Athletics ready for run at the top
The St. Catharines Athletics will be under a microscope this season, with expectations as high as they have been in quite a while.
The A’s made huge strides in 2018 with their first winning season in seven years with a 13-win campaign. They also qualified for the playoffs where they defeated Six Nations in the first round before being eliminated by Orangeville in five games in the semifinals.
With that as a backdrop and 17 players returning, the A’s seem primed for a run at an Ontario Lacrosse Association junior A championship.
“This year is just a piece of a bigger puzzle,” general manager Jeff Chcoski said. “Sure, there are a lot of high expectations on our club, but this is about getting the St Catharines Athletics back on the map, not just this year, but for many years to come.
“It’s not Minto Cup or bust. It’s big for this organization to be in that top three or four every year. That should happen every year in St. Catharines and we should be making the playoffs every year and making a push to win a championship every year.”
Still, Chcoski realizes that to reach the top, an organization must shoot for the stars.
“Expectations are higher this year. I can feel them, our coaching staff can feel them, our players can feel them,” he said. “Last year it was make the playoffs and see what happens. This year there’s a little more pressure. We’re going to make the playoffs. Everyone knows that. Now, it’s how far we go in the playoffs?”
Assistant coach Rob Taylor said he could feel a difference from Day 1 of training camp.
“The first night the players came to pick up their equipment they were saying they had goosebumps walking into the room,” Taylor said. “I think the feeling all around is of excitement.
“We have a lot of veteran players. We have more leaders on this team than any team I’ve seen in a long time.”
The A’s play their first exhibition game Wednesday, May 8 in Burlington. They open the 2019 regular season with a pair of road games, Friday, May 17 at Brampton, and Monday, May 20 at Six Nations, before hosting Kitchener-Waterloo in their home opener Wednesday, May 22.
“We all feel we’re close, but this is junior A lacrosse and there are five or six teams who think they can win it,” Chcoski said. “It’s a tough loop. I think the year of seeing a team only lose three or four games, it won’t be this year. The first-place team could lose five or six and still battle for first.”
Chcoski feels that a competitive regular season, combined with the experience garnered in last year’s playoffs, will bode well for the A’s this year.
“Everything you prepare for now, you’re preparing for the playoffs,” he said. “We had to go through the process of losing that tough, hard-fought series before you can win. You have to lose before you can learn how to win and I think we did that in the Orangeville series.”
Even with the majority of the squad back from last season, Chcoski said nothing is set in stone as far as the roster is concerned.
“There’s definitely still competition in camp. We are in a good position. We feel confident with the returning core of guys we have here, but there’s no doubt in our mind, if someone comes in and out-plays and out-works someone who was here last year, they’re getting the spot. That’s all there is to it.”
The A’s will begin the season without Alex Simmons and newcomer Riley Curtis, who both attend the University of Denver and are expected back mid-June. Carter Zavitz (Princeton) should be back for the home opener while Brett Erskine (foot) is likely to start the season on the sidelines.
Newcomers are Sal VanderZalm of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Trent Jackson of Windsor, Tyler Brown from Akwesasne and Brayden Mayea from Owen Sound.
Chcoski said he is also primed to add at the trading deadline in mid-June should the need arise.
“We have draft choices ready to go. We feel confident when we do get in that position, we can pull the trigger to make a run at this thing.”
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