Brodie Merrill

Brodie Merrill
— Lacrosse player —
Born	November 5, 1981 Orangeville, ON, CAN
Position	Defense
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	205 pounds (93 kg)
MSL team	Brampton Excelsiors
NLL team F. Teams	Toronto Rock Philadelphia Wings Edmonton Rush Portland LumberJax
MLL Team F. Teams	Boston Cannons Hamilton Nationals Rochester Rattlers Baltimore Bayhawks
Nationality	Canada
NLL Draft	1st overall, 2005 Portland LumberJax
Pro career	2006–present
Shoots	Left

Brodie Merrill (born November 5, 1981 in Orangeville, Ontario) is a Canadian professional lacrosse player. He currently plays in the National Lacrosse League for the Toronto Rock and Major League Lacrosse for the Boston Cannons.

High school career

Merrill attended the Salisbury School in Connecticut. While attending Salisbury, he was a standout lacrosse player, and was named the New England Defensive Player of the Year, was selected to the All-New England team, and was selected as a First Team High School All-American.

College career

Merrill attended Georgetown University from 2002 to 2005. During his final two years, he was a First-team All-American, and won the Schmeisser Award in his senior year for defensive player of the year.

NLL career

Merrill (left) in 2009

Merrill was the first player taken overall in the 2005 National Lacrosse League Draft by the Portland LumberJax, and in 2006 was named both the NLL's Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. During the 2009 NLL season, he was named a starter to the All-Star Game.^[1]

When the LumberJax left Portland at the end of the 2009 season, the league held a dispersal draft. Merrill was selected with the first overall pick in the draft by the Edmonton Rush.

On August 9, 2011, he was traded to the Philadelphia Wings, along with Rush forwards Dean Hill, Mike McLellan, and Edmonton's 41st selection in the 2011 entry draft, and the 4th round selection in 2013. In return, Philadelphia sent Athan Iannucci with teammates Alex Turner and Brodie McDonald, along with Philadelphia's first round draft picks in 2012, 2013 and 2014.^[2]

MLL career

He was the MLL Rookie of the Year in 2005 as a member of the Baltimore Bayhawks. From 2006 to 2007, he played for the Rochester Rattlers. For four consecutive years he was awarded the Major League Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Year Awards.^[3] He then helped the Toronto Nationals win their first MLL championship in their inaugural season, and won the defensive player of the year award for a record fourth consecutive year. Merrill is the all-time ground ball leader in the MLL.^[4]

Canadian Box career

Junior

Merrill played his junior lacrosse with the Orangeville Northmen of the OLA Junior A Lacrosse League. In 2000, Merrill lead the Northmen to a league championship. In 2001, Merrill was awarded the "John McCauley Award" for Best Defensive Player, and shared the "B.W. Evans Award" for Top Graduating Player with Dan Bowman the following year.^[5]

Senior

Merrill began his senior career with the Coquitlam Adanacs of the Western Lacrosse Association, and later the Brampton Excelsiors of Major Series Lacrosse, winning two consecutive Mann Cup championships (2008–2009). Merrill is currently playing for the Kahnawake Mohawks in the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League.

International career

In 2006, he helped the Canadian national lacrosse team to an historic win at the World Lacrosse Championship in London, Ontario. He had an outstanding tournament, being named Best Defender and earning All-World honours.

Personal

Brodie's brother Patrick is a member of the Toronto Rock. Both Brodie and Patrick are members of the Brampton Excelsiors in the Major Series Lacrosse as well as the Hamilton Nationals of Major League Lacrosse. He was named by Inside Lacrosse as "The Best Player in the World."-Inside Lacrosse.^[6] He is also the Dean of Students and head men's lacrosse coach at The Hill Academy in Vaughan, Ontario. At a very young age, he was best friends with lacrosse player Kyle Miller. Both loved the game and chose to play together at the Salisbury School a prep school in Connecticut but went into different colleges. Kyle and Brodie were reunited as teammates on the Canadian roster for the 2006 World Lacrosse Championships. Kyle was diagnosed in 2011 as having Osteosarcoma. He died on June 8, 2013. Brodie is the main editor for the online lacrosse magazine, Brodie Merrill Lacrosse.^[7]

Statistics

NLL

Reference:^[8]

Brodie Merrill		Regular Season									Playoffs
Season	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM	Pts/GP	LB/GP	PIM/GP	GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM	Pts/GP	LB/GP	PIM/GP
2006	Portland LumberJax	16	17	32	49	214	33	3.06	13.38	2.06	1	0	4	4	15	0	4.00	15.00	0.00
2007	Portland LumberJax	15	4	19	23	196	49	1.53	13.07	3.27	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2008	Portland LumberJax	16	17	21	38	211	53	2.38	13.19	3.31	3	4	5	9	43	0	3.00	14.33	0.00
2009	Portland LumberJax	16	14	33	47	216	38	2.94	13.50	2.38	1	2	5	7	14	2	7.00	14.00	2.00
2010	Edmonton Rush	16	17	36	53	190	31	3.31	11.88	1.94	2	1	1	2	24	2	1.00	12.00	1.00
2011	Edmonton Rush	16	9	38	47	187	34	2.94	11.69	2.13	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2012	Philadelphia Wings	16	17	15	32	157	29	2.00	9.81	1.81	1	3	0	3	7	2	3.00	7.00	2.00
2013	Philadelphia Wings	14	10	16	26	123	16	1.86	8.79	1.14	1	0	2	2	4	0	2.00	4.00	0.00
2014	Philadelphia Wings	18	8	26	34	189	29	1.89	10.50	1.61	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2015	Toronto Rock	18	8	24	32	151	21	1.78	8.39	1.17	5	0	3	3	29	2	0.60	5.80	0.40
2016	Toronto Rock	17	4	12	16	170	50	0.94	10.00	2.94	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
		178	125	272	397	2,004	383	2.23	11.26	2.15	14	10	20	30	136	8	2.14	9.71	0.57
Career Total:		192	135	292	427	2,140	391	2.22	11.15	2.04

GP–Games played;G–Goals;A–Assists;Pts–Points;LB–Loose balls;PIM–Penalty minutes;Pts/GP–Points per games played;LB/GP–Loose balls per games played;PIM/GP–Penalty minutes per games played;

Major League Lacrosse

			Regular Season								Playoffs
Season	Team		GP	G	2ptG	A	Pts	LB	PIM		GP	G	2ptG	A	Pts	LB	PIM
2005	Baltimore		11	3	0	1	4	52	1		2	1	0	0	1	0	0
2006	Rochester		11	6	1	5	12	95	9		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2007	Rochester		12	5	0	9	14	101	4		1	0	0	2	2	9	0
2008	Rochester		10	6	0	12	18	75	4.5		2	1	0	1	2	10	0
2009	Toronto		12	8	0	12	20	69	5.5		2	1	0	1	2	14	0.5
MLL Totals			56	28	1	39	68	392	24		7	3	0	4	7	33	0.5

Canadian Lacrosse Association

				Regular Season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1997	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		1	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0
1998	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		20	8	9	17	44		9	1	2	3	8
1999	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		15	13	20	33	20		10	6	25	31	10
2000	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		14	21	24	45	32		14	13	30	43	19
Minto Cup	Orangeville Northmen	CLA		--	--	--	--	--		6	3	11	14	4
2001	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		14	20	33	53	49		5	7	7	14	15
2002	Orangeville Northmen	OLA Jr.A		14	16	15	31	30		11	8	14	22	31
2003	Coquitlam Adanacs	WLA		14	6	12	18	41		10	5	7	12	25
2004	Brampton Excelsiors	MSL		6	2	7	9	21		14	8	9	17	56
2006	Brampton Excelsiors	MSL		7	7	12	19	6		11	7	14	21	27
2007	Brampton Excelsiors	MSL		4	4	1	5	4		9	12	17	29	12
2008	Brampton Excelsiors	MSL		4	0	9	9	10		9	4	10	14	21
Mann Cup	Brampton Excelsiors	CLA		--	--	--	--	--		4	2	3	5	13
2009	Brampton Excelsiors	MSL		7	7	6	13	12		9	3	5	8	31
Mann Cup	Brampton Excelsiors	CLA		--	--	--	--	--		7	2	2	4	14
Junior A Totals				78	78	86	164	175		49	35	78	113	83
Minto Cup Totals				--	--	--	--	--		6	3	11	14	4
Senior A Totals				42	26	47	73	94		62	39	62	101	172
Mann Cup Totals				--	--	--	--	--		11	4	5	9	27

Awards

References

1. "All-Star reserves announced". NLL.com. February 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
2. "Wings Acquire Brodie Merrill in Six-Player Deal". Laxpower.com. August 9, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
3. "Brodie Merrill earns fourth straight Warrior Defensive Player of the Year award". www.insidelacrosse.com. August 18, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
4. http://nationalslacrosse.com/player/176/hamilton-nationals-brodie-merrill
5. "O.L.A. Junior A Trophy Winners". wampsbibleoflacrosse.com.
6. "Interview with Brodie Merrill: Hill Lacrosse Director named "Best Player in the World"". www.thehillacademy.com.
7. http://www.brodie-merrill-lacrosse.com/
8. "National Lacrosse League Pointstreak Stats". NLL.com. Retrieved April 24, 2016.