Local lacrosse players are putting Cold Lake on the map, proving they have what it takes to be among the best in the province.
The Cold Lake Heat peewee squad's Andrew Chio has been named to Team Alberta and will be travelling to Whitby, ON in August to compete in the national lacrosse championships.
“I was very excited. It was unexpected because I was trying out mostly just to get better, I didn't think I would make it,” said Chio.
After initial Team Alberta tryouts on April 2, along with fellow Heat teammates Castin Bibeau and Bennett Fry, the trio was among only 40 players who made the cut to the peewee invitational April 8-9.
“I just wanted to see how good the players were and use it as a camp to help develop my skills,” noted Chio. “I thought I would be quite a bit worse than they were, and then when I got there I actually fit in. It was really fun.”
Last week, Chio received the news that he had secured one of 18 spots on the provincial team.
“I would describe Andrew as a team player, he's definitely a leader and an asset to any team. He helps the weaker kids get better, he's an all-around team player with tons of talent, potential, and drive,” said Mike Groves, coach of the Cold Lake Heat peewee team. “You can see the love for the sport in his eyes.”
This is Chio's fifth year playing lacrosse, a sport he has grown to love and plans on sticking with.
“At school, all of my friends started wanting to play lacrosse so I wanted to try it with them, too. I went to a few drop-ins and I really liked it.”
Leading up to the national tournament in August, he added that he'll be practicing hard and focusing on his defensive positioning.
Bibeau also left an impression on the evaluators, and was given one of two ‘red shirt' spots on Team Alberta. The 11-year-old player will be practicing with the team leading up to nationals, and if a spot opens up, he'll be added to the roster.
“I was pretty excited. At first I didn't really know what it was, but after I was super stoked about it,” said Bibeau, noting that he put in a lot of practice time to prepare for the tryouts.
“Every day I went in my garage and did hundreds of shots with my good hand, my bad hand, and one-handed. We've been practicing with the peewee club team and drop-ins for lacrosse.”
Bibeau started playing lacrosse four years ago. After spending time watching his family members take to the floor, he enjoyed the sportsmanship and teamwork involved in the sport.
“My cousins Donovan and Mitchell first got me into it, because I would go to their games and watch them and got inspired by them.”
“With Castin, he definitely has great leadership skills and works hard,” said Groves. “It's quite an accomplishment for him to be in the top 20 of thousands of kids in Alberta, to be recognized as one of the elite players in all of Alberta.”
With the goal of playing university lacrosse, Bibeau hopes the opportunity to practice with Team Alberta will help to further develop his skills.
“It's going to help me a lot because just with the first and second shift of trying out for the Alberta team, I've gotten way better. With the competition out there, there are so many great players,” he said.
An organization that's only 11 years old, Lakeland Lacrosse currently plays in the ‘B' program. Groves noted all three players deserve accolades for making it far as they did in the Team Alberta tryouts.
“These kids haven't played lacrosse at an elite level before, so they went in as underdogs going into the evaluation and came out on top.”
