As a lacrosse goalie, Don Wittmeier played 30 years, and never once blanked the opposition.
His 11-year-old son Jonathon already has two shutouts in a career that's only a few weeks into its seventh season.
Jonathon was a human eclipse guarding the Prince George Posse nets in a five-game sweep at the Snake Bite Classic peewee B tournament over the weekend in Kamloops. His shutout came in the semifinal round, a 12-0 win over the Kamloops Rattlers, and the Posse went on to win the championship game, 4-1 over North Okanagan.
"It feels really good," said Jonathon. "I got one last year. It's hard to get a shutout in lacrosse because there's lots of fake shots and trick shots and stuff."
Before Jonathon Wittmeier came along, the last Prince George goalie to earn a shutout was Brandon Atherton, in the late 1990s. Atherton went on to play pro lacrosse in the NLL with Arizona and Edmonton.
Jonathon makes use of his catching hand much like a baseball catcher would, and that makes his father cringe. For a lacrosse goalie, trying to stop a solid rubber ball that weighs five ounces (145 grams), coming at high velocity, can be a recipe for disaster.
"He catches the ball like Brian Stanley (who plays goal for the senior C College Heights Pub Assault) and you shouldn't do that because you can break your hand that way," said Don Wittmeier, part of the Posse coaching staff with Blake McIntosh and Sean Heitman. "You're supposed to block it instead of catching it."
Kamloops came close to scoring ona couple of bounce shots but the Posse goalie managed to cover up each time. At the other end of the floor, the Posse lit it up in their other round-robin games against North Okanagan and Surrey, winning by 14-1 and 13-1 margins. They also stopped Kamloops 14-1 in the semifinals. Leading the way offensively were Jake McIntosh, Andrew Heitman, Jeremy Gervais, Bobby Legare and Kaiden Witso.
"Kaiden has really improved this year, he's fast, he has a good shot, and he doesn't give up," said coach Wittmeier.
The Posse have a big, physical team and that worked to their advantage in Kamloops, where they were head and shoulders above many of their opponents. On defence, Jonathan's twin brother Justin is one of the anchors and Dawson Ellery brings football hitting skills to the lacrosse floor. Douglas Porter, Justin Parker and Cameron Prouse all supply muscle in the defensive zone.
"I think the other teams were probably scared of us," said Jonathon Wittmeier.
Most of the Posse players have been together for seven years. Two years ago as novices, they captured the prestigious Canada Day tournament title in Calgary.
"This is a team that's put a lot of years and they will stay a good core all the way through from peewee to midget," said Don Wittmeier. "Expectations are high for years to come with this group of boys. When you have a group like that, which has been together for so long, you can do a lot."
n Jake McIntosh and Andrew Heitman have made the Interior select team and will advance to the Team B.C. tryouts in June 2 in Vancouver. The provincial team will play in the bantam national championship, Aug. 2-7 in Whitby, Ont.
n The next out-of-town action for the Posse is in Vernon at the Rock the House tournament, June 10-12, where they will get a taste of some of the opponents they will face at the provincial A2 championship in Vernon, July 6-10.
