Three lacrosse players from Delta will be trading in their Islanders colours for the red and white of Team Canada.
Haiden Dickson, Brendan Szabo and Brody Harris have all been named to the Team Canada squad for the 2018 IIJL World Junior Lacrosse Championship, which will be held Aug. 8 to 12 at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
The tournament is made up of three teams -- Canada, U.S. and Iroquois -- which will play a round robin format with the top two teams advancing to the championship game.
Canada West won the tournament beating Canada Ontario in the final in 2015 with
Iroquois West beating Canada East in the final in 2016. This year’s tournament is the first to be held outside of Six Nations.
Team Canada general manager Chris Fox is very familiar with the three Delta players as he is a former member of the Ladner Pioneers.
“We worked with Brody for the first time in 2016 as Canada West, so that was our first introduction to Brody and his abilities,” said Fox.
“This year I was able to go and watch all three of them play,” said Fox. “We scout players and we certainly look at their stats, but we also look at character because that goes a long way in a quick tournament like this. These guys have that and all the tangibles we were looking for.”
Fox said Szabo is not necessarily a traditional stay-at-home defencemen, but he plays a gritty style of defence.
“He is so smart moving the ball up the floor, so it’s vital to have transition players and specifically defensive players that know how to get into the passing lanes, know how to push the ball up the floor and Brendon provides us that,” said Fox.
“Haiden is a goal scorer. He got it done, again, no disrespect to the Islanders, on a team that really didn’t have a lot of depth for him, but he got it done in one of the best leagues in the country and he got it done well. So he will provide us a nice anchor on the left side and we can put a nice supporting cast together.”
Fox said he is very pleased with the squad that has been assembled from teams across the country.
“All of the guys we have can get the job done. We have a lot of good players who are also character guys. Hopefully they can do well for us and put us in a position to contend for gold.”
