Lacrosse club season

The Waikato lacrosse club season is about to start with players also eyeing a chance to trial for a team to compete in Australia.

Waikato had huge success sending three teams to the National Under 15s national tournament in Auckland placing 1st, 3rd and 4th while the region’s two teams to the National Under 18s tournament in Wellington placed 1st and 3rd.

Many of the players in those Waikato teams were selected from Cambridge High School and St Peter’s School, Cambridge teams which dominated the national secondary school competition.

They’ll now be heading into the Waikato club season and the competition includes clubs from Cambridge, Kaipaki, Te Awamutu, Hamilton East, Hamilton West, Hamilton North, Matamata and Morrinsville.

The club season runs from September to March. The competition is likely to be used to select players for the Waikato Womens Under 18 team, to compete in the Australian Under 18 national tournament in Melbourne, in April next year.

Trials for the under 18s will be held in November and the team’s head coach Ursula Johnson, from Cambridge, is excited about the level of talented players she’s likely to have at her disposal.

‘‘We’ve got some really experienced and talented players coming through now so it’s quite a pleasure to be in that position.’’ Johnson said efforts to introduce the sport to younger age groups was beginning to produce results.

‘‘For many of these players their long term development goal is to make the New Zealand team to compete at the Lacrosse World Cup in 2019.’’One of the long term development of players includes preparing a team to compete at the Lacrosse World Cup in 2019.

A venue has yet to be determined but previous World Cup tournaments had been held in Scotland and Canada while the US, Australia and England also have venues capable of holding the major Cup event.