The 18U Attack cheer during the bronze medal game against the Regina Reign in 2021. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Field Lacrosse Nationals

P.A. athletes & coaches ready to compete at National Field Lacrosse Championships in PEI

Aug 24, 2023 | 4:00 PM

In less than a week, lacrosse players from across the country will be in Prince Edward Island competing for glory at the National Field Lacrosse Championships.

This includes athletes and coaches from Prince Albert who are set to compete in the U17 Alumni Cup and in the U19 First Nations Cup.

P.A.’s Matt Robin was named head coach of Saskatchewan’s U19 team and mentioned how they’ve already built chemistry in the short amount of time they’ve been together.

“We’ve done a couple more sessions, more than usual,” he said. “We also put in some classroom sessions to get everybody understanding the playbook. We have guys from all over the province and we’re trying to get them to be a cohesive group, even though we don’t get to see each other very often. We have enough talent, but talent only gets you so far – you got to win as a team, and taking these extra steps that these high-performance athletes need is very beneficial and we’ve been taking that extra step this year to make sure that we can perform at a higher level than we did in the previous years.”

Along with Robin on the U19 team are four players from Prince Albert: Tobey Oshanek, Talon Sandry, Jake Boettcher, and Brayden Rieger. Following a bronze medal at last year’s Nationals, Robin said he hopes for a similar performance from his team this year.

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“We’re hoping for another medal, bronze or better,” he said. “Our very first game is against the same team that placed ties on us last year so it’s going to be a tough start but it’ll be good for studying.”

Prince Albert is also well represented on the U17 team with a handful of local talent being listed including Rowan Rudderham, Chase Lehner, Crosby Ratt, Sam Cooper, and Mitchell Pott. When the roster was announced over a month ago, Pott’s family was uncertain that he could travel with the team due to the high costs. But with the community’s support, the family was able to raise enough money to head out east to PEI.

“We had five or six companies and individuals step up and sponsor,” said Dennis Pott, Mitchell’s father. “We also got a lot of work opportunities, we ended up doing everything from cleaning eavestroughs out to yard work to bottle drives. A lot of people offered bottles, we raised over $1,000 at SARCAN.”

The U19s begin their tournament against Ontario at 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 31 while the U17s start things off versus Alberta at 2:15 p.m. later that same day.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann