NLL Insider

Q&A with New Westminster enforcer Bubba Westwood

It’s not easy for a first-year player to make his mark in the always-competitive Western Lacrosse Association. There are a few tried and true ways of getting over the rookie jitters, however. Scoring a first goal, or celebrating a first win, maybe dropping the gloves with Langley Thunder heavyweight Matt Green off the opening face-off in a pre-season game. Wait, what? Welcome to Bubba Westwood’s world. The New Westminster Salmonbellies’ defender discusses what goes on before a fight, what goes on after, and who the one player is that you’ll never see him square off with.

So why the name Bubba? Not a big Clint Eastwood fan?
No, my dad is though! READ MORE »

Update: Portland Lumberjax coaching situation

As NLL Insider reported earlier this week, the Portland Lumberjax are without former Assistant Coaches Jeremy Tavllevi and Jeff McComb, but as Lumberjax’s Managing Partner Angela Batinovich stressed to NLL Insider today, the move was not made based on the two coach’s performances over the past three seasons with the club, but rather for other reasons.

The team is in the process of making their lacrosse operations more efficient and could no longer fly in their entire bench staff from throughout Ontario to Portland every week for games and practices.

Although current GM and Head Coach Derek Keenan also lives in the same province as his former assistants, the team is currently working on an offer that would keep Keenan in the same situation he is currently serving with the club. Keenan’s contract with the team expired after this season. He would remain a weekly fly-in if he stays with the franchise. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A: Shamrocks’ Cayle Ratcliff breaks down the West

The season out west has been surprising to say the least! If you can’t figure out the reasoning behind the standings and scores, you’re not the only one.

This year, there is more parity in the league than ever before and on any given night any team can beat another. When you look at a team like New West, who lost to Poco twice and then beat Burnaby, Victoria and Coquitlam it’s crazy. Poco beat Victoria, New West and then turned around and beat South Frasier 6-5. Just goes to show it’s anyone’s year!

This season a lot of people counted Burnaby out early, which was an obvious mistake. Burnaby is a team that has what other teams don’t: knowing how to win, with a winner’s mentality. If you’ve been in the Minto Cup for the last 100 years straight, then you know how to win. Most teams lack that winning mentality, which can only come from dominating the league for so many seasons. For us it’s gut check time!

We have the core of our schedule coming up with Burnaby twice, Poco, Coquitlam and New West all within the next three weeks. We will definitely see if we’re going to be contenders or pretenders.

Things are starting to shape up for a good season of lacrosse. Teams are finally showing their full rosters and there should be some great games to watch around B.C. in the coming weeks.

National Junior Player of the Year

Last night, Syracuse scoring machine Mike Leveille was awarded the Tweaaraton Trophy as the college game’s top stud.

For those not familiar with what the Tewaaraton is, checkout this link…

But in short, it’s the hardware that’s handed out to the best lacrosse player playing NCAA ball, for both the guys and the ladies.

Guys like Mikey Powell, Matt Ward, Kyle Harrison and former Albany Attack forward and Hofstra stud middie, Doug Shanahan, are past winners. The nod’s been handed out since 2001 and is definitely one of the game’s most anticipated announcements every year. So definitely big congrats to Mike for last night’s honour, and to Hannah Neilsen from Northwestern for being named top female in 08 too.

That brings me to us. What does our game have to honour our Junior level ballers?

In short, nuthin’. READ MORE »

Six Nations Jr. wins, Sr. loses, and KW tops Barrie

Well, you can’t win ‘em all, so for now Stephen Keogh will have to settle for an NCAA National Championship as his Toronto Beaches fell to the Six Nations Arrows 9-2 last night in the lone Ontario Jr. A game. Keogh scored both of the Beaches goals, teaming up with Branden Collins each time.

For the first place and undefeated Six Nations Arrows, Mitch Nanticoke turned in a five goal two assist game and Cody Jamieson hit the back of the net twice while assisting on three. Angus Goodleaf stopped 41 of 43.

The Six Nations Chiefs weren’t so fortunate, dropping a 12-10 decision to the Brampton Excelsiors in Major Series Lacrosse action. Brampton capitalized on a strong second period, outscoring Six Nations 8-3 to rebound from a slow start and build the two goal lead they’d end the game with.

Brodie Merrill and Dan Dawson had four points apiece for the Excelsiors, while Colin Doyle popped in three goals. Anthony Cosmo earned the win in net. For the Chiefs, Casey Powell had two goals and two assists and Cody Jacobs had one and three.

Elsewhere in Sr. A, the K-W Kodiaks beat the Barrie Lakeshores 7-6.

Six-goal first period gives New West fourth win

The Sr. A New Westminster Salmonbellies stayed perfect with a convincing 8-3 win over the Nanaimo Timbermen last night, inching into the shared top spot in the WLA. Both the Bellies and the Victoria Shamrocks currently boast a record of 4-0.

The Bellies got the early jump on the Timbermen, slipping six goals past goaltender Matt King to go up 6-1 in the first and then maintaining that five goal lead for the next forty minutes. Tyler Crompton and Chris Gill had two goals apiece while Darren McEwan added one goal and two helpers and Tyler Richards made 35 saves. Mike Morrison had one goal and two assists for the Timbermen. King made 30 saves in the loss, with half of those saves coming in the first period where he faced a total of 21 shots.

Portland Lumberjax fire assistant coaches

NLL Insider has learned from numerous sources that the Portland Lumberjax have fired Assistant Coaches Jeremy Tallevi and Jeff McComb.

It appears that those are the only two firings from the current staff, leaving Derek Keenan as both the team’s Gerenal Manager and Heach Coach.

The three coaches had been together since taking over the bench with the Anaheim Storm in 2005, before making the move to Portland a year later, where Kenann was named both the NLL’s GM and Coach of the year. A season later, the team struggled and failed to make the post-season but rebounded in 2008, finding their way to the Champion’s Cup final, but lossing to the Buffalo Bandits 14-13.

It’s expected an official announcement from the Lumberjax will be made soon, although it’s unknown who Tallevi and McComb’s replacements might be.

The Money Ballers: JR A Edition

Word to the wise, when you sign yourself up to tackle a project like The Money Ballers, do not wait for something like 75 games to be played before you start sifting through the digits, unless you have like seven straight hours to kill.

Anyways, my back might look like Quasimodo’s hump and my vision is about as blurred as you can get, but not to worry, the first edition of the Junior A Money Ballers is complete… every God damn game included, even last night’s trio. READ MORE »

Is the East taking over Canadian lacrosse?

Talk about an all out defection. People always used to say there was something in the west coast water that attracted eastern players to pack an overnight bag and shack up on the left coast for a few months. Maybe it was lack of humidity during the late summer months that attracted the players. Or was it the fact that instead of a 6 hour bus ride in rush hour traffic through downtown Toronto to the ‘Borough, the longest trip was a 15 minute flight and 30 minute bus ride. Regardless, in years past the West Coast has seen the likes of JT, Jim Veltman, Colin Doyle, Tracy Kelusky, Dan Dawson, Anthony Cosmo, Ryan Cousins and the list goes on, but for some reason this season there are no big name Eastern Studs calling BC home this summer.

What’s worse, is the East is now rumored to be drawing some of the West’s home grown talent. With Mr. Saturday Night Rob Van Beek already suiting up for St. Regis and the gossip mill swirling that NLL Scoring Champ Athan Iannucci is following suit, the WLA has lost two of its top young guns to a Major Series league that is dominating the name game.
READ MORE »

CLA Power Rankings

Ok, ranking the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA) Senior lacrosse teams is not quite as easy as the NLL. (Come to think of it, ranking the NLL teams is not so easy either. Look at where I had the New York Titans at the beginning of the season). There is no interlocking schedule between east and west and we only get to see the best of the East against the best of the West at Mann Cup time in September. You can argue till your blue in the face that the second best team in Ontario is better than the best of the West but you’ll never get a chance to prove it.

Last NLL season I was able to see every team play live at least once and many teams a handful of times. I traveled to the West Coast 8 times so I got a pretty good feel for both Divisions. I don’t think I’ll be making any trips to BC this summer so I’ll be relying heavily on my Western sources during the season. I’ll also be getting a lot of opinions from players and coaches in the East. I doubt any of them will want to go on record so it will be up to me to piss people off. To start off you WLA fans might as well get used to it now. The East is dominant in 2008. Check out the top 15 scorers in the NLL, other than Lewis Ratcliff they all play in the East. READ MORE »

Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) up-date

In Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) action, Victoria looks to be back to its old form after an off year in 2007. The Victoria Shamrocks (4-0) and the New Westminster Salmonbellies (3-0) have both been perfect out of the gate.

Lewis Ratcliff (10g, 12a) is tearing it up. He now has 10 goals and 22 points in four games played and leads the league in scoring. Shamrock teammates Ryder Bateman (6g, 9a) and Kelly Hall (4g, 10a) also sit Top 4 in league scoring, while Tyler Heavenor (5g, 3a) sits fourth in team scoring.

READ MORE »

NLL Girl of the Week, semifinals: It’s Ashley vs. Elizabeth

Who says we’re out of game? Just because the lacrosse players themselves have crowned a champion doesn’t mean we’re finished with the National Lacrosse League season.

That’s because Crystal of the New York Titans is our first official finalist in our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest. She dusted Megan fairly easily in voting this past week for a 311-234 score. And don’t worry, there’ll be no 311 tribute videos at the end of this announcement to honor the winning vote total. Last time I did that, Teddy Jenner didn’t understand it so we’ll keep it simple this time around. As it is, we’re on to the second semfinal, pitting Chicago’s Ashley up against Elizabeth of the Philadelphia Wings.

So do your homework, turn the page and cast your vote so we find out who’s gonna go up against Crystal for the overall title.

READ MORE »

NLL approves new ownership for Rochester Knighthawks

The word out of the National Lacrosse League office this afternoon is that the league has approved the sale of the Rochester Knighthawks to new majority owner Curt Styres.

According to the NLL, the sale price to Styres was $5.75 million dollars, the highest price for a franchise in league history. In 1999, the club was purchased for $250,000. There’s some ironing to do, though. The approval of the sale is conditional on the club securing a lease with the cit of Rochester at Blue Cross Arena, which is in downtown Rochester. That’s where the team has played since its inception in 1995, but the recent talks of a lease between the club and the city have hit rough patches over the last few months. Still, it’s nothing that appears to be insurmountable and there is plenty of reason to remain optimistic.

“The history of our sport is very rich in the culture and traditions of the Native North American people, and it gives us great pride to have the first Native North American owner of a major pro sports franchise here in the NLL. Curt is a great man and a very successful businessman, and we are excited to have him as an owner in our league,” NLL commissioner Jim Jennings said in a statement.

Q&A with Simon Giourmetakis of the Edmonton Eclipse

When the subject of Jr. A lacrosse comes up, all too often it begins and ends with Ontario and BC. But over in Alberta, there’s a young league playing a steadily-improving brand of ball and if you’re looking for a good reason to pay attention to the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League, look no further than Simon Giourmetakis. The Captain of the Edmonton Eclipse has spent the last two years leading his league in scoring and gearing up for what could be the most important season in the history of his team. The sharp-shooting lefty talks league set-up, where he’s headed, and how the boys in Alberta don’t get a whole lot of respect.

Looking at your schedule, you guys play both the Jr. A and Sr. B teams. Could you explain how that works?
This year one of the Sr. B teams dropped out because they couldn’t get enough people out, so it’s a little different than it was last year. The last two years that I’ve played in Jr. we played only the North Sr. teams, the teams from Edmonton. This year we play both of the North Sr. teams once, and then we play both of the South Sr. teams as well. We play all of the Jr. A teams four times this year. READ MORE »

Buffalo set to praise its Bandits

Buffalo has the Bandits, the Bandits have the Cup and the Cup has had its share of touches. But the celebration is not complete.

Until Thursday. That’s when the Bandits and Buffalo will officially celebrate their National Lacrosse League championship. The party is set for Thursday and kicks off at 6 p.m. at Lafayette Square, Buffalo’s weekly free concert series. The bonus is the bands that are set to help celebrate the title. If you dig the techno sound, then The New Deal is right up your alley. I remember seeing this band in Philly a couple of years back and I really dig the sound. When The New Deal is done, there’s gonna be a 15-minute presentation of the Champion’s Cup trophy, followed by a set from the headliner band, Galactic. No doubt, downtown Buffalo will be rockin’ all over again.

The Bandits will be selling some more championship swag at Thursday’s party so if you want more information, check out the Bandits Web site. As a bonus, check out the rest of the lineup for the concert series in Buffalo. That’s a sick lineup of bands!

• Bandits’ Thompson still hasn’t come down: Standard Freeholder
• Toth nearly quit … the game of golf: Calgary Sun
• New Swarm owner is pretty excited: Rocky Mountain News

New West downs Delta and Whitby tops K-W in Jr

In the New Westminster Salmonbellies and Delta Islanders match last night, both teams got off to a slow scoring start. Unfortunately for the Islanders, only one of the the teams stayed that way and New West prevailed in a 16-3 blowout.

After taking 25 shots in the first period and only finding the back of the net twice, the Salmonbellies cranked the floodgate open in the second and third, scoring seven in each period. Despite a 13-minute break from action in the second, Delta goaltender Steve Bourget made a total of 41 saves on 53 shots.

Leading New West in scoring was Kevin Crowley with three goals and three assists. Adam Foss also added three goals while Alex Turner, Alex Tuura and Jarrett Toll scored two apiece. Tanner Lemire, Dane Stevens and Kyle McCartney scored for the Islanders. Sean Tessarolo turned away 26 of Delta’s shots.

It was a lot closer in Ontario last night, with the Whitby Warriors squeaking by the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves 5-4 in overtime. Brett Bridges scored his second goal of the night at 8:23 in the extra time to take the win. Mitch McMichael also had a pair for the Warriors.

The Braves got the early jump, going up 4-0 in the first period on the strength of two goals from Adam Payerl and three helpers from Shawn Udema. Warriors goaltender Jesse Gill shut-out the remainder of the game — two full periods plus overtime — and added one assist while his team orchestrated their slow and steady comeback. With the win the Warriors have evened out their record to 5-5. K-W also sits at .500 with 4-4.

Lakers shut down Beaches, Chiefs top Excelsiors

The Toronto Beaches hit a wall in their game against the Peterborough Lakers Monday night, although he probably prefers to be called Kalvin Thomas. On the strength of Thomas’s 41 saves, the Lakers polluted the Beaches 6-1 to improve their record to 4-2, good enough for third place in Ontario Junior A lacrosse.

Nick Diachenko had two goals for Peterborough while Kyle Clancy had one goal and two assists and Jesse Guerin had three helpers. Aaron Brown scored the lone Beaches goal. Brett Kikot posted a shutout third period for Toronto.

The second period was the story for the Burlington Chiefs last night, outscoring the Brampton Excelsiors 4-1 over the course of those 20 minutes to lock up a 7-5 win.

Kevin Brownell had three for the Chiefs, Kiel Matisz two goals and two helpers, Ryan Learn had one and four, and Gary Muzzin made 55 stops. For the Excelsiors, Garrett Ince had a pair of goals in the third period and Tyler Carlson put up 36 saves.

Jamie Batley says Shawn Evans has been coddled for years

It’s been several weeks now that the rumours surfaced that Peterborough Lakers’ product, Shawn Evans, was interested in being dealt to the Six Nations Chiefs of the MSL, in what would be his first full year playing Sr. A lacrosse, after years of dominating the junior game.

And as NLL Insider reported last week, the deal some were calling as good as done in mid-May, is still not all that close to being finalized. Actually, “finalized” would imply a trade between Peterborough and Six Nations is on the horizon, but as the Peterborough Examiner reported earlier today, this thing’s so far from being on the horizon that the paper work for the trade is buried well behind a landscape of snow capped mountains.

Plus, it’s getting kinda ugly.

Peterborough Lakers’ GM and Head Coach, Jamie Batley, told the Examiner, “Our organization feels that (an Evans trade to Six Nations) would be a major mistake to trade someone of his calibre.” READ MORE »

National Junior A Ranking: Week One

Every Monday, NLL Insider will be looking at every Junior A team in the country and dropping our National Junior A Ranking, the best ten teams in Canada, period.

We’ll be looking at the BCJALL, OLA and yeah, even the RMLL. Not only do the boys in Alberta deserve to be looked at for our ranking, they deserve some serious respect from the rest of the country too. Are they churning out Minto Cup caliber ball clubs? Maybe not yet, but some of what’s shakin’ out in the province over the years has been extremely impressive, including the Edmonton Eclipse’s start to 2008.

Anyways, we’ll be looking at team’s records but also the quality of their opponents while we construct our weekly top ten. We’ll be looking at the quality of team’s wins and even losses, cuz as we all know, a gutsy nail bitter against the best team in the province is sometimes bigger than a beat-down of an 0-10 team that has no hope in hell. We’ll do our best to match up teams in different provinces. A tough task, but we’ll try our best, so save the emails that start, “Just do a provincial ranking, it’s impossible to rank across the country when they don’t play one another.” Yawn. READ MORE »

Rest? Who has time for that?

Know what I love about lacrosse? I love the love for the game.

We’re barely a week removed from the Buffalo Bandits winning the National Lacrosse League’s Champion’s Cup and who’s already got 5 goals and 6 assists in two games for his St. Regis Indians? Yeah, John Tavares. It’s no surprise, really, ’cause his skill is no secret. And yeah, I know he’s not the only NLL guy gettin’ his summer groove on, but ya can’t help but think of other pro athletes and how quick they’d be to finish a season with one league and jump right into a new season with the next league. And sure, money’s a factor but when you consider a vast majority of these guys still work full-time jobs while trying to adjust schedules to accomodate their NLL schedules in the winter and their MSL schedules in the summer, you gotta believe these guys are out there runnin’ and bangin’ just because they love it.

So the MSL is off and runnin’ with Brampton and St. Regis notching wins on Saturday. St. Regis played again on Sunday, though, and ended up splitting its weekend series after losing to the Peterborough Lakers, 11-9, Sunday afternoon. Seven different Lakers scored, led by Josh Gilliam’s three goals and two assists, while Andrew Lazore had two goals and three assists for St. Regis, followed by Pat Maddelena with 2-2 and Tavares with 1-3.

• Blazers to share home with Celtics, Bruins: Boston Globe
• Marecheck to join US Lacrosse Hall of Fame: SUAthletics.com