Nick Scott will never forget his first Western Lacrosse Association game at the Q Centre as a junior call-up for the Langley Thunder.
“The atmosphere for Victoria Shamrocks games is crazy. It blew my head off,” Scott said.
The Maple Ridge native and Langley Junior Thunder graduate will get to experience it a lot after the Shamrocks selected him seventh overall in the first round of the 2021 WLA draft on Thursday night.
“I am super-pumped and was not expecting it,” Scott said.
Being drafted is nothing new for Scott, considered the top defender available in the WLA draft, and who was also selected in the third round of the 2019 pro National Lacrosse League draft by the Calgary Roughnecks.
“I’ve been playing since I was five years old and simply love lacrosse, so it’s been a difficult year with my final season of junior cancelled in 2020 and also the NLL season this year,” Scott said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back to it this summer in my rookie WLA season.” The Douglas College student is planning on being a P.E. teacher and coach.
The defence never rests for the Shamrocks, as evidenced by the selection of the six-foot-five Scott and six-foot-two Max Wilson, out of the Junior Shamrocks and New Jersey Institute of Technology of the NCAA Division 1, in the first two rounds of the WLA draft.
“Scott and Wilson were the two best defenders available in the draft and defence wins championships. We build from the back out,” said Shamrocks GM Chris Welch.
Scott takes defence personally.
“I’m a down and rough and tumble defender, and I always have a great relationship with my goalie, and I don’t like it when my goalie gets scored on,” Scott said.
The Shamrocks’ third pick was Will Clayton, a national Minto Cup champion forward from the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs.
“Clayton is a proven winner from the well-coached Coquitlam junior lacrosse factory,” said Welch.
Victoria’s fourth selection was goaltender Cameron Dunkerley, a third-round NLL draft pick of the Saskatchewan Rush, who backstopped the Junior Shamrocks to the 2019 Minto Cup national championship tournament.
That was followed by Jackson Boyd, Brayden McQuarrie Colton Gnech and Josh Pickford, all from the Junior Shamrocks. The Shamrocks also selected all-rounder Luke Burton-Krahn, a defensive back who plays football for the UBC Thunderbirds and who, the Shamrocks believe, can be a WLA player if he returns to lacrosse.
“We like the depth we’ve added,” said Welch.
“We believe four or five of our draft picks will be able to step right in.”
The Nanaimo Timbermen chose Will Johansen, Colton Lidstone, Caleb Keuber, Teioshontathe McComber, Zack Sawyer, Matt Degirolamo, Spencer Irwin, Jake Pelletier and Cordell Primus.
But Nanaimo’s biggest draft-night move was in trading for the multi-faceted Austin Madronic. The NCAA Division 1 Ivy Leaguer and leading scorer for Harvard, and Victoria Junior Shamrocks graduate, was taken in the first round by the Burnaby Lakers, then flipped to the Timbermen for Nanaimo’s second-round pick in the 2021 WLA draft and first- and second-round picks in 2022, and the playing rights to Callum Crawford.
Claremont Secondary graduate Thomas Vaesen, of the Junior Timbermen and Montevallo of the NCAA, went second overall to the Langley Thunder behind top pick Jalen Chaster to the Coquitlam Adanacs.
The question now is what sort of rookie WLA season the draftees can expect. The 2021 schedule will be announced this month. WLA commissioner Paul Dal Monte said the league is considering several options, from a full to reduced season.
