Nickel City Shootout (highs and lows)

by lax fan (Login laxwatcher19)

I want to take the opportunity to thank Sudbury for putting on their tournament again this year. As a lacrosse fan for 20+ it was nice to get out and see some quality games between some talented teams.

I'd like to congratulate Sudbury's tyke and novice teams for winning their divisions as well as six nations for taking intermediate, innisfil in bantam and orangeville in midget.

I was able to take in a number of games and I must say I was impressed for the most part except for two glaring issues that in my opinion dampened the spirit of the weekend.

One would be after the six nations/nepean intermediate game that resulted in some property damage to the arena. Regardless of the intensity and hard feelings on the floor you should never desecrate public property. When the game is over leave it on the floor.

The other would be the actions of players from the orangeville midget team. More specifically their assistant captains.

There is no doubt that orangeville is always able to field a talented team and in my opinion they were the odds on favourite to take their division before the tournament began, but it is impossible to respect the way they play thanks to these select few.

Having seen a few of their games I noticed the same pattern in their game play. First, they had the talent and ball control skills to walk away with the game, then they either disagreed with a call or in the case of the championship game faced some adversity with Sudbury taking the lead and as a result their assistant captains started to whine and moan at every call that didn't go their way thus focusing more on the refs and antagonizing other players into trying to take penalties forgetting there was a game going on. This resulted in the games being a lot closer than they should have been. (I don't lump the captain in here as i never saw him once talk to the referees)

The worst offender of this was number 27. He plays in a very dirty game giving slashes long after the ball is gone and questioning every call minor or major that the refs made against orangeville. (He also has the stupidest running ability I've ever seen)

I admire the refs patience with this player and the other a's. I wouldn't have lasted as long without giving him/them at least a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.

As a representative for your team (usually selected by teammates) I would have expected a hell of a lot more class than number 27 and the other 2 assistants showed. It's unfortunate that these are the players that orangeville has selected to represent the values of the team by putting letters on their chest.

Again, I don't want to lump the whole team in as I am sure there are a number of good hardworking kids and I give them credit for their performance in the tourney, but it's a damn shame that these few ruin what could be a great team. If we get players like that out of the game province wide, in my opinion games would be much more entertaining to watch. I do however give the coach some credit, while he was not always able to maintain an even temper he did his best to keep his players in check during the championship game.

I could move on to the disappointment in the comments made by some of the parents, but let's face it that is commonplace in any sport where people have no idea what the rules are.

Finally, in regards to players, I'd like to give credit to the sudbury midgets. They made that championship a whole lot more interesting than i thought it would be. Congrats on a good showing boys.

As for the officiating, while I may not have agreed with all the calls I think the majority of the officials did a hell of a job. My favourite call of the tournament had to be in the orangeville/Brantford shootout and the ref on the crease called back the first shot from brantford that went in due to the ball coming off the post, hitting the goalie and going back into the net. It's a tough call to make in that scenario and the Brantford coach nearly lost his mind with the call but I give that ref credit for explaining it to the shooter, goalie and then the bench. Kudos to him.

Again thanks sudbury for a great weekend of lax watching.

Posted on Jul 8, 2012, 10:09 PM
from IP address 63.135.13.99

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  1. Thunder Bay had a great time. Tbaycoach, Jul 9, 2012, 12:59 AM
    1. agree 100%. 705Sniper, Jul 10, 2012, 7:30 PM
  2. orangeville midget 2. norsmen, Jul 9, 2012, 1:17 AM
    1. Re: orangeville midget 2. , Jul 9, 2012, 12:54 PM
  3. Details????. , Jul 9, 2012, 7:58 AM
  4. 27. lax guy, Jul 9, 2012, 12:29 PM
  5. Re: Nickel City Shootout (highs and lows). , Jul 9, 2012, 3:05 PM
    1. Re: Nickel City Shootout (highs and lows). lax fan, Jul 13, 2012, 10:09 PM
      1. Understand what was happening. , Jul 23, 2012, 11:59 PM

2011 PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONS
Tyke: Whitby (A), Kitchener (B), Burlington (C), Oshawa (D), Kahnawake (E)
Novice: Whitby (A), Six Nations (B), NOTL (C), West Durham (D), Newmarket (E)
Peewee: Whitby (A), Brampton (B), Toronto Stars (C), Kahnawake (D), Halton Hills 2 (E)
Bantam: Whitby (A), Mississauga (B), Kahnawake (C), Kitchener 2 (D)
Midget: Orangeville (A), Burlington (B), Arthur (C), Kawartha (D)
Intermediate: Brampton (A), Markham (B), Clarington 2 (C)