Saskatchewan Rush
 | |
| League | National Lacrosse League |
|---|---|
| Division | Western |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Arena | SaskTel Centre |
| Based in | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan |
| Colors | Green, black, silver |
| General manager | Derek Keenan |
| Head coach | Derek Keenan |
| Local media | CKBL-FM, B/R Live |
| Championships | (2) 2016, 2018 |
| Division titles | (3) 2016, 2017, 2018 |
| Formerly | Edmonton Rush |
| Website | www |
The Saskatchewan Rush are a professional box lacrosse team based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. They are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games at SaskTel Centre. The Rush won the Champion's Cup twice; in their first season in Saskatchewan in 2016, and in their third season in 2018.
Contents
History[edit]
The Edmonton Rush made their debut as an expansion team in the 2006 NLL season and twice reached the NLL final. After losing in 2012, they won the Champion's Cup in 2015.[1] However, the team struggled to draw fans, faced competition from the Edmonton Oil Kings junior hockey team for fans, and were denied the ability to promote the Rush branding within Rexall Place by the Edmonton Oilers.[1] Lacking any agreement with the City of Edmonton to play at its replacement, Rogers Place, owner Bruce Urban opted to relocate for the 2016 NLL season.[2]
In 2017, the team reached a five-year sponsorship deal with Saskatoon Co-op, under which the team's venue is referred to as Co-op Field at SaskTel Centre during Rush games.[3]
Current roster[edit]
Saskatchewan Rush roster
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active (20-man) roster | Inactive roster | Coaches | |||||||
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Roster updated 2019-01-18 | ||||||
All-time record[edit]
| Season | Division | W–L | Finish | Home | Road | GF | GA | Coach | Playoffs | Avg Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Western | 13–5 | 1st | 7–2 | 6–3 | 233 | 190 | Derek Keenan | Champions | 11,736 |
| 2017 | Western | 12–6 | 1st | 8–1 | 4–5 | 231 | 212 | Derek Keenan | Lost final | 14,921 |
| 2018 | Western | 14–4 | 1st | 6–3 | 8–1 | 254 | 196 | Derek Keenan | Champions | 14,639 |
| 2019 | Western | 3–3 | 2–0 | 1–3 | 76 | 70 | Derek Keenan | 13,651 | ||
| Total | 4 seasons | 42–18 | 23–6 | 19–12 | 794 | 668 | 13,757 | |||
| Playoff Totals | 3 appearances | 9-3 | 6–1 | 3–2 | 161 | 135 | 2 championships | 13,677 |
Head coaching history[edit]
Note: This list does not include head coaches from the Edmonton Rush.
| # | Name | Term | Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GC | W | L | W% | GC | W | L | W% | |||
| 1 | Derek Keenan | 2016- | 54 | 39 | 15 | .722 | 12 | 9 | 3 | .750 |
Broadcasting[edit]
Regarding local broadcasts, the Rush reached a deal with CKBL-FM (radio) and SaskTel MaxTV (TV) to broadcast its 2016 Western Conference playoff games.[4] CKBL-FM also broadcast the 2016 National Lacrosse League Finals between the Rush and the Buffalo Bandits with John Fraser calling play-by-play and Casey Guerin as colour commentator. For 2017-2019, The Saskatchewan Rush came to a local radio agreement with Saskatoon Media Group that would see all home, away and playoff games broadcast on CJMK-FM (98COOL-FM) for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons with play by play by Tanner Fetch, and return to CKBL-FM (92.9 The Bull) for 2018-2019 with Dave Thomas as the radio voice of the Rush. Also for the 2018-2019 season, a bi-weekly 30 minute TV program on the Saskatchewan Rush will be broadcast on Saturday mornings by Global Saskatoon and Global Regina, produced and hosted by Daniella Ponticelli. [5][6][7][8][9][10] All Saskatchewan Rush games are telecast through Bleacher Report's B/R Live in both Canada and the United States. For the Rush home games in Saskatoon, Ryan Flaherty is the play-by-play announcer, Former Vancouver Stealth play-by-play announcer Jake Elliott is the colour commentator, and Tanner Fetch is in-between team benches as the floor reporter.[11]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Gregor, Jason (2015-07-21). "Urban explains why Rush are leaving Edmonton". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
- ^ "NLL's Rush leaving Edmonton for Saskatoon". TSN.ca. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
- ^ "Saskatchewan Rush ink five-year partnership with Co-op". Global News. 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
- ^ "In Brief: Saturday's Saskatchewan Rush game on TV; Bowling Silver". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
- ^ "SaskatoonHomepage.ca - Rush Reports". www.saskatoonhomepage.ca. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
- ^ "Tanner Fetch ,Professional Sports Broadcaster for the National Lacrosse League, The Saskatchewan Rush, CBS Sports and 98 COOL FM". Linkedlin.
- ^ nurun.com. "Waiting game for Casey Guerin". Peterborough Examiner. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
- ^ "Saskatchewan Rush Partner With Saskatoon Media Group". nll.com.
- ^ "Welcome to the Team, Daniella!". Saskatchewan Rush Lacrosse. 18 October 2018.
- ^ "Dave Thomas (@wwsportsdave) | Twitter". twitter.com.
- ^ "Sask Rush names play-by-play broadcasters". Clark's Crossing Gazette.
