U13 Timbermen kick off ALL youth league
The Arena Lacrosse League held its first under-13 games at the Memorial Centre on Saturday as it tries to expand to youth and junior divisions.
The Peterborough U13 Timbermen beat the Oshawa Outlaws 16-1 and 11-10 in two afternoon games. The ALL, which started last year with a men’s league, also has U13 teams in Whitby, Six Nations and Paris. ALL founder Paul St. John said U22 and U18 divisions should be a go and there is hope for a U15 division but right now there is a shortage of players.
Peterborough’s Mike Hainer, who co-coaches the U13 Timbermen with Garnet Sage, has been recruited as convener for the youth divisions. Peterborough has enough players for a U15 team but other centres are struggling to pull together teams. Peterborough will not floor U18 or U22 teams this year.
St. John ran junior divisions when he operated the Canadian Lacrosse League (Clax).
“It’s important for the kids to play,” said St. John. “There is not enough lacrosse in the winter time. I know everyone gets tunnel vision with hockey in the winter and I don’t blame them, it is our winter sport, but we do have some floor time and we can get floor time so for kids who want to play lacrosse we want to give them that opportunity.”
The majority of games are played at Children’s Arena in Oshawa and a few at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Six Nations. Registration is $250 which includes 10 games, playoffs, a jersey, shorts and insurance for a season which starts in early January and ends prior to March Break.
St. John said the emphasis is on fun and opportunity.
“It’s serious to the point where you do play games but it’s fun. Get a stick in your hands, learn the skills, develop a little bit over the winter months and take it back to your summer leagues,” he said.
Sage said not every child wants to play hockey in the winter and this gives children who prefer lacrosse a chance to play.
“We’re at the grassroots level so there are going to be some bumps along the way,” said Sage. “Going forward we’ll do a better job at recruiting the kids and putting the word out there and make it more accessible in hopes we have more games in Peterborough. We’re still open to having new players. We don’t want any kid who is sitting at home who wants to play lacrosse to not play. We will find a spot for them.”
Aiden Waller scored three goals in the two games against Oshawa.
“It was an awesome chance to play with some people I know and to get to know some other people,” said Waller. “I think we played absolutely fantastic. We worked the ball around really good.”
Nate Sage scored 11 goals in the two games in his first experience with winter lacrosse.
“It was fun to play with people from out of town and with different types of players,” said Nate. “It’s good for me because come tryouts I’ll be ready.”
Also scoring for Peterborough was Tyson Forget with four goals, Claire Shaughnessy, Keegan Parker and Eric Hainer with two each and singles to Jared Martinell, Marielle Collins and Abby Sarginson.
All divisions are still accepting players and you don’t have to come from a specific city to play on a team.
“We’ll find you a team,” said St. John.
He’d also like to run a women’s league. For more information visit www.arenalacrosseleague.ca or email paul.stjohn@arenalacrosseleague.com.