(Submitted photo/Lucas Wells)

By Nolan Kowal

Gunning for nationals

‘Prove everybody wrong’: P.A. lacrosse team trying to make history

May 21, 2024 | 12:00 PM

A Prince Albert lacrosse team is trying to represent Saskatchewan on the national stage for the first time ever.

The U21 Prince Albert Predators will enter the playdowns for the Junior B national championships with the team in the midst of a strong regular season.

“We had always known we had a chance to make some noise within Saskatchewan lacrosse as we developed,” said Predators Head Coach and GM Lucas Wells, who has been with this group of kids since they were 13 and 14 years old. “And I think that this year with the older group of kids that we have, we have a chance to do something that P.A. Lacrosse has never done, which is send a a team to nationals.”

“We’ve sent lots of players to nationals for Team Sask. events, but this being a primarily focused P.A. team… I think it’s a huge thing for lacrosse and I think it’s a huge thing to grow the game in P.A. as well.”

The Predators are currently 6-0 on the season. The team competes in the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League. They lost the 2022 league final before winning the league last year and trying to capture back-to-back titles this year.

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(Submitted photo/Lucas Wells)

The PGLL is considered a Tier 2 league, meaning that the Predators will have to beat teams from Regina and Saskatoon, who are both Tier 1, if they want to qualify for nationals.

The Predators will play Saskatoon on Friday, May 24. If they win that game, they’ll play a best-of-three series against Regina to determine the representative.

“So I think the guys have kind of looked at it as we’re underdogs and nobody expects us to win,” Wells said. “I mean on paper and you look at the leagues, we’re supposed to lose by 10 in each game right? So they’ve taken the challenge head on which is awesome as well.”

Wells said he’s confident his team will be competitive during the national qualifying process.

“If I wasn’t confident with the group we had I don’t think we would have put our name forward,” he said. “To be very frank when we put our name in we got a lot of flak both from Saskatoon and Regina. Both cities said their Tier 1 teams don’t play Tier 2 teams. Which we kind of took offence to because we’re not necessarily a Tier 2 team.”

“We believe that we’re a Tier 1 team, maybe a better team than that,” Wells said. “We’re going to do everything we can to prove everybody wrong in the province.”

The Predators’ regular season and playoffs run until the end of July. Nationals will take place in Hamilton, Ont. in August.

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com