The Chads are turning 40 this year.
Combine the experience and wisdom of team captain Chad Pounder and goalie Chad Pieper with the enthusiasm of a good core of young players and new recruits, and the Armstrong Shamrocks are set to defend their Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League playoff championship.
The regular season for the Irish begins tonight at home, at 8 p.m., when they take on the Kamloops Rattlers at the Nor-Val Sports Centre.
“Both Chads bring a lot to the table in terms of providing experience and leadership,” said Shamrocks coach Ryan Nitchie. “We have a full roster with veterans and new players graduating from the Junior Shamrocks moving up to our program which will be a boon for us.”
The Shamrocks won their first Rowcliffe Cup and Shaw Cup – the latter lovingly described by the team as “Canada’s second oldest, smallest, dented lacrosse trophy” which resides permanently in the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum and Art Gallery – in 12 years last July, beating the Kelowna Raiders 8-4 in the third and deciding game of the playoff championship before a packed house at Nor-Val.
Two weeks later, Armstrong hosted the provincial invitational Senior C Lacrosse championships, featuring 12 teams, and won the silver medal.
“We always keep on building and improving,” said Nitchie. “Last year was a first, huge step for us in terms of turning a corner from some rough years.”
Jarrett Medhurst, who scored three times in the Game 3 cup clincher, will have limited availability in 2016 due to work commitments. Returning to the Shamrocks to help with the offence will be veterans Steve Clark and Kyle Versteeg, and second-year player Carston Schlaak.
The ‘Rocks have also added, from Revelstoke, sniper Steve McIlwrath, a former professional player in the Ontario-based Canadian Lacrosse League.
Pieper will get help in goal from former Vernon Junior Tigers netminder Cody O’Brien, whose father, Kelly, was a defender with the Shamrocks in the 1970s.
n The Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League’s annual Archie Jack Ice Breaker tournament goes Saturday at the Nor-Val Sports Centre.
The Vernon Sun Valley Source For Sports Tigers meet the Armstrong Shamrocks at 10 a.m.
The Tigers take on the South Okanagan Flames at 2:30 while the Shamrocks play their second game at 4 p.m. against the Kelowna Raiders.
