While many Canadian athletes are down to the final stages of preparation before stepping onto the world stage at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, another group of athletes have their sights set on the summer of 2011. They are the young women vying for a berth on the Canadian Womens U19 lacrosse team that will be competing at the World Championships to be held in Hanover, Germany in August of 2011.

And it was that group of young hopefuls that found themselves at the ACTS Fitness Centre for three days over the Christmas break, participating in the first official training camp for the team.

Heading up the coaching duties for the team is a face that may be familiar to many that have followed the local sports scene over the years; Shelburne native Scott Teeter.

Teeter, who is currently the head coach of Buffalo's Canisius College Women's lacrosse team, earned his lacrosse credentials playing his way up through the local Northmen organization, as well as spending winters on the ice playing hockey up through the junior, college and senior ranks including time with the Orangeville Crushers and Shelburne Muskies.

While the idea of putting together a national team in a country as large as Canada may be daunting to some, it is a challenge that he is more than up for.

“We probably have the deepest, most talented pool of players ever to choose from this time around,” says Teeter.

While acknowledging they are probably strongest through the midfield, “we have a lot of very talented players who can score goals but also play well at both ends.”

If there is a weakness on the team it is one caused by the distances involved with players coming from not just across Ontario but from British Columbia, Alberta and others attending school stateside.

“Our biggest challenge will be bringing the team together, creating that team bonding.”

To that end, the current group of 55 hopefuls will come together again at ACTS in February before having their numbers pared down to approximately 30 who will then go on to play in various tournaments and training camps over the summer before the final selection of 18 players and two alternates is made.

And that selection process will be tough.

The skilled players they have to pick from includes local women Cian Dabrowski, Hannah Early, Klaysa Fitzpatrick, Meghan Gerrie, Mackenzie Neal and Tori Quinn. These all women who have come up through the Northmen system, one which Teeter ranks as “among the top three Womens field lacrosse programs in the country.”

Currently ranked third behind the United States and Australia, the team is hoping to improve on their bronze medal performances of 1999 and 2003.

While not about to make any predictions on the final outcome, Teeter was rather coy in saying

if you find yourself in the gold medal game, your not going in settling for silver.”