Lacrosse teams from Vanderhoof had great results at the Provincials, held last month. The midget team finished first in Level C, while the bantams placed second overall (also in Level C).
Bantam coach Mark Gauthier is pleased with his team’s finish in Kelowna, which followed a 10-game season that began with practices in April. “The team played in the Great White North zone—against teams in Williams Lake, Prince George, Quesnel, Fort St. John, and Mackenzie—and finished in second,” says Gauthier. The team automatically qualified for the Provincials as the only bantam team in zone 7, and played a round robin tournament with two pools of four teams. After being beaten only once—by Penticton—Vanderhoof squared off against the first place team in the other pool, and defeated them to get to the gold medal match. Their opponent was once again Penticton, and the boys from the Okanagan edged out Vanderhoof for first place.
Four Vanderhoof players—Addison Miller-Gauthier, Josh vander Geisen, Ethan Floris, and Simon Nemethy—were named game all stars, with Nemethy named the team MVP.
The midget team’s win came against all odds, as players from Vanderhoof joined forces with players from Mackenzie in order to have a team. The boys seldom had a chance to practice together; instead they trained separately, then travelled to match locations to play as a team. Coach Gauthier hopes that in the upcoming season some of this year’s bantam team might be able to move up to the midget level, enabling Vanderhoof to field a full team.
Barbara Roden