Lacrosse has made its way into the Bonnyville sports scene. The Lakeland Heat played the Vermilion Roar in an exhibition match on May 10 to gauge the interest in lacrosse within Bonnyville.
"We're just trying to gain awareness to the sport of lacrosse because a lot of kids in the community don't even know what lacrosse is," said local lacrosse promoter Daryl Hodinsky.
"So, if we have a few games here in town, hopefully they can start to put a game to the name."
Interim head coach of the Heat, Dave Gilles, said he feels this was a good way to start getting parents and youth interested in the sport.
"I think it will be very successful here. It's a great sport to watch ... the kids love it. It's relatively inexpensive and an easy sport to pick up."
Gilles is also the head coach of a team in Cold Lake. He said he was not interested in the sport until his son became involved. Now he said he can't get enough of it.
And it seems like his son can't either.
With no prior experience, Dave's son, Tyler Gilles, found out about lacrosse through a friend and has not looked back.
"My friend had two lacrosse sticks, so we went home and he showed me some of the basics and taught me some of the rules. We even watched a couple games on TV. And then I went to a practice and really liked it," said Tyler
He has now been playing lacrosse in Cold Lake for four years.
Hodinsky is hoping players from Bonnyville will follow the same path as Tyler.
For the May 10 game, he recruited seven peewee-aged players from Bonnyville with no prior lacrosse experience to form the Heat, along with players from Cold Lake and the Lakeland area.
The players all appeared to be having a great time, and Gilles said they all played really well.
"These seven young men picked it up quite well," the coach said.
Unfortunately for the Heat, the more experienced Roar came out on top 8-3.
But Hodinsky said the game was entertaining for the fans in attendance.
"It was a really good game - lots of battling, good contact. I think it was pretty darn good that we held in there as good as we did. All in all, it was positive."
He added, "Hopefully with this interest we can create some future lacrosse teams right here in Bonnyville."
Boys and girls interested in lacrosse between the ages of five and 16 are encouraged to call Hodinsky at (780) 826-2460.
