The 2016 box lacrosse season in Richmond is highlighted by the city’s first all-girls team in recent memory.
The Richmond Roadrunners Pee Wee girls team is the brainchild of manager and co-head coach Sean Widdess, who launched the squad with the support of the Richmond Lacrosse Association president Glenn Jensen. The RLA already has boys’ teams in eight divisions.
“There were no existing female minor lacrosse teams in Richmond, but once we got the word out, there was a tremendous level of interest and we ended up having to cap our roster size,” explained Widdess.
Starting a team from scratch has not been without its challenges, as 12 of the 19 girls had not played before. Interest for an all-female team was so great that three of the members are Novice players aged up to play Pee Wee, while others come from neighbouring cities that do not have their own girls’ team.
The players have improved tremendously over the season, which started in April.
Last Sunday, the Roadrunners go their first win — a 5-4 come-from-behind victory at Moody Park Arena over the New West Salmonbellies.
Despite falling behind 3-0 after the first period, a strong second, featuring goals by Adelle Larden, Taelor Coxford and Karitzza Rojas, brought Richmond back on even terms.
Goals in the third period by Brooklyn Widdess and Leah Cavanagh, combined with some stellar goaltending from Aimee Kerr, capped the comeback and sealed the victory. Cavanagh’s game winner came with only 4:05 remaining.
In addition to the goal scorers, team members Isabelle Chai, Claire Pogor, Chyenne May, Kylee Esparbes, Madison Wong, Katie Bollo, Olivia Ng, Caeli Yamanaka, Cathy Hou, Izabel Taylor, Samaya Pankanea, Taylor Murrell and Jenna So have all played important roles.
Co-head Coaches Cynthya Tan and Widdess are supported by assistants Martin Bollo and Gord Taylor.
