Lacrosse league looking for midget players

Posted on: March 31, 2010September 18, 2017 Staff Writer

Amy Gregson – Times Reporter

The Strathmore Minor Lacrosse league is looking for midget players for the upcoming season.

The league currently has enough players to field two small teams, but is looking for up to an additional six players to have two decent sizes teams.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see how many kids wanted to come back and play [midget],” said Todd Betterton, coach and president of Strathmore Minor Lacrosse.

“There’s a lot of running in lacrosse, so if I could find a few more kids in that midget age range it would sure help us be able to compete at a higher level because we’d have more people to do the running.”

There are currently 26 players registered and a team usually averages approximately 17 players.

Players for midget level for this season would have to be born in 1994 or 1995.

In other lacrosse news, the association will be moving back to play in the Calgary and District Lacrosse Association.

“It’s pretty exciting for the association,” said Betterton.

The team has played the last two years in the Southern Alberta Lacrosse Association, which included teams from Brooks, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

One reason the association decided to move back to CDLA was because of the travel time. Another was that teams were playing two games on Saturdays.

“Two games of a physical, hard game like lacrosse can be taxing on a young person’s body,” said Betterton.

He also said they weren’t finding the same level of play in the SALA league, facing either very strong teams or very weak teams.

“We just thought there would be more parity, which would help in our skill development and interest in the sport,” said Betterton.

The Calgary league has a tiered system because of the number of players and teams.

Strathmore teams will be ranked in the tier their coaches think they can compete at.

Also new this year is that the mini-tykes and tykes will move to a system like that of Timbit’s hockey.

These two levels will focus on skill development and compete in small scrimmages where they don’t keep score, with no physical contact, and where it’s fun for the kids.

“That’s a province-wide decision to move that way, so that’s very exciting for lacrosse in general,” said Betterton.

For more information visit www.vitalitysports.com.