The Brooks Bandits are proud to announce that 18 year old defenceman Maddison Smiley has committed to play for the University of Massachusetts. Located in Amherst, Mass the “Minutemen” play in the Hockey East Conference under Head Coach John Micheletto.
Maddison is the second Bandit to decide on Umass, joining Patrick Lee who comitted earlier this season.Maddison is from Airdrie, AB and is an alumnus of the Cochrane Generals Junior B program. Last year in his rookie season with the Bandits he was able to play a key defensive role in the club’s first AJHL Championship. Now in his second season with the Bandits he has quickly risen to beome one of the most offensive threats from the blueline in the AJHL.
This season he has compiled 16 goals and 16 assists in only 31 games before being sidelined by injury. Maddison was also recognized by Hockey Canada with an invitation to the Team Canada West Camp for the World Junior A Challenge.
Head Coach/GM Ryan Papaioannou – “Maddison is a tremendous young man and has shown us great leadership qualities over the last two years. His ability to wear a letter for our team at a young age shows his maturity and dedication. His production this season has been quite impressive and we are really excited for his return to our line up; the last 8 weeks without him has been a challenge. Maddison is the type of person that will continue to work hard at his game to ready himself for the jump to the NCAA. UMass is getting a quality person that will become as important to their program as he is to ours.”
The Bandits organization would like to congratulate Maddison and his family on his athletic and academic future.
Maddison is the sixth Bandit comitted to play in the NCAA joining Patrick Lee (University of Massachusetts), Anthony Paskaruk (Clarkson), Corey Scammon (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Anthony Petruzzelli (University of Vermont) and Chris Muscoby (University of Vermont).