The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Acadia Axemen begin their 2016 season next weekend (Saturday, September 10) and several Bahamian players plan to figure prominently into the team’s plans going forward.

Wide receiver Eugene McMinns and offensive lineman Shelton Williams enter their second season with the programme while Lawrence Williams will also join the offensive line this season.

The trio hopes to propel the Axemen to a bowl game after they narrowly missed an appearance in the Subway Looney Bowl last season.

The Axemen got off to a slow start with a 31-8 loss to the St Mary’s Huskies, September 3 in Halifax.

The Huskies were previously winless in the regular season and playoffs since the fall of 2014.

The two teams will face off in the regular season matchup.

Williams has started at tackle since the season opener last season and  was a lynchpin in the line that has been one of the leading offences in Canadian collegiate football last season.

In five games last season, McMinns finished with five catches for 101 yards and one touchdown.

McMinns had a breakout game with two catches for 48 yards and a touchdown against McGill.

He also led Acadia with three catches for 53 yards in his team’s 27-0 win over the St Mary’s Huskies.

McMinns, the 6’1”, 190-pound wide receiver, and Williams, the  6’6” 304-pound offensive lineman, were just two members of the 29-members of the 2015 recruiting class for Acadia.

Lawrence, 6’7” 330 pounds, is a member of another group of 29 recruits added to the Axemen roster this offseason.

All of the players spent two years with the Holland College Hurricanes, before eventually transferring to Acadia.

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.