The West Central Senior Lacrosse League (WCSLL) is a men's Senior C amateur box lacrosse league sanctioned by the British Columbia Lacrosse Association in Canada. Officially named the West Central Senior 'C' Lacrosse Association, it is usually referred to as the West Central League or just simply the 'C' League and consists of nine teams based in cities located in the Greater Vancouver area — all playing the majority of their games from a central venue located at Port Coquitlam Arena. The league schedule is typically contested from mid-April until early August.

League history

Harry George Woolley founded the West Central Lacrosse League (WCLL) in fall 2002. Earlier in 2002, while being commissioner of the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association (WCSLA) Senior B league, Woolley saw 55 players cut with nowhere to play. He completed the necessary paperwork and helped organize the WCLL get off the ground. The vision Woolley had in establishing the West Central Lacrosse League (WCLL) was to create a recreational league that any lacrosse enthusiast could join.

Original Teams

The West Central League started play in 2003 with four teams: the Abbotsford Attack, Port Coquitlam Hitmen, Port Moody Express, and Vancouver Vipers. The Port Coquitlam Hitmen were founded by Scott Parsons. The Port Moody franchise originated after the 2002 Alcan Cup in Vernon. The Port Coquitlam Knights Senior B team, which was started by David George Wisniewski and Edward Gosse. The Knights wete a ragtag team of friends that included the likes of Keith Armstrong, Julian Brambleby,Terry and Bill Mosdell, Jim Steedsman, Ritchie and Troy Baker, Sennan Joseph,Harry Preston, Mike O Reilly, David Bensmiller and Scott Parsons.This gang of misfits, that loved game came together for an Alcan cup Senior B tournament in Prince George BC. The Knights walked away with a not so, so surprising Bronze medal. The next year the Knights journeyed to Vernon for a as a 12-team tournament as they did the year before in Prince George, realized that things needed to change.David Wisniewski told Glen "Moose" Scott (Prince George senior lacrosse commissioner) at the Alcan Cup tournament that he would be putting a Port Moody Senior C team in for the next year's Alcan Cup. The West Central League originally excluded Port Moody from the league; Surrey, Abbotsford, Vancouver and Port Coquitlam being the original teams. Port Moody, despite having a full roster and financial support, was told that this was a four team league at the league's first meeting. Surrey then later backed out and Port Moody stepped in to take their place. The original proposed name for the team was the Port Moody Beasts, but this was soon dropped in favour of the Port Moody Express. The Abbotsford Attack were started by Cam Janzen and Tom Potter as they wanted to have a box team for all the Abbotsford field players to keep their skills up over the off-season. Terry(the maniac) Kirstiuk was responsible for founding the Vancouver Vipers (named after the former Vancouver Senior B team from the late 1990s), a squad which struggled through its first season with short-benches and an inexperienced roster.

Seasons

2003

The first league match was played on May 10, 2003, a 9-9 tie in which Kelly Scott of Abbotsford Attack scored the league's first goal (against Port Coquitlam Hitmen). Port Moody Express and Port Coquitlam Hitmen were the dominant teams during the inaugural season, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively in the regular season standings and both met in the playoff finals with Port Coquitlam defeating Port Moody 12-10 in overtime to win the Gale Lloyd Trophy — symbolic of the league's playoff championship. In the league's consolation bronze game, the Vancouver Vipers, who went winless during the regular season, pulled off a 7-4 upset to defeat the Abbotsford Attack.

2004

The 2004 regular season basically saw a repeat finish of the previous year, although Port Coquitlam finished tied for points with Abbotsford. Vancouver Vipers picked up its first and only win of the regular season at the expense of Port Coquitlam. Port Moody and Port Coquitlam met again in the playoff championship, with the game going into overtime but this time Port Moody walking away with the Gale Lloyd trophy in an exciting 9-8 victory. Abbotsford defeated Vancouver 11-7 in the re-match for the bronze medal game. One major change which occurred prior to the 2004 campaign was the adoption of one central arena location in Port Coquitlam for all games regardless which teams were playing. In the inaugural season, a different team would host games each weekend at their own home arena. Players complained about the travel (especially back-to-back Saturday-Sunday games played in Abbotsford and Vancouver-Kerrisdale) and confusion over scheduling locations, so the decision was made to centralize everything out of Port Coquitlam Arena. Since then, just over 80% of all league games have been played at Port Coquitlam Arena — with the remainder rescheduled elsewhere when not available.

2005

On February 23, 2005 the North Shore Indians from North Vancouver were approved and joined as the league's first expansion team. Port Coquitlam and Port Moody met yet again in the playoff finals — this time Port Coquitlam taking the trophy home with a 10-8 win. In October 2005, during the off-season, Vancouver's executive decided to rename the team the Burrards to keep in line with all other Vancouver box lacrosse teams from minor up through to senior level.

2006

In 2006, the league's fourth campaign, Port Moody dropped the unpopular PoCoMo moniker and proceeded to shellshock the league with its 10-0 start. Port Moody walked away with the championship in an easy 11-3 win versus North Shore, while Abbotsford took the bronze against Vancouver. Despite the overwhelming dominance of Port Moody (who went on to win the Alcan Cup Invitational Senior C Championship held in Prince George and then capped it up the following week with winning British Columbia Senior C provincial championships in Richmond and New Westminster), the league saw the closest parity and balanced play between teams since the league started.

2007

The first half of the 2007 season was fairly close, as on any given day depending on who showed up any team could beat another. As the season progressed however, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, and North Shore were able to fortify themselves prior to the roster deadline with signing cuts to boost their fortunes in the standings as Abbotsford and Vancouver slid downwards from remaining with pretty much the same intact rosters for the entire season. In the bronze medal game played the following day, the Abbotsford Attack held a 7-4 lead after forty minutes but then the Indians mounted yet another of their third-period comebacks. Abbotsford were able to hang on for a 9-8 victory over the North Shore Indians. The championship game featured the fourth time the Port Moody Express and Port Coquitlam Hitmen had met in the finals — and once again it was an interesting and exciting game. Port Coquitlam held narrow 1-goal leads after each of the first two period, but Port Moody were then able to outscore the Hitmen 6-4 in the third-period to win the championship 15-14. The following weekend, four teams traveled to Prince George to compete in the British Columbia Senior 'C' Provincial and Alcan Cup tournaments. In a tournament which none of the host teams were able to make the finals, Port Moody Express and Port Coquitlam participated in the provincials with Port Moody losing to Kelowna Raiders (Okanagan Xtreme League) in the gold medal game. In the Alcan Cup, North Shore Indians and Vancouver Burrards finished ahead of their Prince George opposition to meet for the gold medal, with the Indians taking the gold 10-4 in the championship game.

2008

On February 21, 2008 the league expanded when the West Van Outlaws from West Vancouver were accepted into the league as its sixth team. Along with the new team, the regular season schedule was increased from 12 to 15 games and the playoff final made into a best-of-three series. Expansion required the league to change its scheduling so that its Saturday night double-headers involving four teams became triple-headers involving all six teams and the bye weeks eliminated. Port Moody Express and Port Coquitlam Hitmen battled neck and neck throughout the season for first place. In the championship finals between Port Moody Express and North Shore Indians, the defending champion Express swept the best-of-three series 10-8 and 12-6 to win the Gale Lloyd Trophy for the third year in a row, and the fourth time in five seasons. Port Moody Express and North Shore Indians then traveled the following week to Kelowna to represent the league in the British Columbia Senior 'C' Provincials. Port Moody won all their games in the round-robin section but lost in the gold medal game to the Kelowna Raiders. North Shore finished in third place in the four-team tournament, ahead of Vernon Royals of the Okanagan Xtreme League. In the Alcan Cup, played in Prince George the same weekend, the Vancouver Burrards were unable to repeat their silver medal appearance from the year before, losing to Regina Heat and Prince George BX Pub Bandits to finish in fifth place with a record of 1 win and 2 losses.

2009

The league saw further change during the off-season when it expanded to eight teams on February 26, 2009. The Coquitlam Cobras and Ladner Pioneers were accepted into the league as expansion teams while the Abbotsford Attack (now devoid of its Ladner-based players) moved across the Fraser River to Maple Ridge to become the Ridge Attack — later going by the name Maple Ridge Attack in 2010. Port Moody Express repeated as British Columbia Senior 'C' provincial champions when they defeated the Armstrong Shamrocks and Kelowna Raiders in the three-team provincial tournament held in Armstrong during the August 14–16, 2009 weekend. In the Alcan Cup the following weekend, the Vancouver Burrards travelled to Prince George as the only visiting team entering the five-team tournament. Vancouver—who were reinforced with players picked up from the Port Moody Express and Armstrong Shamrocks—cruised through the round-robin section with a record of three wins and one loss against their Prince George opposition which then advanced them to the gold medal game for the second time in three years. They faced a re-match versus Prince George Shooters Pub Devils, against whom they had lost the previous day, but this time won 8-7 and took home their first Alcan cup title in five years.

2013

The league expanded back to eight teams in 2013 when Burnaby Lakers and Richmond Roadrunners joined. Vancouver Burrards adopted the North Shore Indians identity and wore their uniforms.

2016

The league expanded to nine teams in 2016 with the addition of the Mission Cedar Kings. Previously denied use of the Adanacs name when they joined the league in 2009, the Coquitlam Cobras were renamed Coquitlam Adanacs in 2016 to reflect the universal naming of all Coquitlam lacrosse teams from minor programmes through into senior leagues under the Adanacs name starting that year.

Teams

Current team name changes

Former teams

League Executive

League Commissioners Chairmen of Board of Governors Secretaries Treasurers Statisticians Provincial Co-ordinator

Team Executives

Coquitlam Cobras Ladner Pioneers Ridge Attack (Abbotsford 2003–2008) Port Coquitlam Hitmen Port Moody Express Vancouver Burrards

Former teams

North Shore Indians (2005–2009) West Van Outlaws (2008–2009)

Regular season standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PTS = Points, AS = Assists, PEN = Penalties, PIM = Penalty Minutes Vancouver forfeited game to Port Moody 1-0 on May 10, 2003 ''PoCoMo forfeited game 1-0 to Vancouver on July 23, 2005. Final PoCoMo vs. Vancouver game not played; result 0-0 tie'' Port Moody forfeited game 1-0 to North Shore on July 16, 2006 Abbotsford forfeited game 0-0 to Vancouver on April 12, 2008 Ridge forfeited game 1-0 to Port Coquitlam on June 11, 2010 Burnaby Lakers forfeited game to Port Coquitlam Hitmen 1-0 on April 20, 2012

Playoffs

2003 SEASON 2004 SEASON 2005 SEASON 2006 SEASON 2007 SEASON 2008 SEASON 2009 SEASON 2010 SEASON 2011 SEASON 2012 SEASON 2013 SEASON 2014 SEASON 2015 SEASON 2016 SEASON

Playoff Champions