BC Junior A: understanding the standings

May 19th, 2008 by Lauren Ward

With a little thing called the Champion’s Cup out of the way (not that we’ll be leaving the NLL behind any time soon), we can now turn our attention to the summer leagues where the BC Junior A Lacrosse League has been in action for over one month. From the surprisingly surging Burnaby Lakers to the struggling South Fraser Stickmen, here’s a quick catch-up on what’s been going on and what we can expect from the premier junior players on the West coast. The standings so far:

1: Victoria Shamrocks (6-2)

2007 results: At 12-9 the Victoria Shamrocks finished 4th in the regular season, downed the Port Coquitlam Saints three games to two in the first round of the playoffs, and went on to fall three games to none to the Burnaby Lakers in the semi-finals
Players lost from ‘07: Rhys Duch O, Greg Tyshynski O, Kyle Cosman O, Dave Sundher T, Eric Gummer D, Joel Loucks D, Trevor Scott D, Keegan Young T, James Cadwallader T, Scott Davidson, Cam Maclean, Kyle Morwick, Alex Peaty G
New acquisitions this season: Justin Veuger, Graeme Scott, Spencer Skillings, Rory Theriault, Kory Kowalyk, Matt West-Patrick, Stacey Reeves, Rhys Jones, Sean Nugent, Brian Jette, Aaron McLean, Dustin Wadden, Myles Kenny
Notable returnees: Cory Conway O, Cayle Ratcliff O, Reed MacPhail D, Matt Flindell G
2008 so far: Wins over Delta, South Fraser (2), Nanaimo (2) and Burnaby. Losses to Port Coquitlam and New Westminster.
Bottom line: While it may look like the Shamrocks took a big hit on the graduation front, you have to keep in mind that Victoria has a great development system and despite the number of players lost, the Shamrocks have retained a fair bit of experience and have two of the most dominant offensive players in the league in Ratcliff and Conway — who will be joining the team shortly as his Portland Lumberjax recently fell in the NLL finals to the Buffalo Bandits — as well as a solid keeper in Flindell. Even with a surprise loss to the Port Coquitlam Saints, the Victoria Shamrocks will spend the season as a team to beat.

2: Burnaby Lakers (6-2)

2007 results: 1st in the regular season with a record of 19-2, the Burnaby Lakers cruised to the BCJALL title, defeating the Victoria Shamrocks three games to none in the semi-finals, and downing the Coquitlam Adanacs three games to one in the finals. Lost the Minto Cup final 19-8 to the Six Nations Arrows.
Players lost from ‘07: Jamie Lincoln O, Dane Dobbie O, Garrett Billings O, Scott Bordignon D, James Cruickshank D, Josh Funk D, Angus Goodleaf G, Mike Grimes D, Owen MacNab D, Peter McFetridge D, Adam Meakes G, Curtis Ptolemy
New acquisitions this season: Tom Wray G, Brandon Smith G, Connor Mooney, Nick Benevoli, Ross Dougan, Lindsay Flynn, Kurtis Hamilton, Tony Kuppan, Brent Laurita, Riley Lowen, Greg Martinello, Ryan Milling
Notable returnees: Alex Gajic O, Joe Vetere O, Mike Gilmore D
2008 so far: Wins over South Fraser, Coquitlam, Delta (2), Nanaimo, and New Westminster. Losses came against New Westminster and Victoria.
Bottom line: Losing 12 players is bad enough but throw the names Lincoln, Dobbie, Billings, Grimes and McFetridge into the mix and you’ve got cause for mourning. In addition to the on-floor losses, Burnaby also lost head coaches Curt Malawsky and Dave Lough as well as team president/GM Jack Crosby who succumbed to cancer earlier this year. The team is going through some definite growing pains—not to mention money issues which have left the team nearly import-less—but Burnaby still has a solid program that has remained competitive despite its massive subtractions and exceeded expectations here in the early going. While they may not be the dynasty we’re used to seeing, expect Gajic and the Lakers to spend the season challenging for a high spot in the standings.

3: Coquitlam Adanacs (5-1)

2007 results: Last year saw the Adanacs finish the regular season with a record of 16-5, good enough for second place and a bye to the semi-finals where they defeated the New Westminster Salmonbellies three games to two. They went on to lose to the Burnaby Lakers three games to one in the BC finals.
Players lost from ‘07: Joel Burges O, Calvin Craig O, Anthony Besse D, Tyler Richards G
New acquisitions this season: Joel Weber G, Scott DeFrancesco O, Corey Williamson O, Brandon Turner D, Calvin Kufuor D,
Notable returnees: Jarrett Davis O, Sean Robinson O, Matt Wilson D, Matt Beers D, Creighton Reid D
2008 so far: Wins over Delta, South Fraser, Port Coquitlam (2), and Nanaimo. Lost to Burnaby.
Bottom line: Coquitlam boasts the best returning core combined with the best off-season pick-ups in Ontario imports Weber and DeFrancesco. With a fully-healed Wilson policing the press along with Beers, Reid and Edmonton import Kufour, Weber should prove to be the class of the league in goaltending while DeFrancesco adds another offensive threat to a well-rounded offense that boasts some of the league’s most potent power forwards. While the offense has looked uneasy at times – especially in the 4-3 season-opening loss to Burnaby – as the season goes on their chemistry should increase and the passing plays that they’ve been bobbling should become second nature. If I had to make a prediction for the BCJALL’s Minto Cup contenders, these guys would be it.

4: New Westminster Salmonbellies (4-3)

2007 results: A record of 15-6 had New West sitting in third place for the regular season, just behind the Adanacs—the team they were ousted by in the semi-finals three games to two. Prior to their semi-final elimination, the Bellies beat the Nanaimo Timbermen three games to none in the first round.
Players lost from ‘07: David Brock O, Graden Cornfield O, Jordan McBride O, Mike Paul O, Craig Robertson G, Eric Ross D/T, Richard Singer D/T, Bubba Westwood D, Kyle Buchanan O
New acquisitions this season: Ben Davies, Adam Foss, Ben Johnson, Matt Parker, Alex Tuura, Jeff Sproule, Ryan Mackay
Notable returnees: Kyle Belton O, Alex Turner O, Curtis Manning D, Sean Tessarolo G, Ray Hodgkinson G
2008 so far: Wins over Nanaimo, South Fraser, Victoria and Burnaby. A pair of losses to Port Coquitlam, and one loss to Burnaby.
Bottom line: They’ve returned the bulk of a pretty successful 2007 team, including a good number of players that make up the most even-keeled offense in the league as well as two solid goaltenders in Tessarolo and Hodgkinson. The first few games may not have gone as expected, but New West is still missing a good chunk of players – including number one goaltender Tessarolo and captain Curtis Manning – and the team we’re seeing now won’t be the team we see at the end.

5: Port Coquitlam Saints (4-4)

2007 results: A 9-12 record had PoCo sitting 5th in the regular season just behind the Victoria Shamrocks, who went on to eliminate the Saints in the first round of the playoffs three games to two
Players lost from ‘07: Tyler Codron, Joel Dalgarno, Tyler Miotto, Steve Major, Tyler Grewal, Parker Baigent, Clarke Malcolm, Aaron Pascas, Josh Wear
Possible holdouts: Curtis Dickson, Trevor Moore, Ben Towner
New acquisitions this season: Matt Hardman, Darcy Cummings, Jared Wood, Trevor Penner, Matt Laustrup, Shawn Donahue, Terry Crondahl, Drew Doig, Scott Jones, Curtis Steedsman, Robert Kraakman
Notable returnees: Jesse Rougeau O, Dayne Michaud D, Kevin Miotto D
2008 so far: Wins over New Westminster (2), Delta and Victoria. Losses to Nanaimo, Delta, and Coquitlam (2)
Bottom line: Struggling with rumoured internal problems, the Saints are working hard to build chemistry and work ethic with their young group. Typically on the small side of the league size-wise, this team will be looking to play big, hard defense this year but there’s no denying it’s a rebuilding season. Nevertheless, the Saints have stunned a few of the top teams with convincing wins and could be a real wildcard come playoff time.

6: Delta Islanders (3-5)

2007 results: 5-16 for 7th in the regular season, missed the cut for the playoffs on account of losing the tiebreaker to the Nanaimo Timbermen, who also had a record of 5-16
Players lost from ‘07: Brandon MacNeil, Mike Lowe G, Corey Williamson O, Hiroshi Jensen O, Kevin Guichon O, Justin Lalli, Tayler Hetherington, Jamie Leseelleur, Micha Govorchan, Stuart White, Scott Campbell
New acquisitions this season: Jason Jones T, Steve Bourget G, Ken Ryan D, Shawn Rowan T, Clay Collison T, Jeff Herold T, Kyle McCartney T, Logan Schuss O, Neil Barney G
Notable returnees: Robbie Campbell T, Carlton Schuss O, Dane Stevens T, John Canil T
2008 so far: Wins over South Fraser (2), and Port Coquitlam. Losses to Victoria, Coquitlam, Burnaby (2) and Port Coquitlam.
Bottom line: Bourget comes to the club by way of Barrie, ON and has big pads to fill as the replacement for former Delta goaltender Mike Lowe, who signed with South Fraser. Jones also arrives in Delta after spending the 2007 season in Ontario as a member of the Minto Cup-winning Six Nations Arrows and will be looked to for a much-needed scoring punch and powerplay boost. Intermediate call-ups will have an immediate impact but may not be enough to keep the club competitive with the top teams.

7: Nanaimo Timbermen (2-5)

2007 results: finished 5-16, good enough for 6th place by virtue of three wins over the Delta Islanders, who also had a record of 5-16. Fell three games to none to the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the first round of the playoffs.
Players lost from ‘07: Ryan Clark O, Kyle Bazansky O, Colin Bell O, Dion Sam T, Brent Gingras T, Mark Racicot D, Tom Wray G
New acquisitions this season: Robbie Pierson G, Sam Corcoran G, Kyle Noble O, Ethan Jones O, Joel Pelletier O, Ryan Forslund O, Steve Higgs O, Cody Bremner O, Colton Clark O, Tim Evoy T, Adam Joinson T, Morgan Mitchell T, John Flatters D
Notable returnees: Matt Wray O, Jonathan Diplock O, Brent Curry D, Kevin Lohr D, Drew Dickie G
2008 so far: Wins over Port Coquitlam and South Fraser. Losses to New Westminster, Victoria (2), Burnaby and Coquitlam.
Bottom line: With the best crop of young talent in the league, the Nanaimo Timbermen have assembled a contender for this year and a potential threat for the next. Despite a major overhaul of the team, a limited number of preseason practices, and a rough start to the season, the T-men should steadily improve all year and may find themselves peaking at just the right time for a big playoff push.

8: South Fraser Stickmen (0-8)

2007 results: three wins and 18 losses had the South Fraser Stickmen sitting in 8th place in the regular season
Players lost from ‘07: Shawn Rowan O, John Ballantine, Dane Eitel, Ross Halliday, Matthew Hannah, Codey Lewis, Devon Murphy, Brandon Smith G,
New acquisitions this season: Mike Lowe G, Graham Chandler G, Anthony Besse D, Scott Davidson, Greg Mahoney
Notable returnees: Mitch Dibblee O, Sean Messenger D
2008 so far: losses to Burnaby, Victoria (2), Coquitlam, Delta (2), New Westminster, and Nanaimo.
Bottom line: These guys are seriously trying, and you have to give them credit for that. They’re rebuilding the team, rebuilding their image, and wearing suits to games. Wearing suits to games. Curtis Gulliford became the first head coach casualty when he was fired to make way for Jamie Scott, who will be doing double-duty with the Jr. A and intermediate teams. While this season may not be what they’re hoping for record-wise, if they can start to shake the Surrey stigma and become a more desirable playing location, you’ll have to get a little excited about the future of the Stickmen. Here’s hoping for a few surprises from South Fraser this year, and a successful relocation to Langley in ’08.