The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT took just one exhibition game for Bahamian standout Eugene McMinns to foreshadow the impact we can expect him to have on the football programme at his new university.

McMinns led the Acadia Axemen with four catches for 66 yards in his team’s 14-3 loss to the St Mary’s Huskies at the Axemen’s Raymond Field on Saturday.

McMinns, the 6’1”, 190-pound wide receiver, is one of two Bahamians in the 29-member 2015 recruiting class for Acadia along with 6’6” 304-pound offensive lineman Shelton Williams.

The Axemen will open the regular season on September 12 when they host the St Francis Xavier X-Men.

After two years with the Holland College Hurricanes, both players transferred to join the Acadia programme this fall.

Axemen head coach Jeff Cummins said the two Bahamians will be vital in helping the team fill several voids at key positions.

“In this 2015 recruiting class, we believe we have filled the needs on the offensive line with a couple of big players who can step in right away in Shelton Williams from Holland College and Keiler Cherry from CJFL champions Saskatoon Hilltops,” he said. “At the receiver spots, we have brought in some real speed and skill highlighted by Jaylen McRae and Eugene McMinns both clocked in the 4.4s (in the 40-yard dash).

Both players came in as highly touted recruits at their respective divisions.

McMinns was named the Holland College Male Rookie of the Year as he finished with 21 receptions for 441 yards and two touchdowns. He was also an impact player on special teams with 11 returns for 189 yards.

Following football season, McMinns’ success continues on the track as a sprinter. He was named the Hurricanes’ male athlete of the week after he won both the 60m (7.32s) and the 200m (24.01s) at the Atlantic Indoor Track and Field Championships.

He also won the 60 metre and 200 metre events at the Atlantic Indoor Track and Field Championships in Moncton, Canada.

In his second season, McMinns caught three touchdowns, but saw his season cut short when he was sidelined due to a head injury in the AFL semi-finals. The team went on to capture the 2014 Moosehead Cup with a 31-15 win over the the University of New Brunswick Seawolves.

The coaching staff at Acadia is eager to work the versatile and athletic receiver into their offensive scheme.

“Eugene comes to us by way of Holland College in PEI where he excelled as a freshman receiver last year and worked through some injuries in 2014, all the while maintaining game breaking abilities, receiving and returning the football,” the coaching staff said in a press release issued on the school’s athletic website.

“Eugene instantly becomes one of the fastest players in the conference and his athletic ability will allow him to be a weapon sooner rather than later here at Acadia. Eugene is a former national level decathlete from the Bahamas where he grew up and it shows every time you watch him play a game or practice.”

Williams began his football career at the high school level in Miramar, Florida, at Champagnat Catholic.

“There’s a lot of reasons I chose Acadia. They made Wolfville feel like home,” he told CanadaFootballChat.com. “I made a connection with the coaching staff, there was just something about it that felt right. Also, I aspire to be an engineer major and I know the engineering programme at Acadia can be a good fit,” he said.

Acadia is a member of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and Atlantic University Sport (AUS). They hold more conference and national championships than any other university in Atlantic Canada and has the highest number of Academic All-Canadians for primarily undergraduate universities in the country.

In their history, the Axemen have appeared in four Vanier Cup national championships, winning two of those in 1979 and in 1981.

Recently, the Axemen had their most success in the 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012 seasons, when the teams finished first in the AUS and reached the Uteck Bowl all four years. In 2014, they finished 3-5 and lost in the semi-finals to St FX, 18-17.