The junior A Nanaimo Timbermen are a team in transition, and this week’s draft will help to determine their direction.
The organization will host the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League midget draft this Saturday (Jan. 7) in Nanaimo and will have nine selections over the course of the six rounds.
Dave Bremner will be at the head of the draft table as he takes over as coach and general manager of the juniors. He previously coached the team in 2010 and 2011 and was a co-coach during the second half of 2016 and said coming off a 2-19 season, he feels like he’s got a good chance to be able to help the team improve.
“I saw potential in the team last year that didn’t materialize,” Bremner said. “So I think I’ve got the guys on board and players reporting that haven’t in the past who want to come and make a difference.”
Bremner said there are some good intermediate-level players in the organization coming up to junior, and the midget draft will add a lot of guys, some of whom might be able to help the T-men sooner than later.
“There’s some really good kids in the draft that can help our club,” said Bremner. “I’ve spoken to quite a few of them about coming up and playing and they seem eager to make a difference, and potentially at the junior A level, also.”
Nanaimo’s first selection will be 10th overall, and the T-men will have three other second-round choices.
“[We] are hopefully going to add to that with a couple of trades here and maybe some draft-day table stuff. So we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Bremner mentioned that his draft philosophy is more about filling the needs of the organization rather than always taking the best player available, but added that the junior A team has a lot of needs, both with scoring goals and limiting goals against.
“We’re hoping to come out of this with a good group to continue to build with,” he said.
The draft begins at 11 a.m. at the Bowen Park activity centre and all BCJALL teams will have representatives there.
“We’re welcoming all people to come out and cheer on the selections of the Nanaimo junior A Timbermen, to come and watch if they’d like and make some noise and make it an event,” Bremner said.
LACROSSE TALK … The Timbermen club made some other coaching announcements. Bremner will be assisted in 2017 by Bill Waddell and Steve Capello. The intermediate A T-men will be coached by Brian Suckling, with help from assistants Steve Bishop and Brett Fleming.
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