Commitment amid constant uncertainty is about to pay off in the form of competition for Okotoks’ dedicated lacrosse community.
“It’s really important for them and good for them to get a sense of something normal, something to look forward to and work towards,” said Okotoks Raiders Lacrosse Association president Brent Robinson. “The players have been really good about coming out in the face of the uncertainty they’ve been facing. The whole time from February to May we did practices with no promise that they were ever going to get to play a game and they did quite well with that.
“But it’s going to really give them a different sense of purpose and direction to know that ‘here’s this game we have coming up, here’s what we’re preparing for.’ It will be so much fun and I think they’re super excited for it.”
With sufficient notice from the province, the Raiders opted not to participate in outdoor distanced training during Stage 1 of the reopening with plans to launch its indoor programming once the Stage 2 button was pushed. As part of Stage 2, which began on June 10, restrictions on indoor and outdoor sports have been lifted.
“The plan is to have a couple weeks of just contact practice because none of our players have done any contact stuff since last fall of any kind,” Robinson added. “So a couple of weeks of contact practices and then we’re planning to have games between June 28 to July 7 for kind of a mini-season, year-end festival.”
The Raiders’ younger age groups will be staying local with game action exclusively against High River opposition whereas the older age groups will compete against Calgary teams as would be seen in a regular schedule.
It’s been close to two years since Raiders team have been involved in full-scale games with a full roster and referees. Okotoks was held to scrimmages last summer within its cohort.
“(The graduating players) they’re really looking in their last year of minor lacrosse to at least get some kind of game in,” Robinson added. “I know it was definitely hard for the kids last year who had it as their last year of minor and they didn’t get to play a single game.
“We’re working on a plan to maybe extend it a few games for the U18s potentially, but there is nothing final with that yet.”
Lacrosse season typically gets underway early in the spring and runs into July before many of the facilities are reverted back to ice hockey rinks.
Without the guarantee of a season to prepare for or games to compete in the association has looked at a myriad of ways to keep membership engaged, motivated and enjoying the game in small group and distant sessions as restrictions allowed during the spring months.
“We had lots of support from coaches, lots of patience from parents who weren’t allowed to spectate or anything, which is tough for them, especially in the younger age groups,” Robinson said.
“It’s taken a lot of creativity, in the younger age groups in terms of finding what I would call gameification of different events, you just can’t run drills and drills all the time. It’s all about trying to find an activity that is teaching them some sort of lacrosse skill, keeping them two metres apart, that is still a game and still fun to them. We did lots of different things, relay races, small games where they would chase each other around but not touch each other.
“For the older age groups, they are able to see through the curtain of those things way more so for them it was more about motivating them that lacrosse is coming back, there may not be games, but here are skills and systems and things we can work on in the meantime so that when it does come back we’ll all be stronger and better lacrosse players and able to get into it faster.”
The Raiders will be playing primarily out of the Crescent Point Field House as well as the Murray Arena inside the Okotoks Recreation Centre.
For more information go to okotokslacrosse.com
