Full Circle: Blumbergs relishing surreal moments during rookie season
Feb 17, 2025
Austin Owens I Halifax Thunderbirds
In his first season in the National Lacrosse League, Austin Blumbergs has had no shortage of full-circle moments.
Growing up in Penn Yan, New York, Blumbergs said that kids in his town grew up playing box lacrosse – jokingly adding that it was easier to wrangle all of the kids in a rink than on a field.
With Penn Yan being an hour south of Rochester, a young Blumbergs naturally travelled to watch the Knighthawks play. He grew up idolizing the likes of Cody Jamieson and Mike Accursi and would go on the floor during halftime to throw the ball around before giving players fist bumps when they came back out of the locker room.
Fast forward to the present and he’s sharing the floor with Jamieson and being coached by Accursi during his rookie season with the Halifax Thunderbirds.
Blumbergs’ rise to the pro ranks in box started off at St. Bonaventure University, where he played under legendary Canadian coach Randy Mearns. The pair talked about box daily during his four years with the Bonnies.
While he excelled at field, he always returned to the indoor games, starting out in the Upstate Collegiate Box Lacrosse League, playing for the Rapids and Buffaloes over the years.
“The coaching system in US box is really good. Just starting out to now, you can go back and watch old games and see how far the leagues have come along,” Blumbergs said. “I think the athleticism in that league is unmatched when you’ve got American college guys coming off their seasons straight into box. And just having those coaches with high-level experience was huge for development.”
His play in the National Collegiate Box Series (NCBS) earned him the attention of the Buffalo Bandits, who selected Blumbergs with the 88th overall pick in the 2022 NLL Draft.
Unfortunately for Blumbergs, he was cut during his first professional training camp. That left him with work to do to earn his next opportunity.
The next logical step was to make the move up North and play in Canada. He started out last winter playing in the Arena Lacrosse League with the Oshawa Outlaws, where he had 29 points in 12 games.
For summer ball, Mearns was able to get Blumbergs in touch with longtime NLL player and Head Coach of the Owen Sound North Stars, Adam Jones – who played for Mearns collegiately at Canisius.
Blumbergs said that Jones encouraged him to reach out to NLL teams to get his name out there, and with his love for the Thunderbirds’ players and staff from their time in Rochester, he reached out over email.
“I sent out an email with kind of like my little resume, and to my surprise, Curt (Styres) answered me back in like 15 or 20 minutes and said, ‘We want you to come to camp,’” Blumbergs said with a laugh. “After that, waiting that short of an amount of time and Curt jumping on that and inviting me to camp, I just said, ‘I’m going to give you everything I’ve got.’”
Blumbergs started out camp with the Thunderbirds as a forward, playing up front in the team’s first pre-season game. Despite that, the team gave him a run out the back gate due to his 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame.
He excelled throughout training camp and leaned on defensive coaches Andrew Suitor and Roger Chrysler to pick up the Thunderbirds’ defensive system on the fly while appearing in the team's two remaining pre-season outings as a transition player.
“Rog especially since that first weekend has been a massive help for me. Just giving me that understanding of, ‘You’re doing the right things. But it’s just working on the minor details. You did this right but this is how you do it better,’” Blumbergs said of Chrysler’s influence. “Just working out of the two-man or three-man game and being visible to the guys that you’re out there with is huge. And then there are little things like what to do when I’m the low man, getting out too far or not being out far enough.
“It’s just in those small things where the coaches have been a huge help for me and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”
The coaches and management of Halifax noticed Blumbergs’ efforts in training camp, as he cracked the Thunderbirds’ practice roster to open the season.
Working as a strength coach in his spare time, Blumbergs has been working hard to further his ability in the box game while spending time in the gym while he’s away from the floor. Thunderbirds’ Athletic Performance Coach Nardine Oakes is someone Blumbergs leans on for advice, and he uses her workout plans to help better himself during the week.
The 22-year-old has also been able to re-connect with forward Christian Watts, who Halifax signed at the end of training camp as a free agent. The pair played together on the Rapids in the UCBLL and have been able to team up once again with the Thunderbirds.
“I was heading down to practice one day and just got a text from (Watts), and it just said, ‘See you soon.’ And I just texted him back asking what he was talking about,” Blumbergs said on finding out Watts had signed with the Thunderbirds. “That just gives me a nice little sense of comfort on top of everything else, just having another American guy from Upstate New York and a guy that I’ve known for a long time.”
As a lifelong fan of the organization, Blumbergs is living out a childhood dream, sharing the floor with some of the players that he was giving fist bumps to as a kid. His first trip to Halifax served as another eye-opening experience for him.
He was able to go to Halifax with the team for their home opener and experience the city and the atmosphere inside Scotiabank Centre, both on the floor during warmups and in the crowd during the game.
“It was probably the best moment of my entire life, I’m not gonna lie,” Blumbergs said excitedly about taking the floor at The Nest. “Just being out on the floor for warmups, looking out into the stands and seeing all the kids that are in the same spot that I used to be. It was incredible. The atmosphere of the games is incredible and the city is beautiful.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into Halifax for the first time but all my expectations were blown out of the water.”
Just a few weeks later, Blumbergs got to travel back to where his love for lacrosse began, taking the floor with the Thunderbirds in Rochester. He had a handful of former teammates from college, family, friends, and kids that he coaches locally.
In a season filled with full-circle moments, Blumbergs has lived a rookie year that feels like destiny unfolding in real-time.
As he closes out his first year, he's passed a major career milestone, making his NLL debut against Philadelphia. He'll look to continue to work to carve out a consistent role for himself on the back end for the Thunderbirds. One thing is clear—this is just the beginning of a career already rich with storylines, and many more chapters are left to be written.
“I’ve just been telling myself, ‘When you get on the floor, make the most of it. Push the ball down the floor when I get the opportunity to,’” Blumbergs said. “I’m going to be the guy that does anything that it takes to win. I hope that my teammates see that too when I get the chance to be on the floor.”