The Brewster Connection
March 25, 2008

For the past four years, the Toronto Beaches Jr A Lacrosse Club and the American preparatory school Brewster Academy (in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire), have had a special relationship. Since that time, Brewster has seen five Beaches players graduate from Brewster and go on to attend and play lacrosse at Division 1 colleges in the U.S. “Our relationship started back in 2004 when Don Kohara brought a small group of Canadian players to Florida during spring break to play with some of the teams down there” said Brewster coach Bill Lee. Former assistant Brewster coach, and now head coach at U Mass Boston, Matt Rowley (who also helped coach the Beaches in 2006) thought it would be a good idea to give some information about Brewster to the players. And according to Bill Lee, “the rest is history”.

The first player to show interest was Tyler Collins, a Toronto Beaches Jr A defenceman and 2006 Brewster graduate who is now playing at Colgate University. Collins played two years of defence for Brewster and was named an All-American in 2006.

Next came Stephen Keogh. Keogh also played two years for Brewster, smashing all of Brewster’s scoring records and was named an All-American as a senior in 2007. Stephen is now playing for the highly ranked Syracuse University field lacrosse team.

The 2008 field lacrosse season at Brewster will be an extra special year as there will be three outstanding Toronto Beaches Jr A Lacrosse Club players in their senior year. Defenceman Robert Koger will be attending Georgetown University in the fall, midfielder Damon Edwards will be going to the University of Denver and attackman Carter Bender will be off to the University of Hartford. They are expected to have a huge impact on this years Brewster lacrosse team. “It’s not every year you have three future Division I athletes for the same Jr A box lacrosse team playing for the same high school team” said Lee and “we are going to enjoy it while we can”.

While there will not be a Beaches player at Brewster in 2009 at this point, this special relationship between the Beaches and Brewster will always be important to both organizations.

Any minor players potentially interested in attending Brewster can always get information from club General Manager Tom Koger. He and the Toronto Beaches Jr A Lacrosse Club coaches with their extensive contacts at both Prep schools and colleges have helped numerous athletes further their education and get opportunities to hone their athletic skills south of the border.

The Beaches/Brewster Academy players. (left to right ) Carter Bender, attending in '08, Tyler Collins '06 Grad and NNELL All American, Stephen Keoph '07 Grad and NNELL All American, Coach Lee, Robert Koger '07 NNELL First Team Defence and Damon Edwards '07 NNELL First Team Midfielder.