The BCJALL 2024 Junior Entry Draft takes place on Saturday Jan. 13 in Langley. (Gary Johansen)

By Dan Marshall

Draft Day

Junior A Timbermen scouting fresh talent for 2024 BCJALL entry draft

Jan 13, 2024 | 5:48 AM

NANAIMO — The junior box lacrosse season is still more than four months away but the first steps to retooling rosters for the Nanaimo Timbermen are taken at the BCJALL junior draft.

The six-round draft goes on Saturday, Jan. 13 in Langley.

Timbermen president Chris Bowman said although there may be players talented enough to play Junior A, he’s searching for players ready to play at the Junior B Tier 1 level.

“Not a lot of the kids will make the jump to Junior A right away. The goal of the program is to add some high-quality kids to the B1 team that graduate to Junior A players after one to three years and then hopefully on to the Senior A program.”

Players in the Nanaimo catchment area will already be Timbermen property but the team has been scouting other associations on Vancouver Island.

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“Saanich and Peninsula are typically two very strong associations,” Bowman said. “Cowichan always has a few kids as well too. It’s a lot of homework on our part. We’ve watched provincials, we’ve gone and watched these games. It’s a matter of trying to find those kids who fly under the radar sometimes that can turn into players.”

Bowman hopes at least four or five players will be able to suit up for one of the Timbermen junior teams this year and more players will get into the mix when the club holds a free agent camp in March.

The process of identifying players can take up to two years with coaches and other members of the organization scouting games all around Vancouver Island.

“It starts in the first year of midget and then we’ve got a two-year window to watch them before they graduate. We watch a game and we start taking notes from there. Sometimes it’s a little tough to project but you can see talent.”

In other Timbermen news, the Senior A squad has added two highly experienced assistant coaches for the 2024 WLA season.

Rob Jensen and Dave Pym each bring a strong resume of Senior A and National Lacrosse League experience to the program.

They join WLA co-coaches of the year Jon Nicholson and Brian Nikula behind the Timbermen bench.

Jensen was the head coach of the Langley Thunder team that defeated the Timbermen in the 2022 league finals and Pym served as his assistant.

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