Riggers getting it done in NLL

April 15th, 2008 by Bob Chavez

If you wanna talk adversity, you wanna talk with the Calgary Roughnecks. If you wanna talk about playing through adversity in the National Lacrosse League, you’ll still wanna talk with the Roughnecks because if any team’s been the example of how to get it done this season, it’s the Riggers.

Yesterday, we provided a link to a story about how the Riggers won’t stop believing, and that story from the Calgary Sun even referenced Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” tune being cranked in the locker room following Saturday’s win over Edmonton. It was almost an afterthought on our news page, but when ya stop to think about it, the Roughnecks deserve some serious props for stickin’ to their guns and … well, the way they just won’t stop believing.

“A lot of people have written us off, so they can say whatever they want to say,” Tracey Kelusky told the newspaper. “At the end of the day, it’s what the group of men in this locker-room think. That’s all we care about. And we believe.”

If anyone knows, it’s Kelusky. Dude has played just five games this season as he sorts out the lingering effects of a concussion. Add to that the concussion issues goalie Steve Dietrich’s battled through, the trading away of elite scorer Lewis Ratcliff, the minor uproar earlier this season when another top scorer, Kaleb Toth, was a healthy scratch for what many said was a “wake-up” message, and it’s pretty amazing you’ve got a club that’s still contending for the playoffs.

But that’s exactly what they’ve got in Calgary. A 3-1 start to the season was erased quickly by a three-game losing streak and as the club played through injuries and maddening inconsistency, you gotta think that Calgary’s sorta like the Knighthawks of the West. The record and their place in the standings doesn’t exactly sparkle, but you sure as hell don’t wanna face these guys in the playoffs, because you know they’ve got the guns to make a run to the top.

East vs. West: East leads 14-4: Rochester D&C

Chavez is an avid lacrosse player in Rochester and a journalist for the Democrat and Chronicle as well as a longtime Inside Lacrosse contributor. Email him at bob.chavez@nllinsider.com or go to RochesterSports.com.

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