Scoring will continue to be the hallmark of the Estevan Big Dogs as they embark on another lacrosse season this year.
The junior team will kick off the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League schedule on Friday with a road game against the Regina Rifles. Their first home game is May 11 against the Yorkton Bulldogs. They will host the Saskatoon Steelers the next day.
"Our strength will be our ability to put the ball in the net. We have two of the top three scorers in the league from last year (in Rhett Handley and Dylan Smith)," said Big Dogs head coach Evan Handley.
"We should be able to put the ball in the net, but like always, our (issue) will be keeping the ball out of the net."
Handley said he'd like to be able to do what some teams do in dedicating some players to offence and others just to defence, but he said with the team's lack of bigger players, it just isn't possible.
The Big Dogs have lost overagers Ryan Curzon and Kelsy Omland, along with Josh Pryznyk and Bryceton Cote from last year's club.
The newcomers to the team include Brody Slykhuis and Cole MacCuish.
Handley said he expects the likes of Ty Currie, Tanner Froese, Mark Moriarty and Ryan Frehlick to add some secondary scoring.
"Moriarty's a fast little guy and if he's playing shorthanded, he'll pot some goals for us."
Handley is also seeing improvement from several other players.
"(Dustin) DeBruyne looks really good, (Ryan) Kenzie has improved a ton. He looked really good in practices. Isaac Elder has gotten bigger and stronger and he scored a nice goal (in an exhibition game against the senior team on Thursday)."
More than anyone, though, Handley feels Wayde Curzon could have a breakout season for the Big Dogs.
"Wayde Curzon has always been able to put the ball in the net, and he's out of his brother's shadow now. I've always thought Wayde had a lot of skill and ability, he just needs to get it in his head that he can do it. He could be a top scorer for us," said Handley.
Rhett Handley and Smith, the team's top two scorers, spent some of the off-season out of province - Handley playing lacrosse for Bishop's University in Quebec, Smith playing hockey with the Connecticut Oilers of the Eastern Junior Hockey League - and Handley hopes those experiences will help both of them.
"Dylan came back after being away and he seems to be more mature," said Handley. "I'm hoping (Rhett's university experience) will help him free himself up a little bit."
After winning only one game two years ago, then posting a 3-5-2 record last year, Handley's hoping the Big Dogs can take another step forward this year.
"I'd really like to. We'll have to see how things go. With our offence, we should be able to compete (scoring-wise) with other teams. We'll have to see after a game or two how we are defensively. If we can't hold our own defensively, it'll be a run-and-gun shootout game, which is not what we want."
He added that with the speed of players like Currie, Frehlick, Moriarty and Froese, as well as the new players, "I think we'll be able to move the ball up the floor fairly quickly."
Playing on a bigger surface at Spectra Place for most of their games this year will help with that.
"It's a bigger floor, so we'll be able to use our speed a bit. I just think it'll help the game grow in Estevan. I think if we can get some people out, and (people walking on the track) can pop over and see what our kids do."
Estevan is hosting the PGLL All-Star Game on June 15 at Spectra Place.
"We are super excited to have that. We're going to make an entire day of it," said Handley.
Younger Estevan teams will play during the day, and the Big Dogs are also planning to play a game that night, on top of the All-Star Game.
