By Darren
Steinke
Gordie
Howe Sports Complex
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| The Sentinels huddle up during a training session. |
The field
lacrosse program is still relatively new getting its start in 2018. It found a
home on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds when the Indoor Training Centre
officially opened on March 1, 2019.
The elite
program operates in a fall season from September to December utilizing both the
Indoor Training Centre and Saskatoon Minor Football Field.
The
Sentinels run a junior varsity team for players in Grades 8 to 10 and varsity
squad for players in Grades 11 and 12.
“Any players that we work with, we want them to be leaders
and role models and to be able to contribute to their minor associations,” said
Sentinels coach Arden Wipf. “We want to be able to identify and invite those
players to work with us in the fall.”
Wipf and long time friend and fellow lacrosse coach Luke
Acton started the Sentinels at the request of the Saskatoon Field Lacrosse
Association. Before the Sentinels were born, Saskatoon was home to the
Scorpions elite program.
The Scorpions came to an end in late 2017 as the program’s coaches decided to step away from the game.
Wipf and Acton have a lengthy history coaching the game together spanning multiple levels since 2006, with some breaks sprinkled in. They grew up playing both field and box lacrosse in Saskatoon and played in the NCAA ranks with the Bellarmine University Knights in Louisville, Kentucky.
They were asked if they could start a program that could fill the void left by the Scorpions.
They came up with the concept of starting fall elite field lacrosse program for the province that would have a schedule that didn’t conflict with field and box lacrosse programs that usually run from May through to August.
Wipf and Acton wanted to start an elite travel team to give players a chance to further improve their skills outside of the regular lacrosse seasons. As part of the recruitment, players would be identified and invited to take part in the program.
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| The Sentinels focus on staying on top of their academics. |
Acton said a goal was to give the top players a bigger
challenge in the sport and open their eyes to a bigger world in the game.
“They play a league game in Saskatchewan, and they score as
much as they want to score and they do super well,” said Acton. “We go down to
the States, and we have competition down there.
“We realize we are maybe not as good as we think we are.”
Wipf and Acton got the thumbs up to get the Sentinels
program running. They ran just a varsity program in 2018 and 2019 before adding
a junior varsity team in 2020.
The Sentinels evolved to becoming a private entity going
into the 2021 season.
While there is a focus on developing elite lacrosse players,
Wipf, who is also an elementary school vice-principal, said academics is a big
focus for the Sentinels program too.
“We do put a strong emphasis on academic pursuit and keeping
education a top priority,” said Wipf. “These kids are in high school.
“They need to know and their parents need to know that
lacrosse is great, and it is wonderful. Lacrosse is not the only important
thing. It can’t be the only important thing in people’s lives.”
On the field, the Sentinels program aims to give deeper
instruction and guidance with understanding team concepts of field lacrosse.
The coaches want to help their players gain a better understanding of the nitty
gritty details of what makes others in their same position excel and really
good.
When the
Sentinels have a scrimmage or an exhibition game, the coaches break down the
film and go over it with players.
Being on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds, the Sentinels take advantage of the services offered by Ignite Athletics to help their athletes improve their conditioning.
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| The Sentinels take part in training at Ignite Athletics. |
“We want these kids to get better. They are fun to be
around. It is fun, because they want to be better and we want to be better.
“We can achieve that goal together. That is why we coach.
That is the most fun part of it is hopefully teaching these kids stuff you’ve
learned along the way that can help them achieve something in the sport that
maybe they thought they couldn’t.”
Wipf said the Sentinels program brings on players from both field and box lacrosse, which are two different styles of the game that utilize a lot of the same skills.
In field lacrosse, teams use nine runners and a goalie. Each squad fields one goalie, three defenders who can’t go in the offensive zone, three midfielders who can go anywhere on the field and three attackmen who can’t go into the defensive zone.
Box lacrosse, which is played by the Saskatchewan Rush of
the National Lacrosse League, features each side hitting the floor with five
runners and a goalie.
“I’m a strong believer that any kid or any player that wants
to be the best lacrosse player should be playing both,” said Wipf. “The sports
compliment one another, and there are different skills that you can better
refine in one as opposed to the other.
“If we have a player that comes to us and they only have box
experience but they have a really strong skill set of lacrosse and an
understanding of the game, we can teach them advanced skills sets for field
lacrosse just like we can for a field player that has never played box and vice
versa.”
Acton said the Sentinels program wants to open doors for
players to earn opportunities to play with the various NCAA field lacrosse
programs in the United States. In turn, those players may get chances to one
day play professional in the field or box style games.
Back in May of 2018, Saskatoon product Brendan Rooney helped
Yale University win an NCAA title playing in front of 29,000 in the home
stadium of the NFL’s New England Patriots. Acton said everyone in the lacrosse
scene in Saskatchewan has to better at showing those opportunities can be real.
“I don’t think that as a whole we’ve done a very good job in
lacrosse of portraying that opportunity the right way,” said Acton. “A great
example is Brendan Rooney.
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| The Sentinels look forward to many faceoffs in the future. |
Looking
ahead, Wipf and Acton are looking forward to taking the Sentinels into the
future.
“We’re excited to get going mostly because we are really
excited to get these guys an opportunity to get together as a team and start
competing again and start growing as players again,” said Acton.
All photos in the post came courtesy the Sentinels Lacrosse Club. For more information about the Sentinels Lacrosse Club, feel free to check out their website sentinelslacrosse.com or email them at sentinelslax@gmail.com.
