The ice is gone, but the Rotary Spirit Centre was bustling with activity as the Westlock Rock kicked off the season with a lacrosse day April 9.
“It’s just a full day to get together for team pictures, sell apparel and a couple practices for the younger guys,” said lacrosse coach and board director Brian Hegedus.
Teams played exhibition games and practiced during the four-hour jamboree, enabling veterans to reconnect after the off-season and new players to get in the groove.
In spite of not having enough bodies to field a junior-level team this season, spirits are high among the young teams. Hegedus estimated that there were around 140 players registered this year.
“These are all returning players from before and our teams all look pretty strong. We’ve got some pretty good sized teams this year,” he said.
“We could probably take some more registrants if people are interested, but we’re getting pretty full.”
In total, Westlock will field seven teams — one mini-tyke, one tyke, two novices, pee wee boys and girls teams, bantam boys and girls teams and a boys midget club.
“This week we’ve just been getting all the teams together, everyone’s meeting all the coaches and stuff.”
As the season officially started April 3, teams are working hard to finalize their rosters and Hegedus said that practices start this week.
“We had to cancel a few practices this week because some of the coaches needed to attend lacrosse seminars first,” he explained. “They’re all experienced coaches, they’ve been at it for a couple of years.”
Hegedus expressed his thanks to the community for the support the teams had received so far and said he was expecting the rock to make a solid impact this year.
“People are helping out, we’ve have a few guys step up to be coaches this year,” he said. “Everybody’s looking forward to it.”
The first home game for the Rock will see the pee wee girls taking on the Sherwood Park Titans April 22 at noon.
