![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BadgersWed-5.jpg\")
<\/a>Brock Badgers players Johneil Simpson, left, and Tyler Brown during a practice session at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax Wednesday.<\/p><\/div>\n
It will be the second-seeded Dinos who the seventh-seeded Badgers will face in the quarter-final round Thursday at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. AST).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like its fate that the first team we play is the team that snubbed us,\u201d Elgadi said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a movie ending. The stage is set and now we all just have to perform, including me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since arriving at Brock in the summer of 2013, the same summer head coach Charles Kissi was hired, Elgadi has been the face of the team. Kissi was the architect of a program that has gotten better with age, peaking this season in Elgadi\u2019s swan song.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s my last dance so I\u2019m just trying to soak it all in,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand the pressure we\u2019re under, but I\u2019m ready for it. Our road is far from easy, but it\u2019s the path we want. This is it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Calgary Dinos, Brock will face a tough, but not completely unfamiliar, opponent. The two teams played in an exhibition game at Brock back in October, which was an attempt by Kissi to get a pre-season look at potential National Championship opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure enough, that\u2019s who we\u2019ve ended up playing,\u201d the coach said. \u201cWe wanted to begin with the end in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Kissi also knows the Badgers will face a different team than they did six months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new game. They\u2019ve gotten better since then, and so have we,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Badgers arrived in Halifax late Tuesday night and were the first team to practise on the Scotiabank Centre court. (The bottom-seeded Acadia Axemen chose to work out on their home court in nearby Wolfville).<\/p>\n
Guard Johneil Simpson said it felt great to arrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo actually be here shows that if you stay the course and you have a good program with a good support system around you, you can actually get here,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal was to get here. But now that we\u2019re here, we want to make some history and do what the guys did 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cguys\u201d Simpson was referring to was the 2007-08 Badgers team that also went into the National Championships in Halifax seeded seventh, but battled their way to Brock\u2019s second-ever national title.<\/p>\n
Many of the players from that title-winning squad are making their way to Halifax for the tournament this week, as is a Brock fan bus that is expected to arrive Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Just in time to watch what Elgadi, Simpson and the rest of the Badgers hope will be three-straight wins to repeat what was done here 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
For those not making the trip to Halifax, a free viewing party for the quarter-final game will be held in Brock\u2019s Market Hall Thursday at 1 p.m. EST<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n