The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, January 15, 2015 | 30 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" `Big Fish' lands job with Bandits In his first season with Coquitlam, Diruscio compiled a 12-2 record, .868 save Beaver Sports Editor percentage and 4.37 goals-against average, helping the Adanacs reach their second Davide Diruscio is widely known around la- straight Minto Cup national final. His stock had never been higher, rising to the point crosse circles as `The Big Fish.' The simple nickname seems perfect. Di- that Inside Lacrosse magazine projected him ruscio, a goaltender, stands 6-foot-5 and to be a third-round pick in the 2012 Nationweighs 300 pounds. And he's one of the al Lacrosse League draft. Then, two days before the draft, disaster most avid fishermen you're likely to meet, developing a passion for angling during struck. "I was moving some furniture down the childhood days spent at his family's Belleville-area cottage and now running a part- stairs," recalls Diruscio, "and I missed a step." Diruscio broke his leg in the accident. time business making his own lures. "It's meditation for me. I like the adven- Not wanting any NLL teams to be caught off ture of going out on the boat, being on the guard, Diruscio contacted the scouts and genriver. It's kind of a good way for me to clear eral managers he'd been talking to in advance my head and not really think about anything of the draft and told them about his injury. Diruscio was not selected in the 2012 else," Diruscio says. But if one were to extend the fish analogy draft. The following year, after his goalsfurther, Diruscio might be called the Chi- against average with Coquitlam swelled to 7.41 and his save percentage dipped to .825, nook salmon of lacrosse. Both are the largest of their species, both he was passed up again by NLL squads. The travelled thousands of kilometres to develop dream of playing professional lacrosse apinto their prime, and both battled upstream peared to be dead. "I know myself that I didn't play as well as in hopes of reaching their ultimate goal. I could have (in 2013, coming back from the Almost all professional athletes encounter injury)," Diruscio said. "When I broke my leg, I was kind of and overcome some form of hardship along down. It was like before (in minor lacrosse, their way to making it to the big time. Few stories, however, are likely to com- not making the A team). When you hit some pare to the winding tale of how Diruscio road bumps, you've just got to keep going." So that's what Diruscio did. He joined became a member of the National Lacrosse the Niagara Lock League's BuffaMonsters last lo Bandits this winter, helping season. the club become Coming up the first non-Nathrough minor tive team in Calacrosse, the nadian Lacrosse Oakville naLeague history tive was never to win the Creable to make ators Cup and the A team of being named the his hometown Davide Diruscio Buffalo Bandits goaltender league's top goalHawks. His tender. first experiDiruscio finalence as the No. 1 goalie for a No. 1 team came in his midget ly began receiving interest again from several year, when Diruscio was MVP of the provincial NLL teams. In August, he signed a one-year championships while playing for the Bramp- contract with the Bandits. ton Excelsiors. Buffalo coach Troy Cordingley is also Diruscio then bounced around with three Ontario junior teams over the following an Oakville resident who has ties with the three years -- as a 17-year-old rookie in Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association. The fact that Diruscio ended up with the 2009, he nearly backstopped the Oakville Buzz to a stunning upset of the two-time Ca- Bandits, however, has nothing to do with fanadian champion Six Nations Rebels in the miliarity between the two. "It's funny. He's from Oakville, I'm from first round of the junior B playoffs -- before heading west to join the British Columbia Oakville, and I first really watched him play in Coquitlam," says Cordingley, who scoutjunior A league's Coquitlam Adanacs. by Jon Kuiperij When you hit some road bumps, you've just got to keep going. Oakville native Davide Diruscio, who was passed up twice in the National Lacrosse League draft after breaking his leg, is in his rookie season with the NLL's Buffalo Bandits. | photo by Bill Wippert -- Buffalo Bandits ed Diruscio in B.C. while coaching for the Toronto Rock. "I've been watching him ever since." Cordingley says Diruscio's size is an obvious asset when it comes to protecting a 4-foot-9 by 4-foot lacrosse net, but he's more impressed by the T.A. Blakelock high school grad's attitude and demeanour. "The thing I like is, from what I know, he's a typical goalie. He shrugs things off, he's cool, he's calm, he doesn't get flustered," Cordingley says. "That might be from the days of not being able to be the No. 1 guy, from breaking his leg days before the draft, things like that. He's impressed us ever since training camp started." The Bandits opened the season last weekend with games on back-to-back nights. Anthony Cosmo, the undisputed starter in Buffalo after appearing in 18 games and posting a career high in minutes played (1,063) last season, started both contests. Cordingley says it's unlikely that Diruscio will see a significant amount of playing time this year. "I'm a rookie. I've still got a lot to learn, a lot of experience to pick up. Playing with a guy like Cosmo, who is one of the best goalies of all time in my mind, I'm looking forward to learning from him, picking up little things from him," Diruscio says. When you've worked as hard as Davide Diruscio has, and gone through as much as he's gone through in pursuit of a dream, you're willing to wait a little while longer. "Knowing the goalie can be the difference in the game, it's just a passion," Diruscio says when asked what kept him motivated to stay in the sport. "You can't just stop something you love. It's like fishing. I would never stop, even if someone cut my hand off or something. When it's something you love, you get addicted to it."