Right after the Peterborough Timbermen’s quarter final playoff loss to the Paris River Wolves on March 31st, captain Riley Campbell was already looking forward to getting back on the floor with his teammates.
Of course every member of the team was subdued after a loss like that, but a slight contentment had to be found in the team’s improved record from their inaugural season. Every win this season felt like a war fought with your brothers. It was an emotional season.
“It was a pretty good season and I enjoyed playing,” Campbell, who led the team to a 5-9 record, said. “It was good to meet a lot of new players. We did our best and I’m looking forward to getting back on the floor again next season and getting in the win column more.”
Campbell was one of just 12 returning players from the 3-11 team that finished last in 2017. A Peterborough native with MSL experience, he was given the C after Tim Bergin was unable to make an early-season commitment.
Having a Peterborough captain definitely lent itself to giving the team more of a Peterborough identity. Twelve Peterborough-born players made the regular roster, and six with ties to the local sports scene.
Assistant captain Dan Michel felt that camaraderie between team members improved as the season went on, and that the team has a lot to look forward to.
“There’s a learning curve and we had a lot of ups and downs along the way,” Michel said. “We showed some glimpses of being a pretty good team. It was a good learning experience. We still have a pretty good group of guys here so keeping in touch with them during the offseason will be the biggest thing.”
The biggest obstacle the Timbermen faced this year, despite having a good core of players, was consistency in getting them in the lineup. Out of town players with experience were brought in to bolster the lineup but weren’t always available, for various reasons. Having them in and out of the lineup wreaked havoc for a team that wasn’t able to come together to practice during the week.
Head coach and general manager Joe Sullivan was frustrated all season long with this issue.
“The disservice I see is the commitment level not being there all year-round and that is why the Peterborough team has fallen short the past two seasons,” he said.
Playing so many games shorthanded sometimes felt like a punch to the gut for the staff, who do their best to run the Timbermen with a professional atmosphere as they help players develop their skills.
It’s hard to build chemistry when players you count on aren’t available consistently. Every player touched on that in post-game interviews this season because it was such an ever-present theme to the season.
“Against Paris, their best players outshone ours and you could see that their chemistry was the deciding factor,” Sullivan said.
The Timbermen were expected to be much stronger in goal this year with Kevin Croswell, drafted second overall, coming in as the presumed starter. Croswell began playing again this past summer with the Cobourg Kodiaks and wanted to stay in game shape throughout the winter, but after a couple of losses he didn’t return to the team and Brett Perras, from Ottawa, ended up challenging Ryan Masters for the starters role. Each had brilliant moments and each struggled at times as they ended up working well as a tandem team. Perras led the ALL in goals against during the regular season.
“Any goalie who was in net did their best game- to-game,” Perras said. “I know goalies have off days and I just tried to limit as many as I could. Luckily the defense played well in front of me and I seemed to get a lot of opportunities.”
Despite another first-round exit, Sullivan said that the Timbermen have executed their mission well.
“The season in general was very effective in developing our players and at the end of the day that is the vision of this league,” he stated. “Develop players to improve their game to the next level. Not everyone is heading to the NLL but many players we have seen over the past two seasons have gone on to better positions with their respective summer teams.”
The Timbermen hold two first-round picks including the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, to be held later this year.
“We possess three picks in the next two rounds which could make us possibly the deepest team in the ALL with a bright future,” Sullivan said.
He’s looking forward to next season, too, and hopes that the Timbermen can finally find a home in Peterborough and not be forced to play the majority of their games in Oshawa. A private owner could help with that. Right now the team is operated by the ALL.
“Our sponsors are what make this league possible and with the opportunity for a business to purchase the Timbermen the sky’s the limit. I am confident someone will see the great value this team can offer the Peterborough community in the winter months. It’s not one that will infringe on our OHL Petes but one that will give back to our community. In just two seasons we ran six free lacrosse clinics that supported over 200 local youth lacrosse players. In my experience the lacrosse community acts as an ambassador for our city giving back and supporting in any way it can.”
The Timbermen need to play consistently in Peterborough to continue to build their reputation and fan base. Their pair of games at the Memorial Centre on January 6th and 7th were well-received by the community, but it was mostly family members that made the drive to Children’s Arena in Oshawa for subsequent games.
For now, both staff and players will look back on the season, take some lessons from it, and begin preparations for 2019. As always, the Timbermen are indebted to their wonderful sponsors, especially title sponsor Mincom Kawartha Realty, without whom a successful program would not be possible.
