INNISFAIL – Lacrosse veteran Trey Christensen is blunt about his team’s goal for the upcoming season.
“Win nationals. Win the whole thing, number one team in the whole country,” he said.
Christensen is a 31-year-old Innisfailian who has been deeply involved in Canada's national summer sport since the age of eight.
He is now the head coach of the Mavericks Lacrosse Club, a junior Tier 1 lacrosse program competing in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL), Alberta’s premier lacrosse league.
In two short years the Mavericks have been Innisfail’s lacrosse team, after moving from Olds in 2023.
The team’s inaugural season in Innisfail last year was a spectacular success.
The Mavericks captured the Junior Tier 1 Provincial Championship that earned the franchise a spot at the Founders Cup, Canada’s Junior Tier 1 National Championship.
The local squad finished in fifth place in the national tournament held in Hamilton, Ontario last August that featured the country’s best nine teams.
“Especially with how young we were last season. That was a huge step for our program,” said Christensen.
On March 12 Christensen and assistant coach Wally Genz were dutifully at the Mavericks first preseason camp at the Innisfail Twin Arena.
There were 22 young eager lacrosse players between the ages of 16 and 21 who attended.
Some were rookies hoping to get a shot on the team roster for the upcoming 20-game regular season that begins in late April and ends in June.
“We have a strong core of returning players who will bring leadership and experience to the team, along with new talent eager to make an impact,” said Genz, who is also a club board member. “This season is especially exciting as the Founders Cup will be hosted right here in Alberta.
“We are setting our sights firmly on returning to the national stage and making another run for the Junior Tier 1 National Championship,” he added. “Being able to compete for the Founders Cup on home turf would be a huge moment for the team, the community, and everyone who has supported us on this journey.”
And a huge bonus is that the Mavericks Lacrosse Club is attracting new fans for the sport, with up to 300 attending home games.
“A lot of people didn't know who we were but now that we've been out in the community and working with the minor clubs, we're starting to gain traction to where we're actually starting to become a little bit of a hub,” said Genz. “We're having anywhere from a couple hundred to 300 people here, whereas before that was unheard of.
“We definitely like to represent ourselves as being an Innisfail team,” he said, adding many players come from all over Central Alberta. “Innisfail is our home.”
One of Christensen’s biggest tasks for the preseason is having his team build on where they are at; a team in 2025 that made it all the way to the 2024 national championship.
“Keep that growth mindset, but you can't lose what got you there,” said Christensen. “I've been to Founders a few different times. The best we finished was second.
“The biggest thing is that last year, as an example, we really had a grind mentality, an underdog mentality, and even though we are from a paper perspective better than we were last season, if you lose what got you there to begin with, it's kind of hard and upsetting.”
As for the young players trying to make the team, he will be looking for that “growth mindset” and toughness.
“It's not about where you start, it's about where you finish,” said Christensen. “So, as long as there's that development all the way through coachability, we're not expecting people to have all the answers off the hop.
“It's how do you deal with adversity, handle adversity, and it's a long season,” he added. “People are going to be in it for the long haul.”
