The weather is finally sunny and warm. But in just five weeks it will be time to head back indoors.
The BC Junior A Lacrosse League launches its regular season Friday, April 26, when the PoCo Saints host the Langley Thunder.
The Saints are coming off a breakthrough season in which they won 13 of 21 games, tied two and lost just six to finish third in the league standings. But the momentum of that didn’t carry into the playoffs, as they bowed to the New Westminster Salmonbellies in three straight games.
The Saints will be again be coached by Dan Stroup, who returns to his place behind the team’s bench he first occupied late last season after former coach Kelly Scott was dismissed just before the playoffs.
Stroup’s co-coach, as well as the president of Port Coquitlam Minor Lacrosse, Josh Wahl, will move from behind the bench to the Saints’ front office to take the reigns as the team’s president and general manager after the retirement of Reg Thompson last October.
Thompson was the Saints’ president for 24 years, when the club first joined the BCJALL in 1995. But in 2017, the 77-year-old auto-body man tried to move the team to the Cam Neely Arena in Maple Ridge, citing frustration with the early stages of excavation and demolition work required for the construction of Port Coquitlam’s new $132 million recreation complex that was making it difficult for fans to find parking and find their way into the arena where the Saints play. But the move was rebuffed by the league after he wasn’t able to muster support from at least 75% of its governors.
The Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs will open its 40th anniversary season on Monday, April 29. The defending Minto Cup national champions will roll down Mariner Way for a game against the Saints at the PoCo Rec Centre.
The Adanacs will play its first home game at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex on Sunday, May 5, a 2 p.m. start against the Victoria Shamrocks.
The BCJALL regular season wraps up July 7.
