Brandon’s inaugural field lacrosse seasons wraps

The first season of Wheat City Wranglers field lacrosse is in the books.

More than 100 athletes, families and community members from Manitoba showed up at Simplot Millennium Park’s Boyd Stadium on Saturday, as Brandon’s U13 and U11 field lacrosse clubs wrapped up their final games of the year against the Southman Saints and Winnipeg Griffins.

“It’s just great to see everyone come out and have a good time and see the players enjoying themselves,” said Dustin Harvey on Saturday. “There’s a lot of people, and hopefully next year we’ll see even more.”

Harvey, his wife Tannel, and Drew Collins brought back field lacrosse in the city around the end of July after it had been absent for decades, with players only having access to box lacrosse programs. The field program had only a U13 team — with eight players enrolled — and a U11 squad – with 20 players enrolled — this season due to short notice, but Harvey plans to expand the program to the U9, U15, and U17 age groups next year.

“That’s the plan, we just want to grow the sport as much as we can and allow as many kids to get at least the opportunity to try and see if they like it,” he said.

Harvey said drop-in sessions to bring more youth into the sport will begin next spring, not just in Brandon, but all over Westman. That is how Hamiota’s Ace Carter discovered his love for lacrosse.

“There was this camp in Rivers, and I was just like, ‘This is a lot of fun,’” said Carter. “Baseball was kind of getting boring for me just being in the outfield, and I just found lacrosse really fun and different, so I switched.”

Carter loves being in the thick of the game when it gets rough and physical despite only being nine. He said that’s what immediately drew him into the sport.

“When I was doing my first practice, we were playing a scrimmage, and I was running and hit this kid on the other team who had the ball, and he just went flying,” Carter said with a chuckle. “I remember my coach telling me that’s allowed and I was like, ‘Woah.’”

Carter was all over the field during the Wranglers 9-2 loss to the Saints on Saturday — a score that actually seems impressive, considering half of Brandon’s U13 team in the game were under age 10, including Carter, since they don’t have enough players to fill out a roster. In the U11 friendly, the Griffins downed Wheat City 9-1.

Lone goal scorer Myles Mott, nine, has been playing lacrosse for three years under the Wheat City program, which he first learned of through one of his brother’s friends. He enjoys field lacrosse because it offers a completely different play style than traditional box.

“It’s fast and just lots of fun,” said Mott, who plans to play again next season as even more players his age are introduced to the sport. “I really like it because it’s different.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com