Nothing is certain in terms of when or if there will be a Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse season this year.
Normally the season kicks off in May with the Six Nations Arrows holding their much- anticipated Bread and Cheese home opener, but that won’t be the case this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, despite many sports leagues and events around the globe being cancelled, the Ontario Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse league is not ready to throw in the towel on this coming season.
“Our league is drafting up a few scenarios when it comes to different start dates, schedules and play-off length with these dates to try and maximize the amount of games played per team,” Six Nations Arrows General Manager Jake Henhawk said. “We are also looking at experimenting with two divisions for this shortened season.”
Henhawk went on to add, “We have not set any hard deadlines for when we will have our last possible start date. Obviously, our goal is to play this summer but only when it is safe to do so for our players and community.”
Meanwhile, there is a lot of excitement coming from Henhawk about all the emerging homegrown talent ready to make that jump into Junior ‘A’ lacrosse.
Among the vast pool of talent is forward Marshall Powless who led the Six Nations Rebels last year with 151 points (54 goals, 97 assists).
“Our organization likes a lot (of things) about Marshall Powless,” Henhawk said. “He brings a good attitude and work ethic. He has a top skill set and IQ that can match any player in Jr. A. We believe he will be a main contributor up front and compliment our team very nicely.” The savvy GM went on to include, “He is just one of many players that are ready to make the jump from the Jr. Rebels up to play Jr. ‘A’ for the Arrows and is 1 of 19 hometown players from Six Nations that are to set play Jr ‘A’ this summer. We are very excited for not just for Marshall but the rest of the team as well when we are allowed to resume play.”
Reflecting on what it would mean to put on the Arrows uniform on a full- time basis, Powless could hardly contain his excitement as he stated, “It would be awesome. Nothing better than representing the community.”
Powless, who has played a few games with the Arrows as an AP, was pretty impressed with the talent; he saw at the earlier tryouts.
“It was really good,” he said. “There was lots of talent and I was excited to get the season started. The only thing I find different (from Jr ‘B’ to Jr ‘A’) is you gotta move faster. It’s a faster paced game.”
The prospects of one day following in his brother Johnny Powless’ footsteps and helping the Arrows celebrate another Minto Cup is obviously the ultimate goal.
“It would mean so much to me. I always dreamt of winning a Minto!”
For now, Junior ‘A’ lacrosse fans are just holding their collective breath waiting to see if there will in fact be a season.
