A new structure for junior lacrosse in B.C. will create better opportunities for young players to develop their game, but it won’t make it any more likely for the province’s Junior A teams to win a Minto Cup national championship.
That’s the assessment by the president of the Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs, James Abbott, after the directors of the B.C. Lacrosse Association recently voted to replace intermediate divisions with a five-year tiered junior B program that can keep players together from when they’re 17 years-old until they’re 21.
Abbott said the new system of three tiers of Junior B lacrosse will give players graduating from local midget programs more options to develop according to their aspirations and level of commitment. A top tier Junior B division will replace the current intermediate model, while a second tier replaces the previous Junior B division. Depth players would play in the third tier.
“They’ll be able to go at their own pace,” said Abbott.
That means young players graduating from midget lacrosse will be more likely to stay in the game, said the president of the BC Junior A Lacrosse League, Karl Christiansen.
“Many people haven’t realized that on the Island and Mainland, 17 and 18 year olds would graduate from midget and either play or quit after 18 because they had nowhere to go, teams weren’t competitive, or they had no connection to their Junior B team,” Christiansen said. “Players graduating out of midget can play Junior A all the way to Junior B tier three.”
The change also aligns the structure of junior lacrosse across B.C. with the rest of the country, which should make the province’s top Junior B teams competitive again for the Founder’s Cup national championship. No team from B.C. has ever won that trophy, and it’s been 10 years since one reached the final, when the Coquitlam Adanacs lost to Six Nations in Kamloops.
Reg Thompson, the president of the Port Coquitlam Saints Junior A team, said keeping players together for five years will improve the level of lacrosse throughout the junior ranks.
“It gives all these kids a chance to fit in,” Thompson said. “They are together all the time, they play together, practice together, they just get to know what the other guy is doing. You learn more if you’re together longer.”
Abbott said while the new structure may polish some diamonds in the rough for promotion to Junior A teams, its main benefit will be to bring much-needed depth to Junior B programs.
“In the Junior B league there was some good players but there wasn’t any depth, there’s no development happening,” Abbott said. “This will make a much stronger league.”
Harold Corbett, the senior directorate chair for the BC Lacrosse Association, agrees.
“This should help all of our tiers get stronger, evening out competitions throughout the five-year program,” Corbett said in an open letter to all junior lacrosse leagues in the province.
Christiansen said there’s already been interest expressed by two organizations to create new tier three teams, adding “it will be new clubs formed and not attrition or just taking a team’s place.”
Thompson said the change has been percolating for years, but it was never implemented because it was perceived as a top-down initiative dictated by the Junior A leagues. This time the impetus came from the Junior B level.
“We’re trying to make the game better,” he said.
A sentiment shared by the Adanacs’ Abbott.
“It’s going to be a really awesome thing for lacrosse, I think.”
Corbett said the timing is right, “I am sure if we had stayed status quo, we would still be discussing these same problems 10 years from now.”
Instead, he foresees the possible eventual formation of a fourth tier as more players stay in the game.
“Hopefully we will be able to grow out system down,” he said.
How the new structure will look:
BCJALL - Junior A
BC Junior B Tier 1 League (previously teams from Intermediate A)
BC Junior B Tier 2 Leagues (West Coast Junior B; Thompson Okanagan Junior B; Pacific Northwest Junior B)
BC Junior B Tier 3 Leagues (Lower Mainland Tier 3; Vancouver Island Tier 3)
