They finished second-best at tournaments in Penticton and Kamloops and ended up fifth in Calgary despite winning four of five games.
This weekend at the provincial championship in Port Coquitllam, the Prince George Deloitte midget B Posse intend to set the record straight. They feel they have a championship team and are prepared to do all it takes to prove it.
"We've come up short twice but we'll get it this weekend," predicted Posse captain Brandin Daychief. "We have a whole bunch of role players and once we get rolling there's no stopping us."
The Posse is made up of just 13 players, one full line change fewer than what B.C. Lacrosse Association rules allow. Knowing they don't have a lot of bench strength, the Posse players have to stay disciplined and keep from losing their cool in the heat of battle. For the most part, they've done that this season.
Daychief excels at playing shutdown defence and leads the transition game, teaming up in the offensive end with Andrew Sivell to try to get the ball to Brogan O'Brien and Todd Bredo, the Posse's top scorers.
The Posse has two female players, Serefina Sia and Shelby Watson, who are ferocious when it comes to chasing loose balls and setting up to Posse's big guns. Daychief calls them the team's secret weapon.
"Teams kind of lay off them and they go out and push them around and that's good for them," said Daychief. "They pull their weight, they don't slack."
The other Posse players are Wyatt Turcott, Steven Kidwell, Liam Miller, Jared Stevens, Braedon Lalonde, Parker Kerkhof, Chance Harper, Keith Bizicki and Maxim Basi.
Daychief says his team drew inspiration from watching its coaches -- Anderson and Steve Etter -- play lacrosse against each other last week in a four-game Prince George Senior Lacrosse playoff final series. Anderson, nursing a partially-torn Achiles tendon, played for the Shooters Pub Devils, while Etter was with the victorious College Heights Pub Assault.
"It was good to watch them fighting for everything -- they'd come to practice the next day hobbling around," said Daychief. "We just want to repay them for all the time they've sacrificed for us this year. It would be great to get that provincial title."
Anderson, who also has help from assistant coach Dave Davidson, says he's impressed with the progress of his team from the start of the season in May. The Posse players are part of the Great White North house league and aside from tournament play, get very few opportunities to play together against provincial B-calibre opponents. For that reason, they'll be considered underdogs in Port Coquitlam.
"We're going against all the teams that won the leagues in their areas so they will all be tough games, but I have a pretty good feeling about the kids, they're a unique bunch and they seem to know when to turn it on," said Anderson. "They haven't had that taste of winning anything this year and they still have that hunger in them."
The Posse's first game Friday morning is against Coquitlam, followed by a late afternoon game against Campbell River. On Saturday, Prince George plays Langley.
Shuswap, which beat Prince George in the tournament finals in Penticton and Kamloops, is grouped in the other pool with Oceanside, Ridge Meadows and North Delta.
