The Ridge Meadows Burrards Pee Wee A1 team won the provincial championship over the weekend, as they beat Juan de Fuca by a score of 7-5 in the final game, to take gold.
Head coach Curt Malawsky, who is also the head coach of the NLL Calgary Roughnecks, has won numerous provincial titles with Maple Ridge minor lacrosse over the years, but they’re all a bit unique.
“This one was special, because we have 11 first-year players on the team,” he said. “The kids worked extremely hard.”
The coach put an emphasis on fitness, and even had the boys out running at Cam Neely Arena on Canada Day.
“The boys really bought into it,” he said. “We had a really good group of kids. They were a tight-knit group, and they were selfless.”
The Warrior Sports Most Valuable Player award was won by Silas Gagnon, who also won the Fair Play Award.
“He was great at the offensive end, phenomenal on defence… he was a great captain,” said Malawsky.
Josh Bonner was named to the tournament all-star team, and had been the team’s most dangerous scorer through the season.
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The event was hosted by the Delta Minor Lacrosse Association, and the tournament started with Ridge winning convincingly 11-2 over the Burnaby Lakers on Thursday morning.
Friday they met Juan de Fuca, and again won handily by a 12-5 score. Saturday morning brought a matchup with the Delta Islanders, and a 9-3 win. That afternoon they beat the Langley Thunder 5-1 to stay perfect, and advance to the championship game.
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Because they worked so hard, Malawsky really wanted to see his team beat a tough Juan de Fuca team in the final. Afterward, there was emotion and tears.
“You know it means a lot to the kids,” he said.
You can’t drag it out of Malawsky, but with the number of first-year players that will return, a year older, the Burrards have to be considered the favourites to win another Pee Wee championship in 2023.
In other Burrards news, the association sent two teams to the Jack Crosby All Star Novice Tournment, hosted by Burnaby Minor Lacrosse, and the A1 team won gold, beating Port Coquitlam 10-6 in the championship.
This was just the second Burrrards team to win the event, and the first in about a decade.
The Novice B team won the bronze medal, beating Kamloops 6-2.
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