At five-foot-eight and 200 pounds, Dalan Etter takes up a good chunk of a lacrosse net.
Size does matter for goalies, but the 14-year-old has a lot more going for him than physical stature. He's developed a knack for stopping hard rubber balls moving at high velocity and doing so without fear. Because of that, he's just one step away from making the bantam provincial team.
Etter was one of three Prince George players who attended the Interior team tryouts last weekend in Armstrong with runners Olin Erricson and Trevor Clark-Sands. Erricson also made the Interior team.
"It was tough, but I thought I had a good chance of making the team, just because of the way I play in Prince George," said Etter, who has been tuning up as a house league goalie with the Team Green bantams in the Great White North Lacrosse League.
His latest achievement is even more remarkable considering this is only the third season for Etter as a lacrosse goalie. He played as a runner for his first six seasons but when his peewee team needed somebody to mind the nets he volunteered, and quickly showed he was made for the position.
In his second year of peewee, facing an average of 60 or 65 shots each game, playing a sport in which an 80 per cent save percentage is looked upon favourably, Etter was saving nearly 90 per cent of the shots he faced. As far as his coaches were concerned, his days as a runner were over.
"He's got the right mindset to be a goalie, he doesn't get down on himself," said Steve Etter, Dalan's father. "His first year in goal he got mentored by Jamie Bellamy and had some good teaching there."
Olin is the son of Al Erricson, who played for the 1970s-era Molson Oldstylers senior lacrosse team, which was inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame for their two consecutive provincial championships and for bringing home the President's Cup national senior B championship in 1974.
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