Minnesota Swarm

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Minnesota Swarm

Division	Eastern
Founded	2004
Home arena	Xcel Energy Center
Based in	Saint Paul, Minnesota
Colors	Yellow, Blue, White
Head coach	Duane Jacobs
General manager	Marty O'Neill
Local media	Fox Sports Net North, KXXR
Championships
Division Championships
Website	mnswarm.com

Minnesota Swarm are a box lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League. The team plays at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota

The team owners (Minnesota Sports & Entertainment) who also own the NHL's Minnesota Wild purchased the rights to the inactive Montreal Express team on August 10, 2004. The name Swarm was selected over Thrill, Rush and Bullheads.

1 History
2 Awards & honors
3 Roster
4 All time Record
5 Playoff Results
6 Publicity
7 References
8 See also

[edit] History

The Minnesota Swarm played their first exhibition game on December 10, 2004 against the Colorado Mammoth. The team drew over 14,000 fans — a record for an NLL preseason game, though most of the tickets were free. The Swarm's first regular season game was in Rochester against the Knighthawks on January 1, 2005, in which the Swarm won 12-11. Craig Conn scored the first goal in franchise history. Their first home regular season game was January 21, 2005 against the Buffalo Bandits. The coach of the team for the first season was Mike Simpson and the general manager was Marty O'Neill.

Forward Craig Conn and defenseman Ryan Cousins were named reserves for the East Division All-Star Team at the 2005 NLL All Star Game. Ryder Bateman ranked tied for second among NLL rookies in goals and third in scoring. The team finished the season with a 5-11 record. In August 2005, Adam Mueller was named as the head coach of the team.

The Swarm made the NLL playoffs after the 2006 season with an 8-8 record. In July of 2006 Adam Mueller resigned as coach and was replaced on August 1 by Duane Jacobs. In 2007 the Swarm improved to a 9-7 record, again making the playoffs. General Manager Marty O'Neill was named NLL GM of the Year.^[1]

In Week 7 of the 2008 NLL season, the Swarm established a league record by running up a 12-0 lead before the New York Titans broke their scoreless streak in the third quarter of the contest.^[2] For the third year in a row, the Swarm improved their record over the previous season, finishing with a 10-6 record. They lost to the New York Titans in the division semi-finals, but GM Marty O'Neill was once again named NLL GM of the Year,^[3] becoming the only multiple winner of this award.

[edit] Awards & honors

Year	Player	Award
2007	Marty O'Neill	GM of the Year^[1]
2007	Ryan Cousins	Defensive Player of the Year^[4]
2008	Marty O'Neill	GM of the Year^[3]
	Tom Garrity	Executive of the Year^[5]
	Ryan Cousins	Defensive Player of the Year^[6]
	Craig Point	Rookie of the Year^[7]

[edit] Roster

Philadelphia Wings visiting the Minnesota Swarm in the Xcel Energy Center

No.	Position	Player
27	Fwd	Achenbach, Colin
50	Def	Cousins, Ryan (C)
??	Fwd	Cromwell, Keith
43	Goalie	Croswell, Kevin
19	Fwd	Culp, Chad
28	Def	Halls, Darren
47	Def	Hill, Travis
73	Fwd	Hill, Dean
34	Def	Inch, Nick
??	Fwd	Marohl, Dan
8	Fwd	McDade, Rory

No.	Position	Player
39	Def	Miyashita, Mark
24	Fwd	Norbraten, Justin
12	Def	Pacey, Eric
93	Goalie	Patterson, Nick
17	Fwd	Pollock, Sean
9	Fwd	Point, Craig
20	Def	Ross, Kyle
21	Def	Secore, Andy
26	Def	Sharp, Ryan
23	Def	Sullivan, Jon
16	Def	Talbot, Noah
44	Fwd	Ward, Ryan (A)

[edit] All time Record

Season	Division	W-L	Finish	Home	Road	GF	GA	Coach	Playoffs
2005	Eastern	5-11	5th	2-6	3-5	188	231	Mike Simpson	Missed playoffs
2006	Eastern	8-8	4th	3-5	5-3	158	171	Adam Mueller	Lost in division semifinals
2007	Eastern	9-7	3rd	4-4	5-3	200	207	Duane Jacobs	Lost in division semifinals
2008	Eastern	10-6	1st	6-2	4-4	199	176	Duane Jacobs	Lost in division semifinals
Total	4 seasons	32-32		15-17	17-15	745	785
Playoff Totals		0-3		0-1	0-2	26	36

[edit] Playoff Results

Season	Game	Visiting	Home
2006	Division Semifinal	Minnesota 10	Buffalo 11
2007	Division Semifinal	Minnesota 8	Buffalo 14
2008	Division Semifinal	New York 11	Minnesota 8

[edit] Publicity

As a promotional stunt for the 2007 season opener, local sports newscaster Eric Perkins signed a one-game contract to play for the Swarm. Commercials were aired on NBC showing Perkins at a news conference taunting the Chicago Shamrox. He did end up getting 8 seconds of playing time in the 11-10 loss. In 2008, The Swarm announced that they would be retiring Perkins' number 66. ^[8]^[9]