It’s been a double-duty spring for Ethan O’Connor.
Fresh off a promising rookie campaign with Division 1’s Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, the 19-year-old Miltonian is now keeping busy on the box lacrosse scene — with both the Jr. A Burlington Chiefs and Jr. B Halton Hills Bulldogs.
An agreement was reached several weeks back that allowed O’Connor to run with the two teams, and he admits that’s made for a fairly hectic schedule.
Not that he’s complaining.
“I’m pretty fit, so it hasn’t been too tough. Plus I’m playing a game I love,” said the six-foot, 175-pounder, the only Hobart and William Smith freshman to play every game this past season, doing so as short-stick midfielder after being originally recruited to carry the long pole. “I get to play lacrosse all the time now, which is great. And when both teams are winning it makes it a lot more fun.”
Matching his quantity of games these days is a high quality of play, especially with Halton Hills.
Not only has O’Connor been a regular on the score-sheet, he’s producing at key times this season — factoring heavily into a 15-2 run.
“He doesn’t score a ton of goals, he just scores important ones,” said Bulldogs president and general manager Mike Hancock.
While taking his offensive game to a whole new level in his fourth season of Jr. B — currently sitting with 11 goals and nine assists in 12 games — O’Connor certainly hasn’t let his trademark strong defence slide.
Far from it.
“He’s one of our best defenders and he’s a really mature young man who’s a tremendous leader,” stressed Hancock, whose club headed into this week with the second-fewest goals against in the entire league.
Added O’Connor, “Scoring is nice and all, but I pride myself most on playing well in our end. I can’t stand getting scored on. I hate it.”
With that in mind, he’s worked hard to keep up with the faster tempo of the Jr. A ranks, holding his own in nine games with Burlington as of last night.
O’Connor hasn’t found the back of the net yet — contributing three assists thus far with the 5-6 Chiefs, his latest helper coming in Monday’s 14-13 overtime heartbreaker to St. Catharines — but is encouraged by the initial strides he’s made in his first year of Jr. A.
“The game’s definitely quicker (at Jr. A) and I’ve still got room for improvement. I’ve just got to keep working hard and it’ll come.”
