Aaron Lager is proving himself a good fiancee.
The 23-year-old Quesnel product joined the Quesnel Crossfire, an expansion team in the Prince George Senior C Lacrosse league, this season when fiancee Mayghan Letoria decided to return to the sport after a four-year break.
"Mayghan wanted to be involved in the sport and I promised her that I'd join if there was a team to make sure there was more interest and to get people out," said Lager.
He said it can get pretty nerve-wracking watching the five-foot-two Letoria running around the arena floor with 11 other players, mostly men.
"She could get hurt at any time; the guys are pretty big out there," said Lager. "It kind of makes me nervous, but she has the skill and she holds her own. Especially when she gets mad. She got ran over, more or less, and she just gets this look in her eye when she's mad and she just started cross-checking the guy."
Letoria grew up playing lacrosse in Quesnel, in part because her dad, Don Letoria, was a former player and coach at the minor levels, so she's teaching the ropes to Lager and a few of the couple's friends who also joined the Crossfire.
"The guys that have played before kind of do their thing with the other new guys, while I do my thing with my friends," she said. "Aaron's cousin plays and then we've got some of our really good friends playing. I show them what I know and my little tricks and kind of go from there and then they pass it on to everybody else."
Letoria played five years of bantam and midget lacrosse in Quesnel on a coed team and for three of those years also played on a girls-only squad of players from Mackenzie, Prince George and Quesnel. Once she reached junior age she decided to put down her stick.
"The first year [lacrosse came to Quesnel], I was a little leery and I didn't play but I was there just about every game or practice anyway," said Letoria. "After that my dad was coaching and he convinced me to play the second year. After that I was hooked and I couldn't get enough of it."
When she graduated from midget, there was no women's junior team and the idea of suiting up with men that were so much bigger than Letoria was intimidating.
"I didn't really have a chance to play anything again," said the 23 year old. "So when I heard there was going to be a senior lacrosse team, with some people my age and some younger players, I figured it would be a good chance to get back into the game.
"It's probably one of the most fun years out of all the years I've played," said Letoria, despite the Crossfire's 0-9 record. "It's just so much different and it's definitely a different learning experience compared to playing minor lacrosse."
The 2007 graduate of Quesnel secondary school isn't the only woman to play in the senior C lacrosse league this season, as Ashley Sidhu suits up for the Shooters Pub Devils, while the BX Pub Bandits have also had a woman on their roster for a couple of games.
"It's actually kind of nice to see them because you automatically kind of connect in the game because both of them play offence and I play defence," said Letoria.
While Letoria has Lager and a few other male friends to help bridge the gender gap in relating to the other Quesnel players, Sidhu said having brothers Dustin, 29, Josh, 20, and Mark, 17, on the Devils helps when it comes to team bonding.
"I really like playing with my brothers because when you go into a team, especially where I'm the only girl, it's hard to bond with the team," said Sidhu. "Because I'm a girl, I'm always in a different change room so I don't get that bonding time the team gets. With my brothers, they kind of bring me into it more making it easier."
Sidhu has proven herself a valuable player for the Devils (3-6), contributing seven assists to the team's offensive production. It's not too surprising the 19 year old manages to hold her own with the guys, given she played in four games last spring for the Grande Prairie Jr. Thrashers, a tier 2 north junior B team in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League in Alberta, where she had a goal and an assist.
She said playing with the boys is more out of necessity due to the lack of senior women's teams in the north.
"I like playing for the girls too, but there's nothing for girls in Prince George, at least nothing as competitive," said Sidhu, who also plays and coaches field lacrosse. "I'm just basically coaching with the girls this year.
"It's nice to be a role model, being able to help and giving [the 10-15-year-old girls] someone to look up to," she added. "When I was that age there was no older girls I could look up to so it's really nice for them to be able to look up to me. That's the best thing about it."
Sidhu hits the floor at the Coliseum next Monday when the Devils face off with the College Heights Pub Assault, while Letoria and the Crossfire return to Prince George on Thursday for a game against the Twisted Cork/Regional Security Stylers. Both games start at 8 p.m.
