The provincial midget lacrosse championships coming to Prince George next month will include 32 teams, four levels of calibre, and five days of competition in three arenas.
If you think hosting an event like that will be a ton of work for the host committee, you're right. That workload falls on the shoulders of the Prince George Minor Lacrosse Association and president Tracey Green is hoping all the details will be worked out before the A1, A2, B and C midget provincial tournaments begin at the Kin Centre.
"It's exciting and I really hope people will come out and watch those kids play," said Green.
"We don't have kids at the A1 level but the kids who will be here at that level are incredible lacrosse players. It's the top teams out of A1 that are coming and for our kids who play at A2 or B level it's going to be very competitive. The teams from Vancouver are very good and they will give our boys a run for their money.
"Our midget team has a good shot at medaling."
Prince George hosted the peewee provincial championships in 2009 but hasn't been home to the midget provincial final since 2004, when the A2 midget tournament was played in the city.
The Prince George Posse will be sporting new jerseys when they play in the B provincial tournament along with Quesnel. Regardless of the outcome of the zone playoffs, both teams will get to play for the B.C. banner. The playoff winner will go in as the Zone 8 champion and the other will take the host team's spot.
Fort St. John will challenge Williams Lake for the Zone 8 midget C title, vying for the right to play alongside Vanderhoof, the lone Zone 7 representatives, in the provincial tournament. Because there is no Prince George team at the C level, the B.C. Lacrosse Association is considering a request to allow Fort St. John and Williams Lake to play in the provincial tournament.
The Fort St. John Thunder midget squad is not part of the Great White North Lacrosse League but played games last weekend against the two Prince George Posse house league teams, losing both. The Thunder bantam and peewee teams also played in Price George. For Fort St. John, those will be their only games leading up to zone playoffs.
"We're kind of limited, being up north, so it's nice to come down and play Prince George - this is the first time they'll be playing for the provincials and we have to beat Williams Lake in the playdowns," said Fort St. John coach Brian McAdie.
"I think we have a good group this year and I think they'll do some damage. We play Grande Prairie sometimes but they don't like playing us, so we kind of lost our only other competition. We come and play Prince George and get used to playing at that level and then play (Grande Prairie) and beat them up and they'd rather play in Edmonton."
There has been some interest in Dawson Creek and Mackenzie to form a midget team, which McAdie says would help grow the program in Fort St. John.
The PGMLA has 225 players registered, up from about 200 last year.
