Locals to play in US BoxLa Nationals

By Lethbridge Herald on August 2, 2023.

Rob RobaChaud Photo From left, Alex Mundell, Dion Dudas, Beckett Davis,Emmit Decillia, Gavin Welch, Ryder Fomrades, Taylor Tisdale and Dave Pinksen of the Sting Nation. All the players but Dudas will be at the US BoxLa Nationals in California this weekend.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

For the first time in the franchise’s history, the southern Alberta-based U17 boys Sting Nation lacrosse team will be travelling out of country for a competition.

The Sting Nation’s roster consists of players from Brooks, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Taber.

Sting Nation is set to battle American teams at the 2023 US BoxLa Nationals in San Jose, Calif.,this weekend that will consist of  130 teams and 1,500 players from different divisions.

“Our season with this group usually ends Canada Day, that’s usually the final tournament of the year that we go to,” said Sting Nation head coach Evan Douglas.

“… For the first time kind of in the history of this program, we’ve got a team that’s super competitive at this level. We decided to take them down to US Box Nationals.”

The team is going into the tournament on a high as they were a ‘B’ team that played ‘A’ level teams, which is the highest level of lacrosse, this year in tournaments and won the gold medal at the Saskatoon tournament  and came home with a silver at one of the largest western lacrosse events at the Canada Day tournament in Calgary.

“…We expect to be very competitive down there as well,” said Douglas.

“You know we’re going down there with expectations of winning it.”

The kids having been preparing  for the nationals by keeping involved in the sport.

“You know a couple of cool things that happened this year as well, we’ve got five of our SALA (Southern Alberta Lacrosse Association) kids currently that are playing for Team Alberta (and) going to represent their province in the Canadian nationals the week after we get home,” said Douglas.

“So they’ve been active doing that with practices every weekend. Several of our players (are) AP (Affiliate Players) with the Southern Alberta Chaos, this is a Junior B club, which consists of 17 to 21-year-old players. So we have several of our kids play there. Our Brooks group, kind of a couple of weeks ago, recently finished winning provincials in Alberta. So we’ve kept them in sport (and) kept them active and we do hold practices.”

The team is looking forward to the experience the most.

“You know, (the) unfortunate part of this group is we have 14 players age out after this and so it’s kind of their last hoorah type of thing,” said Douglas.

“So kind of looking forward to helping these kids have that experience.”

“It’s always a good experience to travel outside the province and play different teams” said Alex Mundell.

“Playing teams from the United States helps prepare me to know my potential competition for the future.  One of the best things about going to California to play is going with a good group of friends. I hope we can come back with a gold medal.”

The Lethbridge players are Mundell, Beckett Davis, Emmit Decillia, Gavin Welch, Ryder Fomrades, Taylor Tisdale and Davis Pinksen.

Dion Dudas is unable to make the trip.

The schedule can be found at http://www.usboxla.com/nationals.

The tournament goes from Aug. 4-6.