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Like most sa国际传媒 Junior A Lacrosse League teams, the Victoria Shamrocks will do their best at plugging holes while awaiting the return of key players from their collegiate stints.
So it will be a somewhat depleted Jr. Shamrocks lineup that ventures up the highway to face the rival Nanaimo Jr. Timbermen in their league-opener on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena before moving on to Burnaby to play the Lakers on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Among the missing will be Nick Preston, Zac Christianson, Danny Smith, Jake Campbell and Tyler Mace, who are all expected back in early May, and Marshal King, who will not return until June.
Among this year鈥檚 returnees are last season鈥檚 team leading scorer Cole Pickup, Braylon Lumb, Dylan Raymond, Zack Homer, Gabe Harman and David Byrne. Goaltender Will Kinniard, who was picked up in a trade from Delta for Nate Wade at the deadline last year, will also be here, with fellow netminder Spencer Erwin also back.
鈥淚 think our expectations, honestly, are to get better every day 鈥� play hard, play our best and we鈥檙e not going to quit,鈥� said head coach Terry Dennett. 鈥淲e鈥檝e taken the approach that we鈥檙e all in.
鈥淥bviously, the Minto Cup is always your goal and I think, for this team, let鈥檚 get to the playoffs and go from there. I think we have the talent to do a lot of good things. We have kids who want to work hard.鈥�
Campbell makes the jump up from the Intermediates, as do Clark Pickup and Garett Wicks.
鈥淲e have a real good core of second-year players, like Braylon Lumb, Dylan Rehman, Zack Homer, Gabe Harman and David Byrne, and the Intermediates we鈥檙e using are pretty solid players,鈥� Dennett said of the early fill-ins.
鈥淪kyler and Griffin Wilson are first-year Intermediates who, we feel, are capable of playing Junior A now and they are playing for us now,鈥� Dennett said of the twins out of the Vimy Ridge Academy in Edmonton, who are committed to Denver University for 2018.
Cole Pickup and Christianson are third-years who will be leaders and King is a huge talent who the Shamrocks will wait on from the Drexel University Dragons. All three and Lumb have had playing time with the Senior Shamrocks.
Among the key graduating players advancing to senior are Nate and Dallas Wade, and Matt Hamilton.
The Intermediate Shamrocks begin play in Langley on Sunday at 2 p.m. against the Thunder.
Former Shamrock Mike Pires takes over as head coach and has a dozen returning players from a club that enjoyed a strong 2016 regular season, but surprisingly bowed out at provincials, losing all four games.
鈥淲e have a sour taste in our mouth from last year at provincials,鈥� said Pires, an assistant coach with the team at that time. 鈥淎 little bit of inexperience showed. It didn鈥檛 go our way, but we鈥檙e looking to right the ship.
鈥淲e have high expectations and we鈥檙e definitely not satisfied with last year. We return a lot of defensive guys, but we鈥檙e a little inexperienced on offence. A strong transition game is what we鈥檙e looking to play. We鈥檒l use our speed. We have a lot of athletic kids, which is good.鈥�
Ryan Atkinson, a first-year out of Juan de Fuca and the Team sa国际传媒 goalie at the midget level, is with the Shamrocks along with A.J. Jensen, who was the team鈥檚 third netminder last season.
Caleb Kueber and Jackson Boyd, who had 58 and 57 points, respectively, last season, will lead up front.
After league-openers this weekend, both the Jr. and Int. Shamrocks have their home-openers on April 29 at The Q Centre.
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