The U13 Southman Saints lacrosse team has had an incredible season filled with memories, laughs and many victories, including the most recent event where the group were crowned champions.
"Our U13 team was able to finish our season with a championship," coach Matt Girardin says with a smile. "We went all playoffs and we lost only one game the entire year and that happened to be in the playoffs to the team we ended up playing again in the finals. The way the playoffs work for lacrosse is that it's a double-round knockout, so the moment you lose two games, you're out of the playoffs. We lost to the team once in the round robin play, so we had to beat them twice in the championship and we were able to do it. It went to overtime and we got it done, so it was very exciting."
Girardin talks about what that overtime was like and how proud the coaches were of the groups compete level and attention to detail. "It was very nerve racking," he says with a laugh. "I'm the assistant coach so our head coach did a great job managing the bench, we had a game plan from the start. We went up by two, they tied it up at two, and we knew it wasn't going to be an easy win. Going into overtime, we knew it was going to be a battle. Our kids stayed composed and they kept working hard. It's a ten minute running overtime, it's not sudden death and we scored with three minutes remaining in that overtime period and they were not able to get anything. We capped it off with an empty netter and that was that."
Throughout the year, Girardin says they've found ways to win but that championship game perfectly encapsulated the heart, the belief and just how tough this team was mentally. "It was just such a fitting end," the coach says proudly. "They've been resilient all year, they've battled all year, they had the same attitude throughout every game, every period, every shift and to see that continue into that overtime, they just kept playing and working hard. They never got down when the game was tied, they just pushed through and that is our team in a nutshell this year. It was amazing to see them get rewarded for it."
Over the course of the season, the group has become very close and Girardin made sure to take in the celebration between friends and teammates. "It's really cool. As we all know, in the sports world, it's hard to win a championship. For some of these kids it might be the only championship they win in a life time. It's very rare, so to see them celebrate, it was special. They did a thing that was pretty unique to the group, in a tournament earlier this year when they won, they would sing the ABC's together at the end of the game and that tradition continued. To hear that after winning that final game, hearing them sing with the medals around their necks, just belting it out, it was special. That was fun to be a part of and a memory that's going to stick."
Another very special part of this year was the community of people around the team, people who Girardin says made it even more unforgettable. "I've said it before and over the course of the year, they have been so great and they continued it right to the end. To every playoff game where we didn't know if we were play on a Monday or Tuesday in Notre Dame or Maples, some of these people coming from St. Pierre or St. Malo, it's an hour and a half drive for them, but they were committed to everything. We always had our roster filled with special kids and special people around them, I'm so glad it paid off for everyone."
The big question is what comes next not just for this group but for the program and Girardin says it's a bright, bright future. "Our U11 Southman Saints went undefeated all season and also won the championship. This is only a club that has been in existence for two years now. Our U7 and U9 programming, we had close to 40 registrants there. We had two teams at U15 and a team at U17, so it's clear we have an extremely bright future. We have some of our top U13 players moving up to U15 and some of our top U11's going to U13. We're encouraging and wanting all the players to come back and it looks like our roster will be strong for the forseeable future, that's for sure."
Lacrosse continues to grow and with the programs having success and being led by great coaches like Matt Girardin and many others, it will keep getting better.