Oceanside Minor Lacrosse has been looking for a way to turn around dwindling participation in recent years. It may have found just the solution.
For the first time in more than 20 years of play on the mid-Island, the organization will host a provincial championship tournament this summer when the B.C. Bantam Box Lacrosse Championships come to Parksville’s Oceanside Place July 13-17.
“We’ve been trying to get provincials here for many years,” said John Shafi, president of the association. “Once the kids come and see it, they may think it’s a game they can get into. Especially the younger kids that already play and bring their friends.”
The bantam Sharks will automatically seed into the tourney as the host team.
The tournament, which will be co-hosted by Nanaimo Minor Lacrosse, will bring 25 to 30 teams, across all tiering levels, and hundreds of athletes and family members to the mid-Island for four days of play and the traditional parade of athletes.
“It will bring a lot of people here,” said Cameron Miller, who coached the Oceanside midgets into the provincial championships in 2016. “It’s amazing how big these tournaments are.”
Markus Goodman of the Oceanside Peewee Sharks box lacrosse team, right, knocks the ball away from Campbell River’s Brandon Babcock during a game last season at Howie Meeker Arena in Parksville. — Image credit: J.R. Rardon/PQB NEWS
Registration for the coming season has already begun, and Oceanside Minor Lacrosse will host a month of preseason, drop-in gym sessions for interested players at Springwood Elementary School. The sessions begin Monday, Jan. 9, and run each Monday throughout January. Novice and peewee players (born 2005-2008) have the floor from 6-7 p.m. each week, while bantams and midgets (born 2001-2004) will play from 7-8 p.m.
Drop-in players do not need to be registered with Oceanside Minor Lacrosse, but will need a waiver signed by a parent or guardian, Shafi said.
The season begins in earnest with practices and tryouts — if needed — in March, with games beginning in April.
The need for tryouts for the association’s teams has been sporadic at best in recent seasons as the club’s numbers have plummeted.
“We had about 250 kids at our peak,” Shafi said. “Last year we were down to 90. When Al Halverson got it going back in the 90s, we had two or three tyke teams every year. Last year we were down to one. We really need to bolster those 6-7 and 8-9 (year old) age groups, so we have enough players by the time they’re midgets.”
Last year’s midget Sharks team was light on numbers, which hurt the squad when injuries — including one to its starting goalie — struck at midseason. But the team rallied to place second in the Vancouver Island championships and earn a spot into the provincials. It was the first such appearance by any of those players, at any age level.
“I think (the 2017 tournament) will probably help us with numbers the next season,” Miller said.
But Shafi is hoping the promise of a big lacrosse show in town this year will attract more participation this spring and summer — both on the floor and in supporting roles.
“We really need ex-lacrosse players to referee and coach,” he said. “We’re really getting down in referees.”
For more information or to contact association officials, visit online at oceansidelacrosse.com or Facebook.com/OceansideLacrosseAssociation.
