At long last, members of the Langley Thunder Senior A Thunder were finally able to step on the floor for some Western Lacrosse Association action.
Fourteen members of the Thunder made up the majority of Team White on Saturday (Aug. 7) afternoon as part of the WLA Xtreme Future Stars event held at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex in Coquitlam. The event was sponsored by Xtreme Threads.
Welcome to The Palace on Poirier! 👀
We are less than 90 minutes away from our first game. Be sure to catch all the action on @BCSportsTV!
🎥: https://t.co/mNf3SjNQFm@xtremethreads | #WLAFutureStars pic.twitter.com/aqhqhrE4CB
— Western Lacrosse Asc (@WLALacrosse) August 7, 2021
With the 2020 and 2021 seasons lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WLA announced it would be hosting the event to provide graduating junior players and recently drafted senior players a chance to showcase their skills in advance of the 2022 season.
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“We know our players, coaches, and fans were deeply disappointed by the cancellation of the 2020 and ’21 WLA seasons due to the pandemic, but the WLA Xtreme Future Stars event is a chance to watch the best young talent in the British Colubia get ready for 2022,” said WLA commissioner Paul Dal Monte.
The event consisted of 54 players born between 1997 and 1999 from the seven WLA clubs who were divided into three teams: Team White, Team Black and Team Gold.
Team White was made up primarily of Thunder players with an all-Langley coaching staff as head coach Rob Jensen ran the bench with Dave Pym and Chris Hackle serving as assistants.
Caleb Pearson, Cal Slade, Quinn McKitrick, Thomas Vaesen, Jordan Roberts, Erik Maas, Aaron Skye, Aidan Ellis, Harrison Smith, Keegan Bell, Nathaniel Kozevnikov, Jordan Trottier, Matt Brunsch and Gordon Bowden were the Langley players on Team White and they were joined by Burnaby Lakers’ Kieran McKay as well as New Westminster Salmonbellies’ Kyle Mooney, who split goaltending duties with Bowden.
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Each team played two games with Team White doubling Team Black 8-4 in the first game of the day before Team Gold blanked Team Black 8-0 in the middle game. The final game of the day was also the closest contest of the three with Team Gold edging team White 7-6.
Saturday’s showcase also featured the WLA Xtreme Junior Showcase, consisting of 46 final-year players from the BC Junior A Lacrosse League. The players were divided into two teams with Team Black (featuring Langley Junior A Thunder players Ronaldo Tomas and Ryan Jensen) defeating Team White (which had the Thunder’s Trevayne Hunter and goaltender Dryden Recsky) 15-6. Jensen, Pym and Hackle also ran the bench for Team White.
WLA is an amateur men’s Senior A box lacrosse league sanctioned by the Canadian Lacrosse Association. The WLA consists of seven teams based in cities throughout southwestern B.C.
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