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Jimmy Bitter will follow his brother Billy's footsteps as he continues the Bitter tradition at North Carolina. The 5'8" attackmen is slightly undersized and a little on the lighter side (155lbs soaking wet), but that was the case for Billy during his freshman and even sophomore campaign as a Tar Heel.
If you remember, it took Billy a year or two to blossom and by his junior season, he was one of the most feared attackman in the nation. If we have learned anything from the Bitter family, (brother Matt played at the Naval Academy) its that hard work is a mantra they were born with.
An All-New England selection as he played for Deerfield the past two seasons, Bitter put up 21 goals and 29 assists as a sophomore and 20 goals and 31 assists as a junior. His senior season saw Bitter miss one third of the season due to a broken thumb, which changed the way Bitter played the rest of the season. He still put up 60 goals and 30 assists, setting a Deerfield Academy record for points in a season.
"I had to work more off the ball and spend more time without the ball and try to create scoring opportunities, said Bitter. It was really hard to get velocity unless I was coming around from the right."
Jimmy Bitter is a great feeder and will compliment UNC's attack very nicely. With Nicky Galasso and now Davey Emala in front of him, it gives Jimmy enough time to learn the system and mesh with the two. Not bad for coach Joe Breschi to have to wait a year or two to start Bitter, as he still has the two mentioned earlier, plus Thomas Wood (22g, 13,a) and finisher Pat Foster (15g, 2 a).