The Edmonton Miners Lacrosse Club has clinched an eighth consecutive berth in the National Championships, where they will once again compete for the President's Cup, along with St. Albert resident and player Dean Fairall.
On the way to their latest provincial championship, the Miners dominated the Calgary Mountaineers in the final, sweeping the team in a best-of-five series and winning the final game by a score of 13-5 in Calgary.
General Manager Jordan Cornfield said the team got to the lead early on in the final game and didn't look back.
"It was a great game for the guys and I think that we're really coming together at the right time. Obviously going into Nationals we want to make sure that we start strong and kind of go through and finish strong," Cornfield said.
Fairall said everybody on the team buying into their roles and stepping up was the difference maker against Calgary.
"Everyone was doing their role and their job. No one kind of strayed outside of what they normally do," Fairall said, giving props to the team's defense and goaltender.
"And the big thing I noticed is once they [Calgary] would go on a run and score a couple, we would always answer," he said.
Fairall, 39, said he's been playing the sport since he was four years old.
"I got to play with my brother growing up, it was the only sport we could play together," he said. "Everything good in my life's been given because of lacrosse, so that's the biggest thing."
A former player with the St. Albert Rams Lacrosse Club, Fairall was part of the Miners when they won Nationals in 2016. He spent some time bouncing around some different teams since then, but is excited to be back to take part in the tournament, which is being hosted in Whitby, Ont. this year.
"I was lucky to be a part of that 2016 team and it just feels like we're deeper than we've ever been. And there's definitely a lot of excitement right now just with what we have the opportunity to do out there," he said.
The tournament will see a format change this time around. Instead of the typical round robin that it's seen in past years, the teams will be grouped off into pools with three other teams, where they will play each team once.
"This tournament is a grind. We usually only play one or two games a week. And this one we're going to have six games in seven days," he said, and stressed the importance of hydrating and taking care of injuries.
Cornfield said this is the goal the team has been working toward all season.
"We've come in second at Nationals the last two years, so we really are hungry to win the National Championships again," he said. "We're excited, we're motivated, we're hungry."
Fairall added that he's excited to go through it with some other young players who also come from the St. Albert Rams.
"I think it's pretty cool that we get an opportunity to do this together," he said. "A lot of these young guys that have never been to the tournament before, I'm just excited to show them what it's all about and have the opportunity to hoist the Cup."
