The Senior A Timbermen are the last local box lacrosse team going to the playoffs. The Senior B and Junior A Tmen both had first round losses against Victoria, with the WLA squad set to battle Langley in an opening round best of five series. (Gary Johansen)

By Dan Marshall

Box Lacrosse

Nanaimo box lacrosse season culminates with playoffs for WLA Timbermen

Aug 2, 2023 | 2:33 PM

NANAIMO — All three of the top local box lacrosse teams made league playoffs in 2023 with varying degrees of success.

Both the Senior B and Junior A Timbermen teams lost out to Victoria rivals in the opening round of their playoffs and the Senior A Timbermen are about to embark on their own post season journey.

The WLA squad started with a best of five series against the Langley Thunder which opened Tuesday, Aug. 1 with a 14-6 loss in Game 1.

The Tmen are set to host the Thunder on Thursday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.

Despite the series opening loss team president Chris Bowman believes playing a tough opponent right of the hop can be a good thing.

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“I think it’s good to start with Langley but we’ve got to win two series to reach our goal. It’s a team we’ve had success against so it’s just a matter of going out and executing now.”

The Senior B Timbermen were back on the floor after a three year absence from the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association and for player and team co-organizer Doug Langlois it was very successful.

“We may not have reached the on floor goal of making it to the league finals but we had a close, hard fought five game series against Victoria where we just came up short. The focus this season was getting the team back on the floor and being a competitive team again.”

Langlois said the Senior B team will continue and get stronger in 2024.

“We had about ten players getting their first taste of senior lacrosse and they gained a lot of experience. Plus Nanaimo has turned itself into a great junior lacrosse program and we will be an option for any of the graduating junior players that may not make the jump to the WLA.”

The Junior A Timbermen had an excellent campaign in 2023 finishing in third place with a 14-7 record in the BC Junior A Lacrosse League.

Nanaimo lost out in three straight games to the second place Victoria Shamrocks in the playoffs but a strong core of returnees should allow the club to be a contender next season.

“We do graduate a few players from Junior A,” Bowman said.

As president of the Senior A, Junior A and Tier 1 Junior B Timbermen programs he believes in building a pipeline between the organizations.

“There’s some very strong players coming up from Tier 1 to fill in those spaces and those two programs are on a very high trajectory.”

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