Vancouver Warriors rookie Reid Bowering trying to scoop 16-year-old NLL record

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Reid Bowering’s knack for chasing down loose balls has the Vancouver Warriors’ defender in hot pursuit of an NLL rookie record.

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The Warriors (6-7) have five games left in their regular season, starting with a doubleheader this weekend when they visit the Calgary Roughnecks (5-7) on Friday and then host the Albany FireWolves (6-9) on Saturday (7 p.m, tsn.ca) at Rogers Arena.

Bowering, 23, is third overall and tops among first-year players in the 14-team circuit in loose balls (154). That puts him on pace to finish with 213.

The NLL single-season rookie record is 214, set by Brodie Merrill with the now-defunct Portland LumberJax in 2006.

A loose ball is exactly as it sounds. Neither team has possession, and it’s bouncing, rolling or rebounding on the turf. To appreciate what the ability to scoop one means in the sport, consider that Merrill, who’s still playing with the San Diego Seals, is a surefire NLL hall-of-famer, and his ability to track down a loose ball has always been a forte of his.

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Jim (Scoop) Veltman led the NLL in loose balls in 14 of the 16 seasons he played and he went into the hall-of-fame in 2009. The 226 loose balls he totaled in 2006 is the sixth-best total in league history.

“Reid is in his first year in the league and he’s already putting up numbers like we’ve seen from hall-of-fame guys,” Vancouver defender Brett Mydske said of Bowering, a Coquitlam native who was the second overall pick in the 2020 NLL Draft. “And I don’t think this is just one good year from him. I think he is going to be like this every single season.”

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Mydske believes Bowering excels in that facet because of his athleticism and he’s looking to push the transition game so much that “he wants to go where ever the ball is.” As well, Bowering played attack in field lacrosse at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, a testament to the fact that he’s “always had the hands of an offensive player,” as Mydske puts it.

“He’s not a purebred defender. He’s a hybrid,” added Mydske, who’s the Warriors’ captain.

Calgary Roughnecks defend Zach Currier (162) and Halifax Thunderbirds defend Jake Withers (155) are the only players ahead of Bowering in the loose-ball category. Halifax defender Ryan Terefenko (86) is the next closest rookie to him.

Bowering is 14th in rookie scoring, with 19 points, including nine goals. New York Riptide forward Jeff Teat, who has 68 points including 23 goals, and Panther City Lacrosse Club forward Patrick Dodds, who has 68 points including 21 goals, lead the way among freshman.

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It’s easy to guess that someone from that trio is going to win the league’s rookie-of-the-year honors. The NLL has had just two defenders in the past 15 years net that award, with Withers, who was with the Rochester Knighthawks in 2018, following Merrill’s debut year with the LumberJax.

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League awards are voted on by head coaches, general managers and the board of governors, and Vancouver making a further playoff push would undoubtedly help Bowering’s cause. They currently hold down the third and final automatic playoff spot out of the Western Conference, percentage points ahead of Panther City (6-8), the league’s expansion franchise from Fort Worth, Tex., as well as the Roughnecks.

The Riptide (4-8) are seventh in the East. Fourth place from the six-team West will grab the eighth and final playoff spot if it has a better record than fifth place from the eight-team East.

Bowering’s already tied for the fourth-best loose ball total in Warriors’ franchise history. Bob Snider, who wracked up 202 loose balls in 2012, holds the club record.

Bowering, like Veltman and Merrill before him, is a rarity in the lofty loose-ball totals in that he’s not a faceoff specialist. Draw men tend to dominate that category just by the sheer nature of the position. Six of the top seven loose-ball seasons ever have come from faceoff men, with Veltman’s best season the outlier. Veteran Riptide draw man Jay Thorimbert has the league’s all-time mark with the 246 he amassed in 2015 with the Buffalo Bandits.

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