Brandon Miller Curious About the Other Brandon Miller

Thu Sep 21 2017 | Neil Stevens | Fuel

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANADA LACROSSE

Brandon Miller will be a popular name Oct. 21 at Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario.



There is one player in particular on the U.S. roster for the Oct. 21 Heritage Cup men’s indoor game in Hamilton that Team Canada goalie Brandon Miller wants to meet and his name is Brandon Miller. Huh? The existence of another Brandon Miller who is a lacrosse goalie just like him came right out of the blue for Canada’s Brandon Miller. He was taken aback when informed. “That’s really strange,” he said. “I’ve never heard of or met the guy. You sure there’s not some kind of misprint there?” No misprint. The Brandon Miller on the U.S. roster is 23, from the Syracuse area, and has played at the Senior B level, most recently with the Rochester River Monsters of the Can-Am league. Given the facts, Canada’s Brandon Miller scratches his head “I thought you were pulling my leg,” he said.











Brandon Miller the Canadian goalie is 38, lives in Orangeville, Ontario, and has had a storied pro career that currently has him playing for the NLL’s Toronto Rock.

Canada is using the 2015 world gold roster for the core of its lineup for the Heritage Cup game and that means Miller, Aaron Bold and Matt Vinc are penciled in for Hamilton.

The U.S. roster lists Brandon Miller, Dave Mather and Joe Evans as goaltenders. Mather has a bronze medal to show for his 2015 participation in Syracuse.

Canada’s Miller wears 35. The U.S. Miller wore 39 with the River Monsters this summer. A switch to 35 for the Heritage Cup is a possibility.

Canada’s Miller wonders if he might not have heard of the U.S. Miller because of his age.

“It’s funny,” he said. “I had my eyes and ears on the NLL draft Monday night, but I’ve gotten so old I don’t recognize many of the kids’ names. I guess I’m getting out of touch at 38, because there’s a lot of names I don’t recognize anymore.”

The Oct. 21 game will be a reunion for the world gold medalists.

“It was nice two years ago to wear the Canadian sweater for the first time at the world championship,” Brandon Miller (of Orangeville) said. “It was nice to get my foot in the door. We’re sticking with the same roster as Syracuse, which is nice, because we had to split up quickly after the last game. It’ll be nice to get together as a team again and rekindle the atmosphere of those 10 days in Syracuse.”

Canada is undefeated, 23-0, since it last lost a men’s indoor game. That was 15 years ago, when a determined American squad fired in 20 goals.

Could that happen again? Anything is possible, especially with American field lacrosse star Paul Rabil suiting up for a major indoor game for the first time since the Philadelphia Wings dropped out of the NLL in 2014. A foot injury kept him out of the 2015 world tournament.

PHOTO BY LARRY PALUMBO

Paul Rabil, who played for the U.S. indoor team in 2011 and last suited up in the NLL in 2014, says he never lost his passion for box lacrosse.

“My decision to stop playing in the NLL wasn’t because of a lack of interest or passion for box lacrosse,” he said. “It was the increasing overlapping of the [NLL and MLL] schedules.”

“He’s excited about playing in this game,” U.S. coach Regy Thorpe said of Rabil. “He’s one of the first guys who reached out to me when I got this job as head coach.”

Also, field star Rob Pannell has decided to try the box game, and NLL Rookie of the Year Tom Schreiber, a Toronto teammate of the Canadian Brandon Miller, will be a key cog in the U.S. attack. Other NLL players on the U.S. roster include Brett Manney (New England), Kieran McArdle (Toronto), Connor Buczek (Toronto), Chris O’Dougherty (Vancouver), Joe Resetarits (Rochester) and Joel White (Georgia).

“Hopefully next year, when another Heritage Cup game is played, we’ll have more guys from the NLL,” Thorpe said.

The U.S. side will have a busy weekend in Ontario. Thorpe will run them through a practice at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville on Friday night, coach them in the Saturday game, and oversee another practice Sunday at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Hagersville.

This will be the first Heritage Cup game since 2013, when Canada edged the Iroquois Nationals in Montreal.

“Hopefully, the game will generate some interest for international indoor lacrosse,” says Brandon Miller, the Canadian goalie. “It’ll be a tool to help grow the indoor game and get it in the spotlight.

“With the American kids getting drafted Monday into the NLL, there might be more Tom Schreibers, and expansion is opening up more jobs. Growing the indoor game in the United States has to be a big part of indoor going forward and, hopefully, that’s what this game will help push.”

Here’s hoping somebody can get a photo of Brandon Miller and Brandon Miller, in full uniforms, shaking hands.

Brian Logue contributed to this article.