Teamwork will be key for B.C.’s midget girls box lacrosse team at the 2016 female box lacrosse nationals next week in Calgary.
Fortunately, this year’s team is poised to gel better than teams past, according to player Graceyn Dean, who has been at the tournament twice before.
“We’re not as strong as we were before, but we’re going to bond way better as a team than any of my other teams have before,” she told the Record. “We’re just going to be a tighter group this year; we all know each other really well. We’ve played on different teams together.”
The New Westminster Secondary Grade 11 student is one of five local players (Dean, Jessica Sowenen, Jenna Phillips, Hanna Bernoe and Shianne Lowka) on the 21-member provincial squad headed to the nationals July 19 to 23.
Compared to other tournaments, Dean described the nationals as “way more intense.”
“It’s go, go, go all the time,” she said. “There’s no stopping, no break. You have to be mentally focused and you have to be physically ready as well. Other tournaments are more for fun; this is it. This is the big tournament that everybody talks about.”
Before getting to Calgary, Dean said, the squad’s goal will be developing trust among all the players.
“Of course we want to win gold,” she said. “That’s our results goal, but if we don’t win gold, I just want to have said that we played together like a team should, not individual players who just do it for themselves.”
New Westminster also has a strong contingent on this year’s provincial bantam team.
Lauren Black, Avery Dean, Sofie Morris and Sydney Smith will travel to Calgary with the younger team.
