One more sleep
This is it. Tomorrow night is Game 1 in the 2009 Mann Cup Championship. In honour of the fact that New West is hosting its first Mann Cup series since 1995, I’ve come up with a list of 10 great things about WLA lacrosse in New West:
1 The wooden floor—What can I say? It’s sleek. It’s green. It has the Salmonbellies logo on it. And it’s the only wooden lacrosse floor in Canada and likely in all of North America.
2 Shaggy—Shaggy’s the floor wiper-upper and a heck of a cool character. He’s especially popular with the kids, even us big ones. Sometimes he gets louder cheers than the players—and he’s certainly more popular than the refs!
3 George—George sells the 50-50 tickets, and dang it, one of these days he’s going to sell me a winner.
4 The organ—Okay, I’m not a huge fan of Camptown Races and Little Brown Jug being played during a lacrosse game—and I definitely don’t like to hear the theme from Jaws when the Bellies are shorthanded in their own zone, but heck, the organ is retro, Queen’s Park Arena is retro, and the Salmonbellies are one of the oldest sports franchises around, so I’m willing to compromise for the sake of atmosphere.
5 The city itself. New Westminster is a lacrosse town. Not a day goes by in the summer when you don’t see at least one kid walking around in Salmonbellies shorts, and you often see several walking around with lacrosse sticks in their hands. The city’s also home to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, located just a few minutes (on foot) from QPA. If you’re in the neighbourhood, check it out.
6 The team. The guys are great. They’re active in the community, they volunteer their time to coach kids in the summer, they show up from Minor lacrosse registration and meet the kids, and they even sent lacrosse gear to the troops in Kandahar.
7 The staff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the Coquitlam staff swear at Bellies fans, and how often I’ve seen one of their staff flip the bird. I can’t imagine the Bellies’ crew doing that.
8 The fans. Okay, sometimes we’re a bit rowdy and we really hate shoddy reffing, but we’re a good bunch—really we are (but please forgive us for booing the 50-50 winner of that one play-off game. That was totally uncalled for. Booing 50-50 winners definitely crosses the line. Booing Ref Radar, on the other hand, is totally acceptable and even expected in some sections of the stands).
9 Queen’s Park Arena aka The Barn. The building goes back to the 1930s. Originally intended to be a civic building, it soon became the venue for hockey and box lacrosse, which was invented in the 1930s. Pieces of the original tongue-and-groove wooden floor (which was installed in 1938) grace the back wall of the arena. (For more history on lacrosse in New West, check out my May 2007 article from The Walrus,
An Upstream Battle.)
10 The calibre of play. The games are action-packed and even the teams that are lower in the standings put up a darned good fight and keep the fans entertained. But tomorrow night, we’ll be some amazing lacrosse between the Salmonbellies and the eastern division champs, the Brampton Excelsiors. Go Bellies!
Labels: Mann Cup 2009, New Westminster Salmonbellies, Queen's Park Arena, WLA lacrosse, wooden floor
Much better
The Bellies played the Adanacs in Coquitlam today. They lost, but they played much better than they've played in the last few home games I've seen. Honestly, I think that dang organ music in Queen's Park is sapping them of their energy. Heck, it's affecting the fans. Everyone in my section groans when the organist plays ditties from the past like Camptown Races and Three Blind Mice. Imagine playing lacrosse to Three Blind Mice.
Tonight's highlights were:
1) Seeing the Bellies score three goals in a minute at the bottom of the second period and two more at the top of the third, bringing the score to 10-8 for Coquitlam. Unfortunately, they couldn't get another one past Levis, and Coquitlam scored again, so the final result was 11-8.
2) Watching Cliff Smith fight. I know, I shouldn't be advocating violence, but Smith is just great to watch: so fast, so smooth, so accurate in his punches.
3) Seeing some life in the Bellies. Honestly, the last couple of games have been rather boring to watch. Even though they lost tonight, they played hard and looked good.
Lowlights:
1) Having the Bellies get a penalty for delay of game for throwing the ball over the back netting. Who knew the netting didn't go all the way to the ceiling? And really, why would a player deliberately delay a game in the first period, when the score is two all?
2) As always, the Veltman brothers and Dane Dobbie. Sorry, but I just don't like 'em. They're rude and obnoxious and completely unsportsmanlike.
3) Having to watch a goalie let in shot after shot, knowing that the coach won't pull him until it's too late to catch up. It's happening a bit too much with the Bellies this season (with each goalie).
Next week, the Bellies play host to Maple Ridge. If they don't play well, I'm going to blame it on the organ music.
Labels: Coquitlam Adanacs, New Westminster Salmonbellies, Queen's Park Arena
New policy at Queen's Park
One of the things I've liked best about watching games at Queen's Park is the way kids flock to the box during intermission and take random shots on an empty net. The only requirement was that the kids wore helmets. At the exhibition game the other day, there was an announcement saying that this activity was no longer allowed. My lacrosse-viewing buddy commented that somebody likely thought the practice was too amateurish. Well, what do you expect at an amateur-lacrosse game?
Labels: Queen's Park Arena
Summer's officially over
I dropped by Queen's Park Arena today and noticed that the lovely green wooden lacrosse floor has been replaced by ice. Sigh.
Labels: Queen's Park Arena, wooden lacrosse floor
More on lacrosse in New West
This is a different version of an earlier article on lacrosse that incorporates some interviews that never got used the first time around.
The sound is distinctive, heard nowhere else in the country. The hollow thud of a ball bouncing. The resonance of stomping feet, rising and falling as players stampede from one end of the box to the other. It’s the sound of a lacrosse game in New Westminster, British Columbia, home of the country’s only wooden lacrosse floor.
The original tongue-and-groove surface, installed in 1938, had set the scene for thousands of games, from mini-tyke to the semi-professional Senior Salmonbellies. In 67 years, several national championships took place on the floor’s fir planks.
In recent years, however, the floor had begun to show serious signs of wear and tear, and citizens started to worry about what to do. The easiest option would have been to remove the floor and use the underlying cement as the playing surface, according to Jamie Stewart, president of the New Westminster Minor Lacrosse Association. But local lacrosse fans and heritage buffs wanted nothing to do with that, so they launched a campaign, headed by Stewart, to ensure that the legacy continue.
To raise both money and awareness, sections and individual planks of the old floor were sold off, enabling fans to take home a piece of history for as little as ten dollars. A definite hit in New Westminster, fir boards have also been shipped all over North America, including Virginia, New York State, and across Canada.
The new floor, like the original, comprises numerous panels that can be dismantled and stored at the season’s end, but the new floor is made of stained maple, as opposed to painted fir. The wood’s grain shows through the sea-green stain, creating the illusion of a sandy beach through tropical waters. The Salmonbellies’ logo, a bright red fish swimming through the legs of the letter W, graces either side of the centre face-off circle.
The floor epitomizes community pride. As I chat with Stewart in the stands while we watch the minors play, people approach and comment on the floor. Stewart points to a group of parents standing behind the glass at floor level, parents of kids playing in the next game. “And when this one’s over,” he says, “they’re going to walk out and check out the floor.” He’s right: they do. And that’s exactly what I did the first chance I could. I walked out onto the floor, examined the grain, tapped my foot, and ran my fingers along its smooth greenness.
It’s hard not to get caught up in the spirit, to take part in history in the making. When my daughter’s bantam team played their first game on the new floor two weeks before the May 25, 2006, official opening ceremonies, the team of twelve- to fourteen-year-old girls lined up side by side and simultaneously knelt to kiss the floor.
The New Westminster Lacrosse Association dates back to 1889, when the Royal City, christened by Queen Victoria, was just thirty years old. The following year’s formation of the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association, comprising teams from Vancouver, Victoria, and New Westminster, prompted a lengthy inter-city rivalry, a rivalry that is responsible for the Salmonbellies’ name. According to local legend, angry Vancouver fans called out a taunt of “get their salmon bellies!” during a game between the two cities. Rather than taking it as an insult, the New West team revelled in their new name, and subsequently added the image of a fish to the team jersey.
The ’Bellies went on to great things. The name has been engraved a total of 24 times on the Mann Cup, an award established by Canadian National Railway’s master builder, Sir Donald Mann, that is now presented to the Canadian Senior Lacrosse Champions. (The country’s other major lacrosse award, the Minto Cup, was originally intended for the senior amateur and professional teams, but is now awarded to the Junior A champions.) In addition to the Cup itself, Mann Cup recipients also receive a ring with their team’s logo.
A strong sense of pride accompanies any affiliation with the ’Bellies, whether that affiliation comes from being a fan, an official, or a player at any level. Pride is especially strong in those players who grew up in the Royal City. Said 2005 MVP Kerry Susheski of playing for his hometown, “I grew up watching the old ’Bellies win the Mann Cup series, the Minto Cup series. It’s just always been a dream of mine to play for the Salmonbellies at the senior level, on the wood floor.”
“The Salmonbellies is what sports is all about,” team trainer Keith Johnson tells me at the ’Bellies annual fundraising dinner, a boisterous gathering of lacrosse legends, current players, and numerous volunteers and supporters. “You’ve got grassroots, history.”
And for many years, you had success. Despite winning the championship multiple times, the team has been struggling in recent years. A full decade and a half has passed since the Salmonbellies last won the Mann Cup, reminiscent of a lengthy dry spell that ended in 1958.
In New Westminster, lacrosse is about history: preserving it and repeating it. “We play a violent game with lots of injuries for no pay, just the chance to hold one of North America’s oldest trophies, and the chance of a ring,” says Richardson. For New Westminster native Joe Bell Jr., “There’s no better way to win a Mann Cup than with a fish on the ring.”
The 2006 season came to a close when the Salmonbellies lost in the finals to the reigning champions, the Victoria Shamrocks (who were subsequently defeated in the Mann Cup challenge by the Peterborough Lakers in Ontario). In 2007, however, the top-ranking ’Bellies, who ended the regular season in first place, are in even better shape to claim their 25th Mann Cup championship. This year, the Cup playoffs return west, many hope to the wooden floor of Queen’s Park Arena, where the Salmonbellies and their fans might truly relive the glory days.
Labels: Queen's Park Arena, Salmonbellies, Susheski, wooden lacrosse floor
No go for the Ravens
Well, it's just
not going to happen for the Ravens this year. Like the site says, they accomplished a lot:
- sold enough season tickets to satisfy the NLL
- partnered with GM Place on an arena lease
- got strong support from the media and lacrosse community
- had a committed ownership group
But alas, it's still not going to happen. It's too bad. Watching a Ravens' game was a lot of fun.
But then again, nothing beats sitting in Queen's Park Arena, watching the
red, white, and blue play on the shimmering green planks of the only wooden lacrosse floor in the country.
Labels: Queen's Park Arena, Ravens, wooden lacrosse floor
