ALL West Women's Division proud to unveil 2023 team names

Savanna Smith, Denise Forlin, Christine Morrison and Jenn Forlin, the ladies behind the ALL West Women's Division proudly announced the 2023 team names along with their new jersey designs to be produced by Xtreme Threads.

Lacrosse is a gift given to Indigenous Peoples by the Creator, it is the Medicine game and also played for the Creator's enjoyment. It is because of lacrosse's roots that we decided to take the animals from the Story of the Great Ball Game or as some refer to it, the First Lacrosse Game story. This story is impactful in that it teaches us that regardless of what others may think of you, every player brings something to the table and if you're willing to work hard enough and make sacrifices that you can do anything.

We choose to use animals from the story as our team names as each animal holds meaning on its own. The six animals and team names are Bear, Deer, Turtle, Hawk, Bat and Flying Squirrel.

Bear represents courage; having the courage to stand up to our fears and to have courage to stand up for others. We choose to take colours from the three bears we have in British Columbia and integrate them into the design. Using black to represent the black bear, brown to represent grizzlies and white to represent the Spirit Bear. 

Deer represent tenderness tempered with strength. This allows deer to act even when obstacles challenge the path, and to never back down. We choose to take the colours from the black tailed deer found all over B.C. 

Turtle represent truth, and wisdom. That the learning from a journey can be more important than the destination. We choose to take the colours from only native turtles to B.C., the painted turtle. 

Hawk represents determination, and focus. Coupled with its aerial agility, it provides the hawk with the ability to see prey at great distance and quietly fly with great speed towards their goal. We choose to take the colours from the Northern Goshawk that resides all over B.C. and are hard to see as they prefer to live away from civilization.

Bat represents transition, and the start of a new beginning. As we enter into our second season, we are transitioning from what we have known for female box lacrosse to be, into another level of higher competition, ability and play. We choose to use the Silver- haired Bat native to BC.

Flying Squirrel represents keeping focus on one's dreams and goals. Each of us has dreams we are working towards both in our personal and lacrosse lives, because of the focus needed to help achieve these and the announcement that Women's Box lacrosse will be at the World level. We choose to use the Northern Flying Squirrel that is native to B.C. 

Each animal is represented by the jersey colours, and a silhouette on the uniform shorts; the silhouette is to represent the animal as we continue to grow as a league we can begin to explore other logos each year to represent the animal.

The ALL West Women's Division will be hosted at the Langley Field House, Saturdays starting in December and will have an 8 game season with a championship weekend of games taking place Feb. 18 2023.

Registration is open, and there is still room to sign up to play in the 2022-2023 season of the ALL West Women's Lacrosse League.