With the amount of talent coming up through the junior ranks in the city it seemed natural that Red Deer would get back into senior lacrosse.
Chris Davis and Geordin Flett thought so as well, so they got together to start the Red Deer IFR Silverbacks and play in the Rocky Mountain Senior C Lacrosse League.
“They had a senior team here four or five years ago but they just couldn’t get enough players who could commit, so it folded,” explained Silverbacks assistant coach Brian Ziegler. “But with the number of players coming out of junior and with the guys still around, from the previous team, there was enough interest to get back in. We have 20 runners and two goalies and while all of them can’t make it out to all the games we have enough. We’ve had a couple of games where we had 13 to 15 guys, but generally we’re fine.”
The previous team competed in the senior B league.
“We could play at that level and would be in the middle of the pack, but the senior C league is good for us right now, although depending on the players we get in the future we may move back up,” added Ziegler.
The Silverbacks have just one loss in eight starts this season, sitting first in the five-team league, two points up on Lethbridge, who they play July 10 in Lethbridge.
“That game will decide first place,” said Ziegler.
The Silverbacks gave a good mix of older and younger players.
“We have several guys who are 30-31 and several around 24,” said Ziegler. “It’s a good mix. We’ve had a good year with depth offensively, a strong power play and good defence and goaltending.”
Davis and Patrick Kirkaldy share the goaltending duties.
The ‘Backs have allowed a league low 53 goals while scoring 109, which is also a league-leading 13.6 per game.
They have four of the top 10 scorers in the league, including Tyler McRobbie, who is second with 23 goals and 15 assists, nine points back of league-leading Tyler Weber of the Bowmen, who had 26 goals.
Geordin Flett (13g, 12a), Myles Nadon (11-13), Luke Flett (11-10), Justin Kinnear (8-13), Ray Williams (10-8) and Joe Rattan (8-8) are also in the top 20. Sean Ziegler and Jeff Gresham anchor the defence.
Also on the roster are Jason Brooks, Josh Brown, Jordie Davis, Mathew Howard, Brendan Luft, Scott McKenzie, Andrew Munden, Brett Olsen, Adam Reynolds, Shandi Werwenka and James Wright.
Geordin Flett is listed as the team’s head coach, but because he’s also playing Ed Flett handles much of the coaching duties on the bench along with Ziegler and Nav Ratan, who is also the trainer.
The top four teams make the playoffs with the semifinals a best-of-three and the final a best-of-five.
The Silverbacks play all their home games in Blackfalds.
“We were able to get our practice time at 7 p.m., which was tough to do in Red Deer because of the number of teams. It worked out well and we’re also able to start our games at 7 p.m.,” said Ziegler.
The Silverbacks are in action tonight as they host Okotoks at 7 p.m.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com