School is now in session for the St. Albert Crude with 15 first-year junior B Tier I lacrosse players.
“We’re ready to go but we’re very, very young this year,” said Terry Dokken, head coach and president of the Crude Lacrosse Club.
The injection of players from the midget ranks is significant compared to other years, according to Dokken. The 22-man roster consists of players that are turning 17 years old or already are 17 this year and the maximum age is 21.
“It’s a rebuilding year for sure. We’re going to take it game by game. We have to teach pretty much everything, all our systems – power plays and breakouts and short man and offence and defence. We have to teach the full slate. It’s going to be a huge learning curve for these guys but they’re an enthusiastic group. That’s a good thing. They want to learn,” Dokken said “We’ve got a good core of veterans that will make it that much more easier for these guys so it will be good.”
The Crude run the floor in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League in Friday’s home opener against the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels at 9 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The next day the Crude are in Red Deer to play the Rampage at 2:30 p.m.
“We’re pretty excited. Lacrosse season has started again so that’s a good thing. We wait all year for this,” Dokken said.
Last year the Crude finished fourth out of five teams in the north division at 8-13, with a goals for/against of minus-33.
The Crude hosted provincials but were unsuccessful in qualifying for the four-team tournament after losing the best-of-five semifinal to the Rampage, first in the north at 15-5-1, by scores of 10-6 and 6-3 in Red Deer and 5-3 in St. Albert.
The Rampage and Manitoba Blizzard of Winnipeg were the north reps and the Saskatchewan SWAT and Calgary Chill were the south division teams at provincials. The Rampage and Chill competed to see who finished higher at provincials for a berth at Founders’ Cup national championship, hosted by the Calgary Mountaineers from the south. The Blizzard and SWAT already had automatic berths for nationals.
The SWAT, Blizzard and Chill placed first, second and third, respectively, at provincials and at nationals the Mountaineers were the bronze medallists and the Blizzard were the Tier II champions.
“We were very successful considering we had a big turnover last year as well. I think we had 14 new players on our team, not necessarily first years but new players, so our goal was to make the playoffs last year and we did. We had a good three-game series against Red Deer and lost three very close games,” Dokken said. “Come playoff time we had some key injuries that hurt us but for the most part it was a good year.”
The loss of Cam Ellingson, the team’s MVP last year and third overall pick in the RMLL senior B north junior draft by the Warriors, Simon Hansen, the top scorer with 34 goals and 62 points in 20 games, goalie Cory Evans and other veterans has opened the door for others to step up and play more active roles with the Crude.
“We’ve got some strong players playing offence this year for us. Ben Holowaty will be a leader. We’ve got a player that came back from junior A, Jesse Ott, and he’s going to be a leader for us. He’s a nice addition out the front gate,” Dokken said. “Our captain, Brody Tod, will be a real asset this year. He’s one of the best all-around players in this league but we don’t get him until probably I would say the middle of May or towards the end of May because he’s still coming off his knee injury from last year. He’s got at least I would say another three weeks to a month to heal and then he should be ready to go.”
The calibre of competition in junior B Tier I lacrosse is similar, in comparison to hockey, to the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“There is only one level of junior lacrosse above us (junior A in the RMLL) and the Alberta Junior Hockey League there is only one level above them, the WHL. It’s very, very similar to that skill-wise. I would use that as a very good comparison for sure,” Dokken said.
Visit www.crudelax.ca for more information on the Crude.
