Wranglers host inaugural Westman box lacrosse tournament

It’s been a long time coming and now the moment is finally here.

Westman is set to host its first official box lacrosse tournament as the Wheat City Wranglers welcome teams from Neepawa, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan for the Rust Buster tournament in their home venue at Riverdale Arena in Rivers this weekend.

“In a roundabout way, this tournament has been almost a year in planning,” said Dustin Harvey, a member of the tournament committee. “It’s absolutely huge that Westman is having a box lacrosse tournament for house league players. Our kids are hungry, they wanna play games, and this is a chance for us to guarantee them games by hosting this tournament and putting Brandon on the map.”

More than 100 athletes from seven teams will compete in the Rust Buster — including four from the U13 division — Wranglers, Neepawa Noize, Winnipeg Falcons, and Standing Buffalo Fighting Sioux and three from the U11 division — Wranglers, Noize, and Sioux.

Games begin on Saturday at 9:30 a.m and go till 6:30 p.m., with a classic round-robin structure, with the exception of the U11 group, who will all play each other twice since there’s only three teams. The first and second seed in U11 will go straight to the gold-medal game on Sunday, while the U13s will hold a semifinals between seeds one and four, and two vs. three, with the winners moving onto the final.

Harvey, who’s joined by fellow committee members Chris and Jackie Pugh, Kelly Carbernel, Shannon Dalgliesh, and his wife Tannel, expects most of the round robin to be done on Saturday, leaving just a few more matchups on Sunday before the elimination rounds begin. He’s hoping the tournament will wrap up around 2 p.m.

But before the first whistle blows Saturday morning, Harvey will be reminded of the months of work behind the scenes that helped turn the idea into reality.

Harvey and the committee attempted to organize a tournament last year, but started planning too late, so they instead elected to push it back to this season. They began laying out a plan in the beginning of February, starting with a budget plan before figuring out how to advertise the event. They created a Rust Buster poster and put it on social media over their Wrangler Instagram and Facebook platforms in hopes of reaching anyone interested.

They even emailed every lacrosse club within 300 kilometres of Brandon.

“We were just trying to get anyone to come out,” Harvey said. “We started asking clubs right away and were just been really on the ball with it right from the start.”

The tricky part was the timing, though.

Box lacrosse season starts in April, meaning teams and rosters are still getting finalized, which makes it difficult for anyone to confirm whether they are eligible to attend. That’s why it’s named the “Rust Buster,” as it’s a pre-season tournament that gives players a chance to shake the rust off before their regular season even starts.

After opening up dialogue in March, Harvey said most of the clubs they talked to were open to the idea, but still couldn’t commit because it was too early for them. They landed a couple of teams right off the bat, while the last few were just arranged last week.

The cost for each club is $700, but to offer some extra flexibility, the tournament also offers a free agent option in case a player who doesn’t have a team wants to participate. That’s a $40 fee.

Harvey said they have three free agent players, two from Regina and one from Manitoba, who happens to be his son, Stellan. The U9 major wasn’t able to play with older brother, Maverick, because the Wranglers roster was completely full, so he’ll be suiting up with the Noize.

Harvey said the committee was looking at adding a second rink, but it never came to fruition. Next year, though, seems to be a different story.

“We foresee this tournament doubling in size next year, so that’s something we’re going to look at next year now that all the clubs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are aware that we have a tournament on at the end of April,” he said. “Lacrosse is continuing to grow in Westman and this shows we’re big enough to do this and we have the capabilities of doing this.”

Wheat City has 25 kids signed up for U9, two teams in U11 and U13, one U15 team and a U17 age group that’s combining with Neepawa. Their players are from all sorts of different communities, including Hamiota, Rapid City, Rivers, Neepawa, Lenore, Kenton and of course, Brandon.

The program has doubled in participation over the last two years, according to Harvey. In addition, Virden Lacrosse is also starting a club with support from the Manitoba Lacrosse Association.

He said seeing the growth of the sport is a feeling that never gets old.

“It’s overwhelming to see the responses we’ve gotten in the last two years,” he said. “Seeing kids bring their friends in and seeing the kids smile, kids having fun and kids trying something new, it’s awesome. Kids that maybe would be a little hesitant when they show up for the first time with the helmet on and the stick they’ve never held before and then an hour later those kids are soaking wet, loving every minute and not wanting to get off the floor, that’s the best part.

“Also the joy of the parents who’ve never seen the sport, getting their kids to try a sport that they’ve never seen, that they’ve never played, and seeing the parents happy, it’s great.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com