Romanchych starting off strong with Thunderbirds
Feb 4, 2025
Austin Owens I Halifax Thunderbirds
At the conclusion of the 2023-2024 season, Curtis Romanchych wasn’t sure if he was going to be playing in the National Lacrosse League for 2024-2025.
The defender was looking for a new home after becoming a free agent this past summer, but he hadn’t received any calls from teams inviting him to training camp. After looking into the possibility of playing in the Arena Lacrosse League to get some reps, he received a phone call from Halifax Thunderbirds Assistant General Manager Scott Campbell.
“Halifax was the one team that reached out, and it was an easy yes to say I’d come to camp with the Thunderbirds,” Romanchych said. “From then on, it was just about getting in the best shape ahead of camp and just show up there and put my best foot forward.”
It has been an odd start to Romanchych's career. The Aurora, Ontario product spent the majority of his junior career with the Orangeville Northmen, helping the team win a Minto Cup championship in 2019. Then, the pandemic hit, and everything flipped on its head.
Romanchych missed out on the 2020 OJLL season, which was cancelled. However, he was still selected in the 2020 NLL Draft, as Toronto picked him up in the fourth round. He finished out his junior career with the OJLL bubble in 2021, making his way into eight games with the Toronto Beaches, but the majority of his time with a stick in his hands came at school with Trent University.
“It was definitely tough trying to adjust back to the box game after being off for so long. And that eight-game schedule over a couple of weekends didn’t do guys the most justice. With the four-game weekends and quick in and outs, it was tough going into my rookie year and my first training camp in the NLL,” Romanchych said.
Romanchych was the final cut of the Rock’s camp roster, leaving him to look for a new team. He landed with Albany, where he appeared in his first NLL game in 2022. From there, he spent time with Rochester and Philadelphia, but never appeared in a game for either, spending the majority of his time on the practice roster.
He was a solid player for the MSL’s Cobourg Kodiaks over the summer, appearing in 18 games and scoring two goals and 10 points.
That led him to camp with the Thunderbirds. He mentioned that, with his experience at multiple camps coming into this year, he knew what he had to do to push for a spot on the team’s final roster.
“My main thought was just to leave it all out there. Obviously, I’d been through this a couple of times with other teams and I’d been released a few times up to this point. It just felt like one of those things where I had to go out during camp and have no regrets when I came off the floor,” Romanchych said. “In past training camps, I’ve left with some regrets and felt like I didn’t put my best foot forward. So I just went out this year, left everything I could out there, and just saw what happened.”
Romanchych took those efforts and turned them into a practice roster spot with the Thunderbirds at the end of camp. It only took the 25-year-old until the second game of the year in Saskatchewan to crack Halifax’s roster.
His ability to come into the fold and stand out was aided in part by his prior relationship with Thunderbirds defensive coach Andrew Suitor, who Romanchych knew from his time in Orangeville. He’s been able to take the knowledge of the Northmen’s defensive system he ran in junior and pick it up quickly in Halifax.
“I remember Suits coached me with Evolve Lacrosse back in the day as well when I was 13 or 14 years old. So I’ve known him for quite some time. He’s someone I have a lot of respect for and a guy who had a long career and took home a Minto Cup with Orangeville,” Romanchych said. “I just learned a lot from that Orangeville system and structure. They produce some of the best lacrosse players in the world for a reason. It’s great to carry that experience on into the professional ranks and get to learn from one of the best in the game in Suits.”
Romanchych has shown poise far beyond someone who has just five games of NLL experience under his belt. He’s managed points in back-to-back games, securing his first career assist on the road in Rochester earlier this year.
In a short time, Romanchych has contributed at both ends of the spectrum for a Thunderbirds team that has had ups and downs to open the year.
“Honestly, even going into that first game (of the year), I felt prepared. It had been a long time since I’d gotten into a lineup in an NLL game. So I just felt like I was ready to go,” Romanchych said. “Obviously, I put a lot of work in during the off-season and during my time in the gym. So just feeling prepared put my mind at ease and I didn’t have a whole lot of nerves going into it. Obviously, just feeling at ease like that was just a massive positive as well.”
Romanchych has appeared in four games for the Thunderbirds, who have bounced back from an 0-3 start to the year, winning two of their last three games.
During a crucial stretch of the campaign, it’ll be on the guys in the Thunderbirds’ room to try and turn things around to make a push for the playoffs in the spring.
“I think Wiz said it in the room after our first win against Albany. We know that we have it in the room and I think we all know it. It’s just about putting it all together,” Romanchych said. “It’s always tough when you have a bunch of new faces coming in to start the year. The tough start to the year isn’t what we wanted, but I think it’s only up from here and I think everybody in the room has the confidence in the world to make that come true as well.”