All the Shuswap Outlaws Lacrosse teams had good results at the Interior Zone championships held on June 24 and 25, but the Bantam team stood out, punching their ticket to provincials with a thrilling victory over Kamloops.
The Shuswap Outlaws Novice team had a great growth season ending up fourth in the zone. Many of this group of kids will move up to PeeWee next year, bringing a lot of excitement with them.
The Shuswap Outlaw PeeWee team also placed fourth in the zone this year. They were down some key players this past weekend, but played strong as a team and capped off a great season.
The Shuswap Bantam team narrowly missed the 2017 League Championship and therefore went into the zone championship in second place.
Saturday’s games against third and fourth-placed Penticton and North Okanagan were well played and the Shuswap Outlaws came out on top. However, first-place Kamloops played the same teams and also won both of their games as well. This set the stage for the battle of first and second for not only the 2017 Zone Championship, but also the lone berth at the 2017 Bantam Provincials in Parksville and Nanaimo July 13.
Shuswap Outlaws played strong as a team, passing up the floor to make some amazing goals. They earned a 6-3 victory and secured their spot as the Thompson-Okanagan Minor Box Lacrosse Commission representative for the 2017 Bantam Provincials.
Players Aiden Berukoff, Alex Dunnett, Austin McKelvie, Brayden Priebe, Caden Peters, Dustin Lethbridge, Dyson Wasyliw, Jaedon Mooney, Jayden Gulka, Jude Adams, Kaleb Davis, Mike Bugarski, Nathan Davis-Lent, Ryan Candy, Sam Siarkiewicz, Skye Kohinsky and Skyler Lillie worked hard for this opportunity. The season started with Ezra Chan, Joey Cornforth, and Jesse Godwin also on the team but other commitments did not enable them to continue through the season.
The provincials are three weeks away, running July 13 to16.
The Bantam team has already begun fundraising to cover the daunting costs of travel, ferries and accommodation.
The Bantams will be helping out with the recycling at this year’s Canada Day Children’s Festival at the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds on Saturday, July 1. The Children’s Festival is donating any recyclables collected at the event towards the team’s travel cost.
The team also plans to hold car washes, raffles and bottle drives so the 12- to 14-year-old players have a chance to earn funds to cover their travel to provincials.