January 31, 2017 by Charlie Eisenhood in Livewire, News with 1 comments
The New York Empire are adding more young firepower to their roster this season, including Minnesota’s Ben Jagt and former UMass player Conor Kline, according to team sources and a not-so-subtle Instagram post.
Those two headline an improving roster featuring returners Jeff Babbitt, Chris Kocher, Ryan Drost, and Mike Drost.
The Empire are looking to punch through to the AUDL semifinals for the first time since the league expanded to four divisions in 2015. New York has made the playoffs every year since the team’s inception in 2013, but have never made it past Toronto (or, in 2016, Washington DC) to make a run to a final.
Head coach Tom Gibbons declined comment for this story but did say that a more formal announcement was forthcoming.
The full roster listed on the Empire’s Instagram post above includes the following players, in order of appearance:
Jeff Babbitt
Chris Kocher
Ryan Drost
Mike Drost
Isaiah Bryant
Ben Ivers
Matt Lemar
Ross Ward
Clark Cofer
Kevin Norton
Matt Stevens
Matt Auletta
Taylor Brooks
Conor Kline
Ben Jagt