Wyatt Petterson, Tegan Abbott, and Dakota Fizzard may be of different ages, but the three boys have something in common. All three are hockey players who have taken to playing lacrosse in the off season.
They play for the West Kootenay Minor Lacrosse Association, on team Wolf Pack. Petterson is on the bantam team, while Abbott and Fizzard are on the peewee team. Petterson is the only one on the bantam team from Nakusp. While Petterson has been playing for three years, this is the first year for both Abbott and Fizzard.
“I was nervous when I first stepped onto the floor,” said Abbott. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Back in July, both bantam and peewee teams took part in the July 1 games in Calgary.
After taking on five different teams in the games, Petterson’s team took home gold.
“It was the first time in lacrosse that we came first in our tournament,” he said. “It felt really good.”
What made the win even better was the fact that the team was short a few players. Normally there are 12 players on a lacrosse team, but there were only nine who were able to make it to the Calgary games.
The peewee Wolf Pack almost made it home with gold. After tying with a team from Calgary in the final match, the game went into a five minute overtime. It was looking like the game would end in a tie, but with 2.1 seconds to go, the Calgary team scored.
On the July 16 weekend, both teams took part in the provincial games, the bantam team in Vancouver, and the peewee team in Richmond. It was another great weekend, and the bantam team took home silver, while the peewees took home bronze.
“They had early games, so it was a little hard getting up and getting motivated,” said Meadow Fryer, Abbott’s mother. “It definitely felt great to come home with a medal, representing the West Kootenays.”
Right now the three boys are taking some time to enjoy the summer before it’s back to practising for the upcoming hockey season. While Abbott plans on playing lacrosse next year, Petterson and Fizzard aren’t sure. Even if they don’t take part next year, they had a lot of fun playing this season.