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Senior B Timbermen building roster for Presidents Cup

Mar 29, 2018 | 9:28 AM

NANAIMO — The Senior B Timbermen lacrosse team has been hard at work building their team for the Presidents Cup national championship.
 
Jeff Shattler, who’s currently playing in the NLL with Saskatchewan, is the highest profile addition but there are some other new island players who will be key members of the squad.
 
The most recent addition is local goaltender Pete Dubenski who spent the past three seasons playing for the WLA Timbermen in Nanaimo.

 

 

Tmen general manager Shawn Swanson says the goaltending will be seamless with Dubenski and Nick Patterson sharing the crease.
 
He feels they’ll need that with the potential for nearly one game a day during Presidents Cup week of Aug 26 to Sept 2.
 
Former Nanaimo Senior A captain Cayle Ratcliff will provide some offense and grit and another ex WLA player Myles Kenny is a proven faceoff man and transition player.
 
Swanson says having players with WLA experience will pay huge dividends for the club.
 
“They’re experienced and obviously they’ve played at those high levels. So they know how to have a bad play and put it aside and move forward and keep doing good things. Also they’re very talented ball players and will bring our overall talent level up,” said Swanson.
 
In the case of Jeff Shattler, he won’t be an every day player for Nanaimo, but Swanson says all of his other recent commits like Doug Langlois and Steve Higgs will be there right from day one.
 
The Timbermen are happy with the group they have already but Swanson says they won’t be able to stand pat.
 
It’s expected that some of the eastern teams will be ultra competitive when they make the trip out west at the end of August.
 
“We’re still behind what the eastern teams do,” said Swanson. “We’ve pretty much got to put out a mid level Senior A team to even compete for this tournament. The level of play (back east) is pretty unreal.”
 
Still no word on when the regular season will start in the WCSLA.
 
That could happen any day as there are just a few final details to be worked out.
 
Preparations for the season and Presidents Cup are well underway and there are still some volunteer positions to be filled.
 
If you would like to help out for the Senior B season or the Presidents Cup email Shawn Swanson at shawn.swanson@shaw.ca.
 
 
 
dan@nanaimonewsnow.com
 
On twitter: @danmarshall77