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LXM PRO: Brattons Switch Teams, Emala Joins, Bitter IN

Over on Adrenaline’s website, it has been announced that both Rhamel and Shamel Bratton will be switching teams this weekend. Instead of donning the blue and white of Team STX, they will now be wearing the neon green and grey of Maverik United.

Note: Adrenaline, a proud LAS sponsor, is a partner of the LXM PRO.

To offset this loss of personnel, Davey Emala is being brought in to the midfield by the boys in blue, which makes a lot of sense, seeing as his father, David Emala, is involved with legal counsel work for STX, and the fact that Emala is a proven scorer. That doesn’t hurt either.

We also got confirmation that Billy Bitter will be back in action for Mav this weekend, after missing the last event, and he will be a welcome spark for the United offense.

Interesting Fact: Davey Emala’s grandfather, C.S. Finney, was an All-American football AND lacrosse player at Princeton. Along with Jim Brown, he is one of only two men to ever be named AAs in both sports at the D1 level.

The above moves make sense for the LXM overall. Team STX was looking like the better team, and this showed in the first two games, where STX emerged as winners. Keeping games competitive is a good thing. Clearly, having two competitive teams will do much more than having one team enter as the favorite for each event. By moving the Brattons to Mav, they get two more explosive players, STX doesn’t lose any of its mainstays or sponsored athletes, and newcomers in the midfield, like Peter Baum and now Emala, can look to take a bigger role.

I’m interested to see if the Brattons use Maverik heads right away. If this player transaction went down as recently as it seems, it doesn’t leave much time to break in a head. Thankfully, the Brattons were already using neon sticks. More on this important development later.

When it comes to Emala, he fits in very well with STX. Harrison, Bradman, Baum and others will dodge, and carry the ball, and Emala will catch and shoot. Like Desko, he’s a finisher, and in my opinion, he makes the blue boys that much more dangerous.

At the end of the day, Maverik got two exciting players, capable of creating and scoring some highlight reel goals. They needed that. But I’m not sure this move actually makes the teams more evenly matched. Honestly, STX still looks a little more dangerous, at least on paper. Guess we’ll have to wait for Chicago to see if that holds true!

In Other News: Sam Bradman inked a 3 year deal extension with STX this week. His meteoric rise to household name status has been impressive, but the next couple of years will really begin to define him as a player. I’m interested to see where he takes it.

OC LXM TeamSTX