After a football season in which Buffalo's professional home team fell
apart down the stretch, 1 local pro team is starting to defend a
championship title that they won last year. The Buffalo Bandits
National Lacrosse League team opened up the 2009 season in memorable
fashion in front of a sold out crowd in Buffalo's HSBC Arena. Prior to
the game itself, an onfield ceremony was held, dedicating the season
to Buffalo News writer Tom Borelli, well-known as the best writer in
lacrosse, who passed away this past November. The Bandits will be
wearing a sticker on the back of their helmets all year with his
initials and a lacrosse stick and pen crossed beneath them.
After the ceremony, the Championship Banner was raised commemorating
the 2008 Championship Season before the Bandits faced off against the
Philadelphia Wings. After a lethargic 1st quarter, the Bandits poured
on the scoring with 4 goals from game MVP Mark Steenhuis and 3 from
legendary John Tavares and even received a goal from new addition Tom
Montour, a former Bandit acquired in a trade for a 2010 1st round
draft pick. Given his contributions off the scoresheet, it looks like
the trade is going to pay off for the Bandits.
The Bandits weren't alone in celebrating a championship season as the
league's premier dance team, the Buffalo Bandettes, met and posed for
pictures with fans entering the game before taking the field
themselves for crisp dance performances all night long. What should
be noted about this is the changes in the Bandettes roster. In past
years, turnover has been minimal on the squad and it's usually just a
matter of incorporating 3-5 girls maximum into the squad. This year,
however, only 8 of last year's 15-girl squad returns along with 2 vets
from past years and 5 brand new rookie Bandettes! By their
performance, unless you actually knew ahead of time which were
veterans and which were rookies, telling them apart was pretty much
impossible as newcomers Erin M, Alexis, Lauren, Kirsten, and Maggie
melded in beautifully with Danielle, Denise and the holdovers from
last year's squad.
http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b87/bandettes/2009/Wings%20Game/