One of the biggest female lacrosse competitions in the country is set to hit Okotoks.
A celebration of the strength of the Okotoks Raiders female program, the local organization puts on arguably its flagship event this weekend as the eighth annual Girls Rock Lacrosse tournament rolls into the Foothills.
“The whole club takes a lot of pride in this tournament because it is our tournament, it is the largest all-girls tournament,” said Raiders Bantam girls coach Jody Reid. “This is it. This is the premier event for girls lacrosse and the one they look forward to.
“We do the provincials, we do Canada Day, and different ones throughout the province, but everybody looks forward to this one.”
New this season is the location.
After previously being held at the Subway Soccer Centre in SE Calgary, the Raiders have brought the tournament to its own backyard for the eighth incarnation of the event.
“They’ve got the luxury of popping home if they want and getting a bit of a break,” Reid said. “Friday night most teams have two games. Saturday most teams have about three and what usually happens at the Soccer Centre is you hope the weather is nice and everybody lays around the grass for two, three hours in between games.
“There is a comfort level when you’re in your own venue or you feel like you’re at home and that should be really good for all the teams.”
Games will be held at the Murray Arena and primarily at the state-of-the-art Crescent Point Regional Field House.
“This means that we are bringing teams into the community that can enjoy what Okotoks has to offer from hotels, to restaurants, to parks and our facilities,” added Girls Rock tournament co-ordinator Jen Hoyle.
This year’s tourney features teams from across the province with the likes of Airdrie, Strathmore, Okotoks, Calgary, Beaumont, Westlock, Fort Saskatchewan, St. Albert and Sherwood Park vying for podium finishes in Big Rock Country.
“It’s one jam-packed weekend of fun,” Reid said. “A big thing with girls lacrosse is friendship and relationships. I don’t want to say the sport is second to all of that, but it almost is a lot of the time.
“To be able to come together with a lot of these different teams, hang out and play in a lot of games and spend time together it’s a really fun weekend.”
Forty-four teams combined will be duking it out in the Novice, Peewee, Bantam and Midget divisions over the three-day event.
Okotoks fields one team in each division.
“Any tournament is a huge undertaking. There is a lot to coordinate from venues, schedules, vendors, hotels, refs and coaches, plus all team players,” Hoyle said. “It’s a lot of work, but at the end it is all for the players to come enjoy our town and have a great weekend playing the sport they all love.”
For many teams it’s the first look against non-league opposition in advance of large scale events down the road including the Canada Day tournament in Calgary as well as provincial championships.
“In the regular season we do play a lot of teams or teams with the same name,” Reid said. “It is a good opportunity to see what other programs are doing and you can always learn and we always encourage the girls to stick around and watch some of the other games.”
The Bantam Raiders kick-off the competition on May 19 at 3:15 p.m. versus the Calgary Sabrecats, their first of two games on opening day.
Each team gets four round-robin games prior to the playoff round on May 21.
“It’s pretty much go at it hard for three days and see how we come out on the other end. Hopefully we can get some cool medals out of this,” the coach added. “You hope it kind of launches you into the second half of the season. If they come out on a positive note and they kind of find their groove, figure out where their strengths are this gives you that extra little push to finish the season with a little bit of extra strength.”
To keep up on the latest schedules and results from the event go to okotokslacrosse.com and find the tournament tab.
