By Dan Marshall

Every Nanaimo minor lacrosse player will be on floor at the NIC Saturday

Mar 31, 2017 | 10:40 AM

NANAIMO — The entire minor lacrosse community will get together Saturday to celebrate the beginning of box lacrosse season.
 
The ice is now out of NIC 1 at the Nanaimo Ice Centre and the goal is to have all 415 registered players get some floor time April 1. There will be a wide age range between five and six-year-olds playing mini-tyke and the junior girls level which goes up to 21. Registration is up in Nanaimo this year from the 380 kids who played minor lacrosse in 2016.

Nanaimo District Lacrosse Association second vice-president Brian Boas says their registrations have been trending upwards, although last year was a rare down year for the number of players. The regions with the largest number of players are Ridge Meadows and Coquitlam, with Ridge Meadows expected to have over 700 kids in lacrosse this year. Boas says Juan De Fuca and Nanaimo are typically the associations with the highest number of registrations on the island, and when a ranking was done a few years ago the NDLA ranked fifth in the number of minor level players.
 
On Saturday the on-floor activities will include practices, games and skills clinics. There’s also an opening ceremony that will feature a First Nations blessing.
 
Boas says members of the junior and senior level Timbermen will be on hand at the NIC as well for the day.
 
“They’re involved with us, they will be at our opening day. In the past we had hardest shot contests and tricks with sticks and they would do the judging, and they come out and help with the kids,” Boas said.
 
Celebrating the start of a new lacrosse season is the focus for everyone on Saturday, but like most communities on Vancouver Island, just getting dry floor space in Nanaimo is something to celebrate. Boas said lacrosse programs need more than two dry floors, but they can’t fill up three. This year there will only be two arena floors available at the NIC and Frank Crane Arena because of the strong pull for Nanaimo’s hockey needs. There are outdoor options for practices and Boas is looking forward to seeing a covered box built in the Harewood area.
 
The kids meanwhile are just looking forward to picking up a stick for the first time and getting Canada’s national summer sport underway.
 

dan.marshall@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @danmarshall77