Forty young lacrosse players will have their sticks ready for the upcoming season thanks to a new winter training program started by the Innisfail Minor Lacrosse Association.
By the beginning of the season these players will have spent the winter being trained by three Calgary Roughnecks players.
Currently only three weeks into the program both the players and coaches are already seeing improvements in the level of play.
“We have been seeing a big improvement already in the kids, they have been really receptive to the program,” said Andrew McBride, the winter training program leader.
McBride plays defense for the Calgary Roughnecks and has started his own business called Triumph Lacrosse, which offers camps and clinics to minor lacrosse players and school programs across the province.
Triumph Lacrosse is facilitating the Phantoms camp and two other Roughnecks players, Alex Coutts, who is the goalie coach, and Scott Carnegie, who is a defenseman, have been helping coach.
The program is eight weeks long and runs two one-hour sessions on Tuesday nights, one for the younger group and one for the older.
McBride said that they work on a lot of the elementary skill required for the game and the goal is to get the basics down and also to have fun.
“What the camp is really about is getting the kids excited and giving them a lots of opportunity to play,” said McBride.
“It’s so great to see a small town organization doing this for their kids.”
Innisfail Minor Lacrosse decided to offer the winter training after doing a few camps with Triumph Lacrosse and seeing the benefits for the players.
“Having these guys come out here is like having the Flames come train minor hockey, or the Stampeders come train football,” said Wally Genz, with Innisfail Minor Lacrosse.
“They can help these kids learn a lot like how to release the ball properly or proper passing. The stuff that these players know is extraordinary.”
Genz said that winter training programs like this not only helps prepare the players for the next season but also help to build the program for the years to come.
“We have to compete against guys from big places like Calgary and Edmonton and we want to be competitive.”
The camp was created for players of all ages and all skill levels and there are even four girls registered in the program.
The coaches have tailored a lot of the training to the skill levels of the players and with small groups of 20 kids have been able to work a lot with the kids individually which is one of the best parts of the program said some of the players parents.
“I think it’s great, the kids get a lot of one on one time when they need it and the coaches are great with the girls,” said mother Nicole Puttee, who has four children, two of them girls, in the program.
Innisfail Minor Lacrosse is hoping to run the program again next winter but is currently looking ahead to the 2011 lacrosse season.
