The Mister Transmission Orillia Jr. B Kings opened their season with a 14-9 loss to the Orangeville Northmen on Tuesday night.
Despite the loss, the lacrosse club has some optimism after the tight contest with the Orangeville team which finished in first place in the South East division last season with a record of 16-4-0.
“We did a few things wrong,” said head coach Jim Meredith. “We did some things really well too, and if we could have collectively corrected a few things I think it would have been a really close game.”
Meredith says, overall, it was a good start for the Kings, who finished 7-12-1 in the Mid East division last season.
“We would have liked to have won, but it was still a good start,” he said. “We are still missing about four guys on our back-end and our No. 1 goalie who are still away at school.”
Kings' captain Noah Quarrington says the team is looking “a lot better,” than it did last year.
“There are still some things we need to work on,” he said. “As a team, we are definitely growing and going in the right direction.”
For Meredith, the expectation for the Kings this season is to be better than they were last year.
“Our goal last year was to make the playoffs,” he said. “That’s our goal again this year, but we want to try to move up a couple of notches.”
Quarrington expects the squad to have a better record than it did last year.
“We are definitely hoping for a better playoff push,” he said. “We are going to take it game by game and get every win that we can.”
If the team plays to its full potential, Quarrington says the Kings aren’t far from being a top dog.
“We are definitely going to be in a lot of games this year,” he said. “I think we can hang with the big dogs out there and should be able to get a few wins against those teams.”
The team hasn’t changed much from last year as only a couple of players have moved on to playing Jr. A, including the leading goal scorer from last year, Mark Watters.
“We are still a very young team,” Meredith said. “I think we have a long way to learn, but all our U17 players played very well last year. This year they’ve all gotten a little bigger and a little smarter.”
With the regular season only being 20 games, Quarrington says it was difficult for the team to gel last season.
“I noticed from the first practice that guys look more experienced this year,” he said. “Everyone seems to be clicking on the same page."
Meredith says the organization is continuing its efforts to make the community change the way it thinks of the team.
“For years we never even made the playoffs,” he said. “I don’t know when the last time was that we won a round.”
As the head coach, Meredith hopes to change the culture and eventually make Orillia a winning team.
“It takes a lot to do that,” he said. “We want to make our team better so people will stay here to play.”
Meredith says there are several talented players from the area who have moved away to play junior lacrosse.
“They might have decided to stay home if we were a good Jr. B team,” he said. “We want kids to have more incentive to stay here and play.”
The Kings will play two more games on the road this week before returning home on Wednesday (May 3) to take on the Newmarket Saints. Game time is 8 p.m. at Rotary Place.
