SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Medicine Hat Sun Devils U15 lacrosse team poses with their provincial championship banner after beating Sylvan Lake 10-7 in the finals hosted at Beaumont.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat U15 Sun Devils lacrosse team brought home some extra hardware from provincials this weekend.
The Sun Devils swept provincials, winning the Alberta championship tournament held at Beaumont by the Edmonton Association.
They beat Sylvan Lake 10-7 in the final to take the championship and cap off a successful weekend, seeing them go 4-0 in the round robin against Calgary, Lloydminster, Sylvan Lake and Sherwood Park. The Sun Devils captured the final rematch against Sylvan Lake by outshooting them 55-32.
U15 manager Kris Bower says getting to see all of the hard work their team put in this season pay off made for a special weekend.
“Playing five games of lacrosse in a weekend, there’s lots of bruises and some kids they’re banged up and sore, but they’re at the gate ready to get out there and take another shift for their teammates,” Bower said. “So seeing the bond between the players on the team, where they’re willing to go out there and put that next shift in when they’re hurting and tired, it’s pretty awesome to see kids playing for the club.”
The U15 Sun Devils entered the tournament off a strong regular season, with a record of 30-2-1. Bower says those two losses provided hard lessons for their team that helped them find success in the regular season and come provincials. He also credits the players’ parents for helping them reach this level.
“It’s just a really great group of kids and parents too, without the parents to drive them here and there and get them to practice and take them to the tournaments we went through this year, driving to Edmonton for provincials. It doesn’t happen without them either,” Bower said.
Looking forward to next season for the U15 Sun Devils, Bower says there’s a group of players moving up to the next age level but there is a large core that will remain, which will be supplemented with players from the U11 team who also won this season.
“The U11s won the SALC this year too, our two Medicine Hat U11 teams played against each other,” Bower said. “One of the nice things at provincials was seeing all of the younger brothers there who were hanging on the boards cheering for the Sun Devils and they are Sun Devils themselves too. So hopefully it starts to create a bit more of that culture of more kids coming into the mix.”
