Three Williams Lake lacrosse athletes are heading to the 2023 Vegas Box Invitiational Dec. 16 to 18.
Lake City Secondary School students Tristan Place, Lucas Sanford and Tyler Beaulne are members of the BC Allstars, the only Canadian team competing in the tournament, which takes place at Las Vegas Sportspark.
The three 15-year-olds learned in October they had made the team, which includes 14 runners and a goalie being coached by Tyler Crompton.
There are a couple of players from Prince George playing as well, who are a year younger than the Williams Lake players.
Tristan started playing lacrosse eight years ago in Williams Lake after one of his parents encouraged him.
“I like how physical it can get and the running,” he said of what he enjoys about the sport.
In his career, he has also played lacrosse for Fort St. John and Quensel, as well as rugby.
Lucas started playing the game seven years ago at the prompting of his parents and friends.
“These two were already in it,” he said, referring to Tristan and Tyler. “It’s a really fast game and similar to a lot of sports that I play. It can be really fun and it’s also just a great group of guys.”
He also plays hockey, he said.
Tyler began doing lacrosse at the same time as Tristan.
“My dad played it when he was younger and my brother was already playing when I started.”
Lacrosse has more cross-checking and players can use their stick to push other players, they said.
Additionally, they said the tournament will be box lacrosse, which is what they play in Williams Lake inside the arena.
Most of the teams they will be playing against normally play field lacrosse, which they said is quite different than box lacrosse.
In box lacrosse the ball moves very quickly and it is a challenge to get good at playing the sport, they explained.
U.S. teams attending the tournament are from California, Texas, Arizona, Las Vegas, Boston, Utah, Pacific Northwest and Grand River.
The team will only get a few practices together before the tournament because the players are coming from various areas in the province.
All three of them have sponsors helping them get to Las Vegas and they plan to acknowledge the support on their helmets and jerseys.
Looking forward to going to the tournament, they said there are not a lot of opportunities to play other teams in the Cariboo. They mostly play against Quesnel or Prince George in the Cariboo North zone 8, and go to Calgary for a tournament every year for a Canada Day weekend tournament.
None of them have been to Las Vegas before and said they will be staying at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino.
