Former Flin Flon Bombers Brandon Switzer and Joseph Leonidas will soon be hitting the books.
Switzer agreed to a scholarship offer in late May with the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
He will be the third former Bomber this season to join the team for next season, joining Jason Lavallee and Eric Sinclair.
Switzer, 21, played two seasons with the Bombers, racking up 106 points in 88 games and adding 23 points in 23 playoff games.
He accepted the offer a year after playing his final game at the Whitney Forum, a heartbreaking loss to the Melfort Mustangs in the Canalta Cup Final.
During that playoff run, Switzer earned national attention for his involvement in a post-game brawl with the Weyburn Red Wings after a Weyburn player attempted to leave the ice with a treasured moose leg. Switzer skated the length of the ice to confront the player and retrieve the leg, starting the #DontMessWithTheMooseLeg campaign.
Switzer had committed to the Alberta Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Grant MacEwan Griffins last season, but never played for the team.
After suffering ligament damage to his knee in his final campaign in Flin Flon, Switzer swore off treatment until the end of the season, Bombers head coach and GM Mike Reagan said at the team’s annual general meeting in May.
Unable to play due to the injury, Switzer spent the year studying at Grant MacEwan and rehabbing his knee.
“His situation is very unique,” Reagan said. “I don’t know of very many players who get a Division I scholarship a year after their graduation.”
Leonidas will be staying in Canada, signing up with the U Sports’ Lakehead University Thunderwolves.
Leonidas, 20, played parts of two seasons for the Bombers, tallying 46 points in 70 regular season games.
After being traded to the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons midway through last season, he scored 21 points in 32 games before missing the playoffs due to injury.
Leonidas started his junior career with his hometown Calgary Mustangs in the AJHL, before being dealt to the Whitecourt Wolverines and the Drayton Valley Thunder in the same league.
He then headed to Texas, joining the NAHL’s Amarillo Bulls for a season before joining the Bombers in 2015.
