Priolo wheels into action as ’Rocks entertain Lakers
Steve Priolo’s love of Vancouver Island has brought him back to the Victoria Shamrocks for the 2017 Western Lacrosse Association season.
Actually, it was his 2006 Chevrolet van — complete with a unique hand-painted mural, featuring a couple of alien forms, one carrying a lacrosse stick (representing Steve) and the other a hockey stick (symbolizing his fiancée, Jacqueline, who coaches hockey) — that brought him back to the Island.
The two slapped the mural on prior to heading west.
“It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” said the six-foot-five, 235-pound behemoth, who can be a menace on the lacrosse floor, but is very much a character off it. One look at the van tells you that.
Priolo arrived to Victoria just in time for the Shamrocks’ opening 10-9 win over Langley last Friday. He will be an integral part of the club tonight when the team plays host to the Burnaby Lakers at 7 p.m. at The Q Centre.
Following the opening win, the St. Catharines, Ont., native climbed back behind the wheel and headed to Tofino for a few days of frolicking before returning for practice on Monday night.
“I’m not really a surfer, but when you go to Tofino you’ve got to surf, right?” he said, his board still strapped to his precious ride, which he intends to live in all summer. “It gives me the freedom to do stuff like that.”
He purchased the vehicle 10 days before he left, and “basically turned it into a house. I hopped in it and drove across to join the Shamrocks,” he said of the fourday journey.
Jacqueline, now teaching in Ontario, will join him at the end of June. He began his adventure near Niagara Falls, then dropped Jacqueline off in Algonquin Provincial Park, where she was chaperoning a school trip.
“I just peeled out from there,” he said with a chuckle prior to an early-week practice. “I’ve been here a few days and it’s been nonstop, just doing all the fun and favourite stuff I did back in 2015. It’s nice having the van, because you don’t have to have a home base that you have to come back to. You just keep going from one spot to the next — all your favourite stops.”
Which Victoria has become for the member of the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League. “There’s so much to do. The people here are so great. It’s that West Coast culture or British Columbia culture. When you get to the Island, it has all the great things about the West Coast culture in a small community. Everybody seems connected to each other and I really like that.”
And the Shamrocks love having the rugged defender — a fourtime finalist for NLL defender of the year — back, especially after he helped the club to the Mann Cup championship back in 2015.
“It’s a memory I’ll keep forever,” Priolo said of the national title, his first. “It’s one I want to keep repeating, too. Now that I have this van, maybe I can just keep coming back out.”
In 2015, he also won a world championship along with then Shamrocks teammates Aaron Bold (who is also returning to Victoria this year), Dan Dawson and Ryan Dilks.
“I think we can do it again,” Priolo said of the Shamrocks’ goals for 2017. “You look around: It’s not the same team we had in 2015, but that could be a good thing or a bad thing. Everyone here is willing to win, and the culture that the Shamrocks have puts us slightly ahead. If everyone’s on an equal playing field, the Shamrocks usually come out ahead just because of our teamwork and our coaches.”
Head coach Bob Heyes is delighted to have Priolo back on an interprovincial transfer from the Brooklin Redmen of Whitby, Ont.
“Priolo is a guy that brings leadership, brings a calming influence to the team. He’s been through a lot of pro-league stuff and he truly wants to be here, which is huge,” Heyes said. “He wants to come back. He loves it here. He loves the Island life.
“It’s a neat story, him coming out here in the van,” Heyes added of Priolo’s excursion. “I think he would love to live out here, if he or his fiancée could find a job out here.
“He’s a part of that puzzle that you need to go a long way. He’s a huge part of that, for sure. It’s nice to see a familiar face from 2015. Having him here, and eventually having Boldy [Aaron Bold] here, will be nice — it has a good feel to it.”
And don’t let the van fool you. Priolo is all business on the floor.
“I’m here to win,” the 28-yearold stressed. “I wouldn’t come back out here just to have a good time, as fun as driving out to Tofino is or running mountains around here is. It’s not the same memory without winning — and that’s what I expect to do.”
CLOVER POINTS: The Shamrocks should have veterans Greg Harnett, Rhys Duch and Chris Wardle back in the lineup for tonight, with newcomers Sheldon Burns and Tristan Rai also here. First-round draft pick Evan Messenger is doubtful due to his ankle injury.