Players from Steinbach, St. Malo, Niverville, Ste. Adolphe and all over the southeast have come together through their love of lacrosse and as the U13 Southman Saints, they've had a terrific season and won gold in a recent tournament, another highlight in a year full of memories.
One of the coaches, Matt Girardin, has been around the game of lacrosse almost his entire life and he says giving back as a coach has been very rewarding. "I started playing when I was 10-years-old and I'm 43 now. I grew up and I had a bunch of friends playing and a dad that coached, I just followed it. I made a provincial team when I was 15 and I was a refereed at that time, too. When I turned 18, that's when I started coaching. It started with the local organizations and just grew up coaching, playing and reffing, I just love it all. I love this game and I'm glad to see it develop in south Manitoba."
Girardin says coaching both the U13 and U15 programs shows that there is a passion for the sport at a younger age. "That's what drives me, seeing these kids starting the sport, some as young as five or even starting at 14, but they fall in love with the game. They may not know anything about it and then they realize it and it becomes their favourite sport. The effort and commitment they put in and to see them get rewarded for their efforts is amazing, that's what drives me."
With the U13 team, players have come together from all over and Girardin says he and coaches Paul Rajotte and Mike Robinson have worked to really bring this group together as a unit. "The three of us have worked really hard to bring these kids together," Girardin says proudly. "I can honestly say that this is a unique group. It's so cool that they're from all different places and there are no cliques, no kids are a pack, they all just support one another and it's just been easy and fun. To have success come with it, it's been a blessing, we're lucky and it's been a lot of fun."
At this age level, Girardin says they have a solid, built-in skill set and it comes from another sport in another season. "We're very fortunate in our area with lacrosse as about 90% of the kids all play hockey and it's that hand-eye coordination that's the hardest to teach. A lot of them can transfer those skills that they've been working on in hockey over the past years and put it into lacrosse. We really break down the fundamentals, but it doesn't take them long to develop it. As long as they're putting in those kinds of hours at home to really work on wall-ball on their own time, it really translates to practice and all of a sudden before you know it, they got all the fundamentals down. After that, we can play the game better and not worry about the catching and passing part of it. Just having that base of hockey understanding and skill, it goes a long way in lacrosse."
The U13 Saints were in a special tournament this last weekend and Girardin says the group worked incredibly hard to earn a gold medal. "We were in the Jim Hunt Memorial Tournament, he was a pilar in the lacrosse community, he passed away about 20 years ago and this is our annual U13 tournament. It's mostly made up of all the city clubs, but we also have a team from Brandon and Neepawa, sometimes teams from Saskatchewan come and play. We had a great, successful run. We went undefeated in the round robin, carried that through into playoffs and finished that off to come home with a gold medal."
Girardin says it was a grind and the kids showed incredible heart as they kept fighting their way to the top. "It was all through hard work, we played three games on the Saturday and by that third game in the third period, the kids had to dig deep and they did. They pushed themselves and it was great to see, them realizing their own potential or a new ability that they probably haven't realized yet but it's in them. It was great to see and it was an excellent feeling."
None of it would be possible Girardin says without the supportive family community that surrounds and cheers on the team. "Every time I see this group, I gain a new level of appreciation for the parents and supporters," he says proudly. "(Tuesday) was our last regular season game and we finished the season 12-0 and head into playoffs this weekend. To see the parents driving their kids from St. Malo, Ste. Pierre, Steinbach, showing up to the game, bringing the kids with a good attitude and the right mentality, I'm so very blessed and I'm so thankful for the community. It's exactly why I stared the program, it was to get families involved and offer something different, and that's the national sport of lacrosse. To me, it's the best sport around."
After an incredible season, the U13 Southman Saints are looking to keep it going through the playoffs starting this weekend.