Lakeland Heat bantam and midget take home Provincial gold medals

The midget Lakeland Heat won lacrosse Provincials in Calgary over the weekend. Image submitted by Crystal Frey.

The Lakeland Heat bantam and midget lacrosse teams are coming home with Provincial gold medals.

Both teams headed to the biggest tournament of the year in Calgary with tremendous seasons under their belts despite faltering in their first games of Provincials.

The bantams and midgets each won the Wheatland Lacrosse tournament two weeks earlier and had only a handful of losses combined, the bantams dropping four in 30 games and the midgets only losing three.

Bantam head coach Travis Gibbons said the team did well all year long despite having a much smaller roster than other teams.

Compared to most teams group of 18 runners, the Heat only had 12.

“They really came together as a group,” said Gibbons.

“A lot of runs for the team, a lot of resilience.”

The bantams lost in overtime in the first game of Provincials against Sherwood Park but rebounded against Olds and Lacoka.

Lethbridge was their next opponent who they beat 11-10 to force a rematch in the Provincial final.

The Heat won their second straight game against them, which was the Provincial silver medals only two losses of the year, to claim victory for the second straight year.

Gibbons said they knew Lethbridge was undefeated heading into their games last weekend.

“We coach the kids and encourage them with the fundamentals and gameplay aspects but don’t focus too much on the stats, but it definitely played into our game plan for a little bit towards the finals,” he said.

The bantams will be a new team next year with players graduating to midget next season and new recruits upgrading from peewee.

Midget coach Daryl Hodinsky said the club only lost three games all year, ending a fantastic season with a Provincial gold.

What made the win even more impressive was Keenen Holder filling-in between the pipes despite never playing goalie before.

The midget Heat lost to Westlock in their opener 7-5, who’d they see later in the final.

With round-robin wins against the Calgary Hornets, Okotoks and St. Albert, the Heat forced a three-way tie for first place, which meant a rematch with Westlock.

“We played a real tight game with them. The first period was tied 3-3 and then after the second, it was 4-3 for us. The game ended in 6-3 victory for us. We pretty much shut him down after the first period,” said Hodinsky.

He said the team changed their playstyle with a new goalie in net.

“We really pressured the other teams to shoot from really far out or to not allow them to shoot at all. We kind of changed our style to a really high-pressure defense. We didn’t give them any time or space to get set up. We pushed hard all tournament long,” said Hodinsky.

“There’s an awful lot of stress on our young player [Keenan Holder] who stepped up as goalie, like a lot of stress….and he played fantastic.

“He really listened to the things that we talked to them about positioning and whatnot.

“But no, I couldn’t ask for a team to work any harder as they did. Game in and game out.”

Both Gibbons and Hodinsky talked about the strength of the Lakeland Heat lacrosse program at all levels and how it only continues to improve.

“Our Junior level is looking to receive some really good players, not only coming from Bonnyville but from the Cold Lake team, as well,” said Hodinsky.

“There’s some young kids at the type and novice level that I’m just floored by the amount of talent that there is. It’s really unreal.”

The Junior B Heat head to Provincials this weekend in Sherwood Park where they will look for a Provincial gold of their own.

They will face the Sherwood Park Titans, Sylvan Lake Yettis, and High River Heat.