'Save the Ball, Clear the Ball': Dobson ready for spotlight with Archers

Nothing was ever guaranteed for Brett Dobson.

Coming out of The Hill Academy as a post-grad, the Oshawa, Ontario native had just a single offer to play collegiate lacrosse. But that one opportunity was all he needed. He bet on himself and has since grown into one of the most exciting goaltending prospects in the world.

His journey to professional lacrosse – and the Archers’ roster – began with a visit to Canisius, where he met with coach Randy Mearns, the Canadian lacrosse legend who was at the helm for the Golden Griffins for 19 years.

However, Mearns departed from Canisius to take over the St. Bonaventure program in 2017, taking on the challenge of building the NCAA’s 73rd program from the ground up.

When deciding who he wanted to focus on recruiting first, Mearns explained that he wanted to nail down the specialist positions first. Because of that, Dobson was his first call.

“I got to watch Brett play numerous times at the All-Canada games, and after talking to Brodie (Merrill), they said, ‘This kid is going to be really good. He’s dialled in.’ And I was kind of surprised to find out during the recruiting timeline that he wasn’t being recruited by anybody else,” Mearns said. “But I was sitting there wondering if that was a good or bad thing…if I was missing something. But I just kept going, ‘Nah, this kid’s got it.’”

Mearns was looking for a goaltender to step in right away to help his program in their inaugural season in 2019, and the Bonnies felt like home to Dobson right away.

“To get that offer and be able to talk with coach Mearns, with the resume he has, you’re obviously going to take it,” Dobson said. “You go through The Hill, and you do your time, and that hard work pays off. When you get that offer and it feels like the perfect fit, you roll with it, and I felt that St. Bonaventure was the perfect fit for me to be able to grow as both a lacrosse player and a person.”

Dobson entered his first camp with the Bonnies in 2019 and won the starting job. Their inaugural season would be a trial by fire, as the roster featured 33 true freshmen. In St. Bonaventure’s first-ever NCAA game, the team lost 13-0 to High Point. Despite the scoreline, Dobson showed glimpses of what was to come, turning away 23 shots in the loss.

Adversity was a general theme for the program throughout their first number of years. The Bonnies went 0-13 in 2019 and opened the 2020 campaign 0-5 heading into conference play. But their year would come to a screeching halt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

After starting to build momentum and getting closer to getting their first win in program history, Dobson and his teammates returned home, uncertain when they’d get back into action.

“We knew right off the start it was going to be hard. With that many freshmen on campus, nobody is really older than you, and you’re going to have to learn some things as you go through it,” Dobson said. “You take those lumps, and you get beat up, but at the same time, you learn how to beat up on those teams … I saw a lot of rubber those first two years, and it allowed me to develop a lot quicker, get better, and understand what steps I needed to take to get to the next level.”

Dobson continued to be a steady presence between the pipes for Bonnies during his career, and heading into his senior year, he was weighing his future.

He was looking into the transfer portal to try his hand at a fifth year to up his draft stock. But the idea of declaring was always in the back of his mind, and it started to become more of a reality once the 2022 college season was about to start.

Goalie spots began opening up in the PLL this off-season. With the retirements of John Galloway, Drew Adams, and Charlie Cipriano, there was more of a chance than ever for new faces in goal to earn roster spots.

“When the (retirement news) started coming out, I think that’s when I started leaning towards going into the draft. The original plans were just fifth year to try and get better, but plans change,” Dobson said with smirk.

Going into his senior campaign, Dobson wasn’t ranked among the top goalies in this year’s draft class. But his strong play with the Bonnies quickly shot him up big boards.

After beginning the season 1-1, St. Bonaventure went on a tear down the stretch, winning nine of their last 11 games – with one of those losses being against Richmond.

Dobson was on another level from wire to wire, making double-digit saves in all but one game during the regular season. In that one game, he played just 36 minutes and only had to make three saves in a 21-0 victory over Hampton.

He finished the season with an NCAA-best 252 saves, while also finishing second in the nation in saves per game (16.80). In 15 starts during 2022, Dobson had an 8.86 goals-against average and a .665 save percentage.

After putting himself in the conversation as a potential 2022 PLL College Draft pick, there was one step left for Dobson. He declared and had a number of possible suitors on draft night.

Dobson made the trip back home ahead of the draft to soak in the moment with his friends and family. He was on edge the entire day, and the uncertainty of where he’d go added into his nerves.

But those butterflies would turn to excitement in the second round, and coach Chris Bates snagged Dobson with the 12th overall pick.

“Once we got through the first round and the second round started, you’re thinking, ‘Okay, maybe I go in the third or fourth. Maybe I won’t get drafted.’ Then I looked up and it was the Archers’ pick. Then coach Bates says goalie and then Brett, and I just lost it right away,” Dobson said of his draft moment.

“I was very emotional about it afterwards. Just being able to celebrate with my brothers, my family, and all of those guys that were there with me was something that was really cool … Just getting that opportunity to be drafted and to be the first goalie off the board, especially when you might not have seen yourself on the board or getting drafted at all, it’s something that I’ll always remember.

“I had called coach (Brian) Kavanagh crying. I was just in tears thanking him because I’d heard that the Archers might try and take me. So I was just very emotional. I didn’t get the chance to call Coach Bates until the next morning because my phone was blowing up and ended up dying.”

After Adams announced his retirement, the Archers were left with a big hole to fill in net behind veteran Adam Ghitelman this off-season.

There wasn’t a goalie taken in the 2021 College Draft, leaving options for Bates and his staff in both the player pool along with the upcoming senior class. But their main goal was to find the perfect fit on the field and in the locker room.

“We knew from the end of (the 2021) season that our radar was out to look for what was available with experienced vets in the player pool and then just skimming what was out there in college lacrosse,” Bates said of his scouting process. “Week in and week out, I’d check the save percentages and number of saves. We saw what St. Bonaventure did and saw the consistency that Brett played with, and then just did background checks with the people that knew him. Graeme Hossack knew him from The Hill, and Randy Mearns is somebody who I’ve known for years.

“It’s a unique enough position that you want to find the right person who’s not only good in the cage but also has the right personality. He’s a guy that wants to play in the PLL and make a life around the game. We just became increasingly excited about the possibility of adding somebody that dedicated to his craft, the sport, and becoming a professional athlete. Brett just checked all the boxes.”

Through the draft process – and over the last few years – the hype around Dobson has continued to grow due to the parallels drawn to fellow Canadian tender Dillon Ward, a Hill Academy graduate who attended Bellarmine before sprouting into the heir apparent to the Canadian goaltending throne in field lacrosse.

The journey of Dobson mirrors Ward’s very closely, as he’s the next Canadian goaltender that will become a star in the net in both the box and field games.

“I think that Brett is on the same trajectory that Dillon was at the same point of his career. He looks up to Dillon, and he’s the example of what’s possible for Brett,” Mearns said of the similarities between the two Canadian goalies. “We’ve had a number of conversations about Dillon and his style. But he’s 6-foot-5, and you can’t teach that. But Dillon does a number of different things depending on where someone is shooting, he could step all the way up to the top of his crease. Brett wants to be his own player, but Dillon is the example.”

“But it’s that hard work that gets you to the place to have an opportunity to do something amazing. I’m so excited for Brett that this has paid off, and now he’s at that next level. And I’m confident that he has the opportunity to be a professional lacrosse player for the next 15 to 20 years of his life, and he could be the MVP of the PLL.”

“I think those comparisons are great. That’s someone I looked up to growing up as a kid, and I think that you try and set goals and trying to match what he’s done as a pro and trying to be just as good as him, if not better,” Dobson added. “Dillon has set such a standard for Canadian goaltending. I just hope that one day, a kid that’s in middle school right now will say, ‘Hey, I want to be better than Brett Dobson.’ I think (the comparisons) are a tremendous honour, but at the end of the day, it comes down to just saving the ball and clearing the ball.”

Dobson came into his first professional training camp with that hunger. After meeting his new teammates, completing physicals, and doing media, he was itching to get on the field.

“Guys were just anxious to play lacrosse, and they went out on the field to shoot. And (Dobson) just grabbed his equipment and asked the guys if he could hop in net,” Archers defender Matt McMahon said. “We’d been there for maybe an hour, and he was already taking shots.”

Bates went on to add that coming into camp, Dobson became like a “little brother” of the team, where he’d just hop in the cage and face shots from everyone.

It wasn’t just his teammates, though. Dobson even asked for the coaches to get some work in against him.

“He’s put me through the gauntlet, I’ve almost had a couple of heart attacks this year,” Kavanagh said with a laugh. “He’s making me shoot on the run and take sweeps. If there’s downtime at all, he’s a fiend for shots. So, he’s definitely a bit different in that regard.”

Dobson went into the regular season as the backup to Adam Ghitelman. He quickly endeared himself to his team with his restless desire to get better and his passion.

Teammates and coaches alike describe him as a “Lacrosse Rat” who’s like an encyclopedia with his vast historical knowledge of the sport.

“He’ll be talking during team meals or meetings and bring up something like a game where Tom (Schreiber) didn’t play because of a banged up elbow or something, and Tom was like, ‘I don’t even remember that, how do you?’ So, he brings a wealth of knowledge to our team,” McMahon said.

Dobson’s contributions were rewarded with his first career start on Aug. 6 against the Whipsnakes. He was able to show off his composure and ability in the cage, turning away 14 shots. The game ended in a loss for the Archers in the end, but they got a glimpse at what Dobson can do. He stuck in there and gave his team a chance to win against one of the best teams in the league.

“I think it was validating and really what we expected,” Kavanagh said. “I don’t think we played our strongest game of the season, and he kept it a lot closer than it should have been. We knew he was a great ball-stopper before he got to training camp, but it was very validating to see it in person. He just went in there and played like he’s been doing it for years.”

“He’s just an unflappable kid. Brett’s a goalie’s goalie in terms of his demeanor. He’s been really consistent, he makes the saves he’s supposed to and takes the ones that he’s not and makes them look relatively routine.

“You just never know what it’s going to be like against the real big boys, and he’s acquainted himself well. He looks the part, he fits the role well. So, we’ve just been pleased to see him transition.”

Dobson has taken over in the Archers’ crease following the departure of Ghitelman via free agency. The second-year pro has flourished, leading the league in saves (34), save percentage (65.4%) and goals-against average (9.60) through two weeks.

Nothing was guaranteed on his journey to the pro ranks, and Dobson likely wouldn’t want it any other way. He just needed one chance to prove what he could do.

Dobson bet on himself coming out of high school, and he did the same going into the 2022 Draft. Bet against him if you’d like. But he’s made a career to this point out of proving people wrong, and he’s got all the potential in the world to become something special in the PLL.

“I think that’s been my mantra since high school. You go under-recruited, you’re going out to prove all of those coaches wrong. Being written off is something that I love because it motivates me that much more, and when I’m motivated, that’s when I’m at my best,” Dobson said. “I like to go and prove people wrong. Having that chip on your shoulder is something that you always need to have because it keeps you motivated and helps to keep you from getting complacent.

“There are probably a bunch of doubters that will say that I didn’t play anybody good in my draft year. Well, that’s fine, we’re going to find out.”