Junior lacrosse is set to hit the floor in Okotoks for the first time in two years.
The Okotoks Marauders will return to game action next month as the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League Jr. B Tier I division squads are set to grind out a shortened season and mini-tournament.
“The league scraped what was going on so all the teams got together a bunch of exhibition games and we’re back practising,” said Marauders head coach Don Haynes. “That was just because the league had to put a big deposit down on rinks and that wasn’t guaranteed so they were a little hesitant to do that.
“All of us teams in the Tier I division basically said let’s get some exhibition games in.”
The Marauders should get in 8 to 10 games starting in early July. The condensed schedule will conclude with Okotoks hosting a mini-tournament for the South teams on the July 22 weekend.
“That’s just to figure out somewhat of a winner of this shortened season we got going on,” the coach added.
The Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League had voted in late-May to cancel the 2021 season given the late juncture of the reopening in the lacrosse calendar and the challenges surrounding floor time. In a normal year, lacrosse schedules run from late April until early July.
The RMLL release left the door open for a return to lacrosse in different settings starting in mid-June.
The Marauders returned to training earlier this month as Stage 2 of Alberta’s Open For Summer had come into effect. They had been held to small group distanced training for those under 18 earlier in the spring prior to the more stringent lockdown in May.
“We’re excited, we wish it would be more of a competitive season coming up,” the coach added. “But I think the kids are just stoked to be back playing. They were all pretty exited to be on the floor there last week.”
Okotoks last saw game action in the 2019 campaign and were slated to have a momentous 2020 season highlighted by the hosting of the provincial championship last summer prior to it being scraped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To call it long anticipated return would be an understatement.
“A lot of guys missed out and graduated out, it’s a big shift in personnel,” Haynes said. “We were pretty young before this thing, before COVID started and had a couple of years of only graduating a couple of guys. We were kind of looking at being older and being a more dominant team in the league there so we drafted a bunch of young talent, high-end guys that now may or may not move up to Jr. A.
“We kind of built the team to be good these two years so we feel a bit (ripped off) in that aspect, but still have a great core of guys and a bunch of young talent.”
Some of the veteran leaders for the team include Tycen Allan and Sean Garlock on offence, Skylar Running Rabbit on defence and the goaltending triumvirate made up veterans Tyler Lowe, Calvin Pederson and rookie Vaughan Litke.
“It’s not so much battling for spots this year, but all three of those guys will probably be returning next year for the two spots,” Haynes added.
“The big thing is getting back on the floor, getting sticks in the hands and getting back to having fun playing lacrosse, back to getting the new guys into the culture of being a Marauder, the work ethic and just general attitude.”
There won’t be a grand prize at the end of the season for which to prepare.
Lacrosse Canada cancelled the 2021 Founders’ Cup Junior B National Championship, slated to be held in Brampton, Ont. in August, along with nine other events for lacrosse at the 12U, 14U, 17U boys and girls levels earlier in the spring.
The Minto Cup, the Jr. A championship, was called off for the second straight season due to the pandemic.
For more information go to rockymountainlax.com.
