NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TX — The Brahmas have officially named their captains for the 2017-18 season. Julian Biondo will serve as Captain, with Austin O’Rourke and Aidan Spellacy serving as alternates.
It isn’t uncommon for Head Coach Dan Wildfong to take his time before naming a captain, and that was certainly the case this season.
Brahmas veterans Julian Biondo and Austin O’Rourke wore alternate captains’ patches for the first 29 games of the season, but Wildfong waited until the last game of the first half to finalize his leadership group.
“It’s definitely a huge honor [to be named captain],” Biondo said. “I was really excited and I wasn’t really expecting it or anything with O’Rourke being such a great guy and leader but I’m excited to take on the responsibility for the rest of the season. I’m really happy for Spellacy for getting the other A, he’s a great guy and a great leader as well and he has one more year of juniors left so this is huge for him and will help him too. He’s going to do a great job.”
O’Rourke added, “I think it’s been clear from the beginning that the three of us needed to lead. Even though [Spellacy] didn’t have an A on his jersey, in my mind I always thought of him as our third guy.”
Spellacy, for his part, is excited to be a part of the leadership group this year. “It’s an honor to be named to a leadership role in such a premier organization, Austin, and Julian are great leaders so it’s cool to be named alongside those two.”
The Brahmas are sitting in second place in the NAHL South entering the back half of the season, and Biondo, O’Rourke, and Spellacy are ready for a second-half push.
“I think that last game before break was really important for us, because we had a few rough weekends before that and we really wanted to finish strong before the break,” Biondo said. “Spellacy did a great job stepping up and we’ll be ready to go after break.”
“We have a good mix of leadership qualities between the three of us with each guy liking to do things a different way and with three really different paths and experiences,” O’Rourke said. “I think we are poised to become as dominant as we were last year in January with the leadership and team that we have.”