Baseball and soccer have long been the dominant summer sports for the youth of the City of Yorkton, but now those same youth have another sport they can try their hand at during the hot summer months of 2015.
Field lacrosse, known as Canada鈥檚 national summer sport, is back in the city after a long hiatus and Jordan Jarvis, a former collegiate (Lindenwood University), Junior 鈥楢鈥� and Senior 鈥楢鈥� player and current coach of the Yorkton Fighting Pikes Field Lacrosse Club, is hoping that Yorkton鈥檚 youth will take to the sport and help it grow within the community. 鈥淥ur main focus was to give back to the community in a positive way,鈥� Jarvis told Yorkton This Week via an email interview. 鈥淏asically we want to give these kids opportunity to play a sport that has given us so much and hopefully take them around the world and most of all have fun doing it.鈥�
But Jarvis warns those that may be interested that field lacrosse 鈥� the traditional style of lacrosse 鈥� is different than the form already found within the city, box lacrosse (Yorkton Bulldogs). 鈥淏ox lacrosse is more of a hockey style sport played indoors with five players and a goalie on at one time,鈥� said Jarvis, who had also played box lacrosse at a high level. 鈥溾�滷ield is played primarily outside with nine players plus a goalie.
鈥淎s a collective, we decided that field lacrosse would be a better sport for the children to start off in as it would teach them better skills in passing and catching with both hands and using more of a strategic aspect (than box lacrosse).鈥�
Joining Jarvis 鈥� who is also the head coach for the under-15 Provincial team - on the coaching and development side of the sport in Yorkton will be several local lacrosse stars such as Brandon Wizniak, Adam Stewart and Norm MacDonald. 鈥�(Norm) MacDonald is a grade four teacher in Melville who has played lacrosse all over the world and is originally from Ontario,鈥� offered Jarvis, before quickly describing the credentials of two of his other fellow coaches. 鈥�(Brandon) Wizniak is a homegrown product who has played for many years in Yorkton and (Adam) Stewart was also on a scholarship to Lindenwood University in St.Charles, Missouri, and who also played Junior 鈥楢鈥� and Senior in Nanaimo, B.C.鈥�
As for field lacrosse age divisions, Jarvis says that anyone under the age of 15 can join, with several divisions 鈥� from Mini Tykes (six and under) to U-15 - currently being offered in Yorkton. For the 2015 season the Fighting Pikes will mainly play Sturgis, a close by community with a strong field lacrosse tradition. They will also travel to several tournaments throughout their inaugural campaign.
Registration is $200.00 (CAD) with practices taking place Tuesdays from 6:00p.m. to 7:30p.m. at Heritage Heights Park.
For more information, or to register a child for field lacrosse, send an email to [email protected] or go to their Facebook page officially titled Yorkton Lacrosse Association.
