Caden Mandziak, Carter Simpson, and Rhett Parker will all be joining the Jr. Roughnecks U13 team to compete in the Jr. National Lacrosse League (NLL) Championship. Mandziak and Simpson are from Chestermere, and Parker is from Wheatland County. All three boys also play together for the Strathmore Venom

The Jr. Roughnecks team is made up of the best players all across Alberta, and the team will travel to Oakville, Ontario to compete against the best the country has to offer from August 17-20. All three boys are excited for the opportunity to compete at such a high level, and for Simpson and Parker it will be their first time joining the Jr. Roughnecks.

"It's pretty exciting to do it for the first time this year, I'm really excited to hang out with the team and try and win the Junior NLL Championship," Simpson said.

"Just hanging out with the team, try and get some W's and have fun. There's a lot of new people that I haven't met, so we can get friendships going around the team and get some collaborative work in," Parker added. 

This will be Mandziak's second year with the Jr. Roughnecks, and similar to Simpson and Parker he's looking forward to spending time with his new teammates. He said it's especially fun to team up with players you may already know from the Venom's rivals.

"It's pretty fun because they're like your enemies, you played against them before. But then when you all get on the team with them, you realize how fun they are, how many friends you can make, and stuff like that," Mandziak said.

While the opportunity to make friends with rivals is definitely a big part of what makes the tournament fun for Mandziak, he added getting more familiar with those teammates has a nice additional bonus.

"It's kind of funny, you can find where their weak spots are, so when you play them again it's like 'oh, look at that,' and then you got them," Mandziak said.

Simpson is also excited for the opportunity to play alongside his rivals and get to know them better both on and off the field.

"You're able to talk to them after your games and stuff instead of just being strangers, so it should be pretty fun this year," Simpson said. 

All three boys are twelve years old and have worked hard to get to this level of lacrosse, although their experience widely differs. Mandziak and Simpson have a lot of experience with 6 and 4 years respectively, but for Parker he was able to make it to the Jr. Roughnecks in just his first year playing lacrosse. Getting to that high of a level so quickly took an intense amount of dedication.

"I always work as hard as I can in practice, all that whining and complaining when you're running and all that, just do that after practice and work hard while you're running, try and put all of your effort in," Parker said.

Seeing Mandziak and Simpson and all their experience also gave Parker an additional push to step up his game.

"You get there and you see Caden (Mandziak) and Carter (Simpson) and it's like 'whoa, who are these guys,' and then you're trying to work up to get to their level, you gotta put that effort in," Parker added.

With a big accomplishment under their belts at such a young age, all three boys hope to continue their lacrosse journeys with the ultimate goal of playing in the pros. Besides working hard and staying dedicated to practicing fundamentals, Simpson added he's already thinking about how best to maintain his body.

"I just want to make it as high as I can go and just try not to get hurt, stretch and stuff before games so I can actually get where I want to go," Simpson said.

While this trio of U13 Venom players will be joining the Jr. Roughnecks, they aren't the only local players heading to Ontario, as U17 Venom player Ryder Endall will also be representing us on the National stage. The Jr. NLL Championship will take place from August 17-20.

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