For four years, the Northern Sport Centre has enabled athletes to take their outdoor pursuits indoors and Bill Barwise is eternally thankful.
Without that fieldhouse, the Prince George coach wouldn't likely be taking two field lacrosse teams outdoors to the Tier 2 provincial championships, which start today in Burnaby.
The Prince George Posse U-16 and U-19 teams are made up for 38 athletes from Prince George, Kitimat-Terrace and the North Okanagan region. The Prince George and Terrace-Kitimat players met last weekend. This weekend's games will mark the first time all the Interior players have been together. Some of them played together with the Interior U-16 team in December in Seattle at the Space Needle Shootout tournament. Those players started practicing in August on the Prince George Women's Soccer Association field and played a few exhibition games in Penticton in late October.
"We had enough interest for two teams," said Barwise. "We have a pool of 50 kids to work with.
"On the U-16 team, this group has played field [lacrosse] for three years now and they are learning the game quite quickly. The boys are understanding the game and their desire to play and compete is shown by the fact we have 38 boys registered, up from 22 only one year ago."
The 18-member U-16 Posse team will be made up of Prince George and Kitimat-Terrace players only. One of that group, Pierce Watson of Prince George, was a late cut of the provincial U-16 team. Defensive specialist Miguel DaSilva of Prince George played this season for the Burnaby Mountain Selects and is one of the team leaders.
Six Prince George players Nathaniel McFadyen, Danton Nicholson, Zack Thompson, Cole Paciejewski, Morgan Bloom and Dylan Long -- are part of the 17-player U-19 team.
"I've got a real mixed bag on the U-19 team this year, some real strong (field) players from the north Okanagan and some real strong box players from up here," said Barwise. "They've never played together and it will be interesting to see how well they play together and how well they adjust. They U-16s probably play a more sound game, because they're used to it and more of the strategy comes out."
The growth of field lacrosse in the U.S. college ranks is creating scholarship opportunities for Canadians in the sport, and one member of the Interior U-19 team -- Paciejewski -- is close to signing with an NCAA team, most likely Tennessee.
"Cole is pretty close to heading to the States to play next year," said Barwise. "He scored quite well in his SATs. Another Prince George player, Conrad Chapman, is going to Robert Morris, a Division 1 school, in the fall.
"Field lacrosse is a lot bigger down in the States but our skills are every bit as strong. A few of the boys went to a recruiting camp in the Lower Mainland and that's where Cole got the interest (from NCAA teams). I'll be sending quite a few of the boys there this summer to try to get their names out there."
The Prince George U-16s open their tournament today at 3 p.m. against the Coquitlam Adanacs. The Posse U-19s take on Ridge Meadows tonight at 7:30.
"They've improved an awful lot, but I'm not going down there with any expectations because our actual tournament game play hasn't been there," said Barwise.
