By CHARLES TWEED
If you grew up in central Alberta there’s no doubt at one point or another you’ve had a stick in your hand poised to take a faceoff. However, in most cases that stick had a curve on the end of it — most likely from being heated up on the stove and bent under the front door — and there were skates on your feet.
The Lacoka Lacrosse Association (LLA) is trying to change some of that.
Wes Amendt, public relations director for the LLA is trying to drum up support for a junior team in Ponoka.
“We are in the preliminary stages of establishing a junior team for the community. We have a meeting with the executive on Monday night to determine whether we will put forward an application.”
Trying to get more exposure for the sport of lacrosse is something that runs in the Amendt family. Wes’ son, Nick, and his buddy, Nils Thompson, have been making the rounds to help demonstrate to students in the area how to play the game. Both thought the idea of a junior team in the area was a great idea and would give players an opportunity to continue to develop their skills in the game of lacrosse.
“It would give people a chance, when they’re done their midget or minor career, to continue playing. A lot my good friends that I graduated and played midget with didn’t get to go on and play junior, and if there was a junior team here they’d have tons of opportunity to keep playing. It’s good for the sport,” said Nick, who is playing NCAA division 2 lacrosse with American International College.
Nils, who plays division 1 at Bryant University, credits a tiny advertisement in the Red Deer paper for getting him hooked on the sport.
“If I hadn’t seen that little 3 by 3 ad, I probably wouldn’t have played, so we think it’s important to come back here and expose the sport to these kids,” he said. “I think in the future, once college is over it would be great to come back and coach. I love doing this, I love helping at camps because it’s great to see new kids pick up the sticks.”
Wes Amendt echoed the same sentiment: “We’re going to put these guys to work while they’re home from university, and I think the younger kids relate to the junior guys. These two are playing elite lacrosse, they can’t go any higher than the level they’re playing and they know their stuff. It’s great to get them out and share their knowledge and drum up some support; and we’ll see during our registration at the end of the month how many of these kids, based on being introduced to it in the school, sign up.”
The Lacoka Lacrosse Association is holding a registration session in Lacombe on Jan. 26, with a late registration in Ponoka on Feb. 2. For more information or to sign up go to lacokalacrosse.com