NANAIMO — All three of the top local box lacrosse teams made league playoffs in 2023 with varying degrees of success.
Both the Senior B and Junior A Timbermen teams lost out to Victoria rivals in the opening round of their playoffs and the Senior A Timbermen are about to embark on their own post season journey.
The WLA squad started with a best of five series against the Langley Thunder which opened Tuesday, Aug. 1 with a 14-6 loss in Game 1.
The Tmen are set to host the Thunder on Thursday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.
Despite the series opening loss team president Chris Bowman believes playing a tough opponent right of the hop can be a good thing.
“I think it’s good to start with Langley but we’ve got to win two series to reach our goal. It’s a team we’ve had success against so it’s just a matter of going out and executing now.”
The Senior B Timbermen were back on the floor after a three year absence from the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association and for player and team co-organizer Doug Langlois it was very successful.
“We may not have reached the on floor goal of making it to the league finals but we had a close, hard fought five game series against Victoria where we just came up short. The focus this season was getting the team back on the floor and being a competitive team again.”
Langlois said the Senior B team will continue and get stronger in 2024.
“We had about ten players getting their first taste of senior lacrosse and they gained a lot of experience. Plus Nanaimo has turned itself into a great junior lacrosse program and we will be an option for any of the graduating junior players that may not make the jump to the WLA.”
The Junior A Timbermen had an excellent campaign in 2023 finishing in third place with a 14-7 record in the BC Junior A Lacrosse League.
Nanaimo lost out in three straight games to the second place Victoria Shamrocks in the playoffs but a strong core of returnees should allow the club to be a contender next season.
“We do graduate a few players from Junior A,” Bowman said.
As president of the Senior A, Junior A and Tier 1 Junior B Timbermen programs he believes in building a pipeline between the organizations.
“There’s some very strong players coming up from Tier 1 to fill in those spaces and those two programs are on a very high trajectory.”
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