By SAM LASKARIS /
Marc Zanette has only had a brief taste of what it’s like to play on the same hockey team as his older brother Paul.
Since there is a two-year difference between the siblings, they’ve only played together once, during a summer tournament.
But that will change next season. That’s because Marc Zanette, an 18-year-old centre with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Markham Waxers, has accepted a scholarship offer from the New York-based Niagara University Purple Eagles.
Paul Zanette, 20, is currently in his second season with the Purple Eagles.
“I really wanted to go to Niagara,” Marc Zanette said. “It’s the closest (NCAA) school to my home. And I know what the program is all about.”
The Niagara campus is about a 90-minute drive from the Zanette home. Marc Zanette attended six of his brother’s home games last season and has already been to three this year.
Zanette said the Niagara coaching staff has also told him there’s a chance next season he’ll be able to play on the same line as his brother, who is a left winger.
“I hope so,” said Zanette, who is planning to take Accounting courses at Niagara. “They said they’ll give us a shot.”
Besides his own brother, Zanette is also already well acquainted with several other members of the Purple Eagles’ roster. Niagara’s line-up includes about a dozen other Canadian players, many of which live near the Toronto area.
“I work out with a bunch of them during the summer,” said Zanette, who lives northwest of Toronto in the town of Nobleton.
Zanette also believes he’ll be quite content at Niagara, which has an enrolment of about 3,500 students.
“Everyone wants to go to a big school,” he said. “But I’m not the big campus kind of guy.”
For Zanette, this is his first and only season with the Waxers. He had also played in the OJHL during the 2007-08 campaign, with the first-year Villanova Knights.
Zanette appeared in 44 games with Villanova and was the club’s top scorer with 46 points (15G, 31A). But he was looking for a change of scenery since the Knights had their share of on-ice struggles.
Markham purchased Zanette, a 6-foot-1, 190-pounder, at the beginning of this season in a cash deal with Villanova.
“I wanted to play my last year of Junior with a team that had a chance to go all the way,” Zanette said.
He chose Markham because he’s known the Waxers’ director of hockey operations Rick Cornacchia for about a decade. Cornacchia previously coached Zanette’s brother in the minor hockey ranks in Markham.
And he believes the younger Zanette has improved since suiting up for the Waxers.
“He was looking to be challenged,” Cornacchia said. “And any time you play with better hockey players you get better too.”
Zanette has been one of Markham’s top offensive performers. In his first 23 games with the club he had earned 29 points (10G, 19A).
“He’s a big strong kid,” Cornacchia added. “And he sees the ice real well.” |