Brandon Miller of the San Jose Stealth had a few words recently with PLPA Correspondent Rob Hastings.

When people talk about lacrosse hotbeds, one place always mentioned is Orangeville, Ontario. To name all the young men to come out of Orangeville and succeeded in lacrosse would take all day and night. To some people, Orangeville is the place to stop and get gas on the way from Toronto to Owen Sound and cottage country. It's a quaint town and quite frankly, the people there are happy with that. It may not be a big city, but as far as lacrosse development goes, it's a metropolis.

One of the young stars in the NLL is Orangeville's own Brandon Miller. Brandon follows in the footsteps of Bill Gerrie, Jim Rankin and Chris Sanderson all Orangeville goaltenders to make it in the NLL.

I recently had the chance to speak with Brandon and I started off by asking how his first year in San Jose was? " I really enjoyed myself this year." he started. " You can't beat the weather. Even better was that for the most part our whole team got to move together (formerly, the Albany Attack). It was great that as a team, we got to share the move together. I think it brought our team even closer together."

On the question of whether lacrosse will survive in California. Brandon was very optimistic. "It wasn't too long ago that people wondered if hockey would survive there, not only has it survived, but it has flourished. Given time, and as long as the product is there, I don't have any worries about lacrosse in California."

Without a doubt, the toughest thing to get used to was the travel." My Thursday's started at 5:00am". Brandon is a lineman for Hydro 1 in Orangeville." After work, I'd drive to Toronto to catch a flight to California. I get there, go right to the rink for practice. By the time I got to bed, it was 2:00am Friday pacific time. It was easily a 24 hour day". "When we were in Albany, we'd practice once a week in Brampton, On, so you could stay sharp. Only practicing once the day before a game was a little tough to get used to, but we all got used to it."

As for the off-season, Brandon isn't slowing down at all. He just recently returned from his honeymoon and is playing summer lacrosse for the Brampton Excelsiors of the Ontario Lacrosse Association, where he shares goaltending duties with Toronto Rock goal-keeper Bob Watson. "As a team we want to get back to the Mann cup this year. Growing up in Canada, playing lacrosse, you aim for the Mann Cup. With it being held in Ontario this year, your goal is to host and win it."

Brandon will fill the rest of his time this summer "Hopefully moving to a new home in Orangeville." and trying to get in as many rounds of golf as possible.

One thing is for sure. Orangeville Ontario can be mighty proud of Brandon Miller. He is a class act both on and off the floor.

Brandon Miller is just one of many NLL stars who keep there skills up by playing summer lacrosse. You can see many of your NLL hero's playing in all kinds of small Canadian cities and towns.