Crude celebrates milestone

The spotlight shines bright on a decade of Crude lacrosse in St. Albert during tonight’s home opener for the junior B Tier I team.

Ball drop is 7:30 p.m. against the rival Edmonton Warriors at Akinsdale Arena and the first period intermission will feature a special ceremony honouring the 10-year anniversary of the Crude program.

“It’s cool to see that we’ve lasted 10 years and hopefully we’ve got many, many more moving forward,” said Terry Dokken, head coach and general manager of the Crude in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.

The pioneers of the Crude will be recognized during tonight’s festivities.

“We’re bringing as many of the 2006 team out. We’re going to bring them out on the floor and give them their old jerseys to wear and introduce them and basically pay a little bit of a tribute to them and the coaching staff,” Dokken said.

The Crude will also pay homage to their inaugural manager, Gord Brittain, who died nine years ago.

“He was well liked. He was the manager of the team so he did a lot for the boys,” Dokken said. “We’re bringing his wife and family out and we’re going to give his wife a framed old Crude jersey. We’re also renaming one of our trophies (top defensive player of the year) the Gord Brittain Memorial Trophy.”

The roots of Crude lacrosse can be traced to 1973, when the St. Albert Rams Minor Lacrosse Association was founded. The popularity of the game grew to the point where graduating players needed a place to play and in 2000 the St. Albert Junior Rams were formed by Bruce Partington and Jim Van Horne. The Rams competed in the RMLL’s Tier II division and moved up to Tier I in 2004 after the junior B team lost the provincial final to the Calgary Mountaineers.

It was decided in 2006 that for the long-term success of the club a name change was required and the Northern Alberta Major Lacrosse Club was born. NAMLC consisted of the senior B Spruce Grove Slash, junior B Crude, Tier II Riggers and junior Lady Drillers.

The Crude played under the NAMLC umbrella until 2013, when they became the St. Albert Crude Junior B Lacrosse Club. Players range in age from 17 to 21.

Dokken is proud how the Crude has evolved to become a fixture in the St. Albert sports scene.

“It’s a testament to the hard work that a small group of us put into making the Crude what it is today,” said the Crude’s bench boss for eight years. “We have worked very hard to give the Crude name some meaning and giving it some substance to the point where people want to play on the Crude now.

“I guess I’m biased but I think it’s one of the best junior programs in the province. We have our bursary program and we just treat the kids really well. We’ve built a very, very strong program off the floor and it just transpires onto the floor. If you’ve got a strong structure, a strong foundation, then the rest kind of falls into line. Probably the last three years we’ve had good success on the floor and I anticipate that we will again this year even though we’ve started out a little slow.”

Last year’s north division pennant winners at 15-4-1 with a league-high 31 points are 1-2 this season after last weekend’s 11-9 loss to the Warriors (2-1) at Bill Hunter Arena.

This year’s roster includes nine players new to junior B Tier I lacrosse and five of those players are first-year juniors.

“Our philosophy with our club this year because we are so young is the first five games we’re going to learn and not be too concerned whether we win or lose or draw. It’s really not important because the focus is on learning the systems,” said Dokken, who had to replace 11 players from last year’s team that suffered an early playoff exit after reaching the 2013 provincial final.

“The next five games are to perfect our systems and be good at our systems and then the last 10 games is just go and win. It’s a process and we’re being very patient with our young guys. We easily could be 3-0 but it’s just small little mistakes and a little bit of undisciplined play on a few players’ parts.

“The fact that we have so many young guys, they have a tendency to make a few more mistakes than the average player we have and we’re OK with that. You never get better unless you make mistakes and they’re told not be afraid to make mistakes, just try to learn from them.”

A lack of discipline was the Crude’s downfall against the Warriors. In the second period the Warriors converted three power-play opportunities while outscoring the Crude 6-2 to lead 9-6 after 40 minutes.

“Taking dumb penalties at the wrong time cost us so we just need to stay disciplined and work our systems. We know that they will work, especially against a team like the Warriors. It seems like in the past couple of years our defensive and offensive systems have been tailor made to beat them but our youth this year has taken a little bit longer to get to that point where we will be able to beat them but I think we’ll be ready on Saturday to take it to the next step. I’m hoping to beat them and I’m sure it will be a good game. It always is when we play the Warriors. They’re always intense. The teams don’t like each other,” said Dokken.

His fingers are crossed the stands will be packed for tonight’s tilt. Free tickets were distributed to minor lacrosse players in St. Albert to experience the Crude’s tradition of excellence.

“We’re hoping to have a strong contingency of Rams players out and then hopefully some of their moms and dads will come and watch as well,” he said. “It’s going to be exciting.”

Sunday the Crude plays the Red Deer Rampage (2-0-1), the defending provincial champion, at 12:30 p.m. at Akinsdale.

Two weekends ago the Crude lost 7-5 in Red Deer.