If championship pedigree counts for anything, the Victoria Shamrocks have it in green spades. And they will need it as the Western Lacrosse Association club tries to climb out of the 0-2 hole it has dug for itself to start the season.
The Shamrocks announced Rhys Duch, Jesse King and Steve Priolo will be in the lineup for tonight鈥檚 game at The Q Centre against the undefeated Burnaby Lakers (2-0). Shamrocks defenders Greg Harnett and Tyler Burton are nursing ailments and will be game-time decisions.
Duch scored the overtime winner last Saturday for the National Lacrosse League-champion Calgary Roughnecks before 17,039 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The Shamrocks were missing five key players to the NLL final 鈥� Duch, King, Burton and Harnett with the champion Roughnecks and Priolo with the finalist Buffalo Bandits.
It鈥檚 got to be a welcome relief in Shamrockland to get most of them back tonight. Victoria was a preseason favourite for the WLA title as part of the quest for the 70-year-old franchise鈥檚 10th Mann Cup national Senior A championship. But those predictions, not to mention the entire form chart, have been thrown into disarray after respective 11-6 and 6-4 losses by the Shamrocks at The Q Centre to the Nanaimo Timbermen and Langley Thunder to begin the 18-game WLA season.
Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes said it will take probably 10 wins to make the playoffs. That leaves room for eight losses, with two already used up.
Duch, King, Burton and Harnett showed they know how to win a championship in the pro NLL. That experience will now be needed at the WLA level.
Also bringing plenty of it is defender Adam Sorichetti, another pro with an ample winning background after playing on three NLL championship teams with the Saskatchewan Rush before being claimed by the San Diego Seals in the NLL expansion draft.
Sorichetti drove up from Southern California after the Seals season, rolling into The Q Centre parking lot just in time to suit up for last Friday鈥檚 opener against Nanaimo.
The 28-year-old native of Whitby, Ont., who played NCAA Div. 1 field lacrosse at Hofstra, is a veteran of the sport but a newcomer to the Shamrocks. However, he had heard a lot about Victoria鈥檚 reputation as one of the three best Senior A lacrosse cities in sa国际传媒 along with New Westminster and Peterborough, Ont.
鈥淭his atmosphere [in The Q Centre] is everything you dream about as a lacrosse player,鈥� said Sorichetti, after experiencing it last weekend.
鈥淗istorically, the Shamrocks have been an unbelievable organization from top to bottom.鈥�
But one with a lot of work to do now, which is where Sorichetti鈥檚 championship experience in the NLL with the Rush comes into play.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a long season and you need short memories,鈥� he said.
鈥淸Championship teams] have a championship mindset. It鈥檚 not something that鈥檚 really learned. It鈥檚 something that鈥檚 earned.鈥�
Teams don鈥檛 rally all at once. They do it in small bites.
鈥淵ou have to win those little battles, inch by inch, five minutes at a time, and not focus on the future too far,鈥� said Sorichetti.
