What a difference one year can make.
Last season, Burnaby's Xenia Dumont wasn't really sure if she was good enough to play for Team B.C.'s bantam girls' lacrosse team.
Fast forward one year and the 14-year-old St. Thomas More Collegiate student is doing just nicely, helping the provincial girls' team to a share of first place at the Canadian national championships being held at Queen's Park Arena this week.
Dumont has scored three goals and added two assists in B.C.'s first five games to date, and was in the lineup for the gold-medal game against Ontario played Thursday (after NOW deadlines).
"I didn't try out last year because, I don't know, I was on the younger side," said Dumont after scoring a goal in B.C.'s 3-2 loss to Ontario on Monday.
"I lost a lot of confidence playing. I felt I was never doing something right. . I guess I changed."
Part of that change was accepting the personal challenge of making the girls' provincial lacrosse team.
"I wanted to prove I was better even if players didn't want to believe it, and with nationals I really, really wanted to do my best," Dumont added.
The Burnaby runner is one of three local players on the representative B.C. squad that shared a gold medal at the recent bantam provincials.
Burnaby resident Naomi Walser, an assistant coach with the B.C. girls' midget team, said teaching the finer points of the game to the girls takes different methods.
"Girls don't generally showboat with their stick like the boys do. So with a lot of girls, we start with stick skills," said Walser, who grew up playing lacrosse in Ontario before settling on the West Coast 15 years ago. "(Girls) are learning to be fluent with both hands."
What's most interesting is watching the dynamic unfold and how girls react when they finally know they can do a skill well, Walser said.
"When (learning) comes it opens up a whole new opportunity for adventure for them," she said.
The proof was clear to see at the nationals.
