Originally planned as a four-team league, the Cariboo Central Interior Intermediate Lacrosse League has been trimmed to three.
At a Sunday meeting, it was confirmed Williams Lake will not have a team in the new league, which will hold its first games this spring in Prince George. The CCIILL, for 17- and 18-year-olds, will move forward with clubs from Prince George, Quesnel and Mackenzie.
"Unfortunately, the people that were going to arrange it in Williams Lake could only get about six or seven players that would possibly commit, and one of the coaches moved back to Vancouver," said league commissioner Glen (Moose) Scott. "So they won't be in this year but they're looking at possibly joining the league next year."
At the meeting, held in Prince George, organizers decided on a nine-game schedule for each team. The first weekend of action will be May 3-4, likely at the Kin Centre, with all three squads involved.
The regular season will be followed by playoffs and the winner will advance to the provincial championship tournament in early August in Richmond.
The Prince George team will be known as the Posse and will be coached by Scott Anderson, Brian Horning and possibly David Davidson. Shelley Sivell will fill an administrative role with the club.
Quesnel's entry has been dubbed the Wildfire, while Mackenzie's nickname is still being decided upon.
With the introduction of the CCIILL, players who have graduated from minor lacrosse will be able to play with and against their peers for an additional two years instead of having to quit the game or jump directly to the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association or to junior lacrosse elsewhere in the province.
"Lacrosse took another big step forward in the Cariboo and Central Interior with the formation of this league," Scott said.
In Prince George, more than 15 players have expressed interest in suiting up for the Posse. The Mackenzie team already has a dozen players, some of whom sat out last year because there wasn't a league for them.
"We had probably six or eight kids last year that didn't play at all," said Steve Murphy, Mackenzie's assistant general manager. "Obviously going south wasn't an option for them and they weren't interested in playing senior so they just lost out on a year of lacrosse.
"[Those players] will only get one year of intermediate but [the league] is going to help every other kid in the same situation for as long as we can keep it going. We've got a fairly strong minor league here so we'll still have kids coming up and I think it will be all right."
