Members of Okotoks’ Junior and Senior lacrosse teams are ecstatic to be out from under a scheduling system largely seen as broken.
The biggest change in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League’s (RMLL) governance in the offseason was the splitting of an interlock schedule which, before this season, matched Junior A and Senior B lacrosse teams together four times per season.
Consequently, the Okotoks Junior Raiders now compete exclusively against the Calgary Mountaineers, Edmonton Eclipse and St. Albert Miners in the Alberta Junior A league. The six teams making up the Senior B division of the RMLL, including the Okotoks Sr. Raiders, will now only face one another.
“I think it’s good we got away from them because now our league is more competitive, we’re playing each team six times,” said Jr. Raider Kevin Pym. “We’re getting to know each other, we’re going to have to learn all new plays based on how the goalie moves. We’re going to have to change up what we’re doing.”
Pym said he is eager to be part of the increased rivalries the Raiders should have with the other three clubs in the Jr. A league.
“It’s going to be tight and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Pym said.
Junior and Senior lacrosse teams saw the merits of the interlocking schedule from different perspectives; the one thing they agreed on was the need for its removal.
David Fehr, Jr. Raiders president and general manager, said the interlock system was ineffective because it forced two contrasting styles of lacrosse into one.
“The Senior B teams they’re in it for a different reason than an A program,” Fehr said. “They’re older, they don’t want to run as hard as we do and they have a right to play their game and they’ve been struggling for several years to have their own league.”
Fehr said the extra layer of governance under the RMLL is a system exclusive to Alberta, unlike the associations in the hotbeds of lacrosse in British Columbia and Ontario.
“When the Seniors got together and said unanimously they wanted to separate and not have the interlock I stood up and said ‘it’s going to be tough on us (the Junior A teams), it’s going to cost us more money, we play each other a lot of times and it could cause animosity more than regular against each team’ but the reality is they have a right to self-determination and to play in a league that’s for them,” Fehr said.
He said the Junior team can’t force the Seniors to play if they choose not to.
“Why should they be forced to play against us if they don’t want to?” Fehr said. “That’s why I supported that.”
There were financial considerations that made the prior arrangement beneficial to everyone involved as a schedule involving hometown teams in both divisions cut travel expenditures.
“Outside of that there’s good reasons for playing the Seniors, it’s a different style of game, they’re bigger, they’re more physical, but they can’t keep this pace up,” Fehr said.
One thing both sides agreed on was the differential refereeing each side was getting.
Sr. Raiders head coach Jared McNicol said under the interlock system the bigger, more physically mature Senior players often got a raw deal from match officials.
“You’ve got men playing against boys and any time you would hit another player you would get scrutinized for it,” McNicol said. “It seemed to be refereed differently and all the Senior teams kind of had enough of that and the Junior A’s want to keep growing and they’re not going to grow in an interlock schedule.”
“It works out for them, it works out for us.”
Under the new system, the Senior schedule is truncated by four games with one more matchup with each division rival than under the previous system.
Sr. Raiders captain Josh Sartorelli said the new system will bear more equitable standings come season’s end.
“I think it’s a great thing because we just found last year there was a lot of disparity with even just the talent in Junior,” Sartorelli said. “We had the top two teams in Alberta (in Okotoks) seemingly whereas Edmonton had the easier road and got the easier positioning in playoffs.”
The transition player conceded there were one or two advantages to matching the two levels together under the previous system.
“I definitely think it was good for their development and because they were so young and worked so hard they pushed us to the edge,” Sartorelli said. “For them they benefit from playing against men and there’s some amazing sticks in the Senior level and for them to play against that would only make them better.”
Sr. Raider Scott Cable said trying to fit two unique levels of age, development and lacrosse styles together was nonsensical.
“It wasn’t good for the game and they need to compete with their own age group,” Cable said. “Just let those guys play their run-and-gun type game and let us older guys kind of slug the ball around a bit.”
One consequence likely to occur with the new league format is the proliferation of rivalries as teams in both Junior and Senior will play their counterparts more often without the interlock.
“The more you see a team, the more you start to dislike them,” Cable said. “There’s only so many times you lose to the same team before things boil over so that will be good for our league.”
