. Hislop, Russell Street, Ernie Lin and Blair Underhill will be vital parts to a winning equation.

With United States out of the picture, Canada should be the pre tournament favorite to win the championship. (2nd in the 2006 and 2008 juniors). However, with many players new to the world stage, and the growing talent levels of teams outside of North America, Canada must be ready to deliver a strong performance in Florence.