Port Moody Bandits are going to the 2011 President's Cup after all.
Members of the West Coast Sr. B lacrosse league squad had originally agreed they would not pay their own way to Akwesasne, Ont. to play in their fourth straight Canadian national tournament.
An hour-long emergency meeting last Thursday hosted by B.C. Lacrosse Association brass and featuring representatives from six of the eight WCSLA squads hashed things over and, eventually, it was agreed that a league-wide fundraiser with each team kicking in $1,500 for raffle tickets would foot the Bandits' travel bill.
A motion was also passed that his will be the case in future years for the WCSLA playoff-champion squad.
The Bandits qualified for nationals -- running Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 and hosted by the Snake Island Muskies of the Iroquois Lacrosse Association -- by ousting the Ladner Pioneers in four games of the recent best-of-five playoff final.
With many Bandit players unable to attend due to late notice and work commitments, head coach Rick Mang said nine regulars will make the trip, with the rest of the 20-player team made up of PoMo Thunder Jr. B players and Sr. C pick-ups.
"I've never felt so good as when I left that meeting," Mang gushed on the phone Friday in Prince George, where he was playing goalie for the PoMo Express in the Sr. C provincials. "The league's going to get a lot stronger each year because of it."
Mang recalled the 2009 President's Cup in Oshweken, Ont., and how big a hit his wallet took as a result. The Bandits won silver that year, second only to the Owen Sound Woodsmen.
"I was out of holidays so I lost a week's wages," Mang said. "Then it was $800 for the flight, plus hotel and food [costs]. You're looking at a lot of money for one week."
With Valley and Ladner reps absent at Thursday's meeting, Mang said it was dicey whether or not the other WCSLA governors would approve funding for the Bandits to travel back east.
Mang said the first motion by the Royal City Capitals was to send no B.C. representative team, one that was originally seconded by the Langley Warriors. Ironically, it was later the Langley team rep who moved on the WCLSA group-funding idea.
"I told them from the start we have enough players to go... if the flights are paid we could do it, if not we can't," Mang said. "Luckily, it all worked out in the end."
RAG LINE: The goalie Mang won tournament MVP as the PoMo Express built an 8-1 lead and cruised to a 9-3 win over the rival Coquitlam Cobras to win gold in the eight-team Sr. C provincials last weekend in Prince George.
