Q and A With Wallaceburg Red Devils Head Coach Justin Durston

With the OLA Junior B Lacrosse season nearing the midway point for the Wallaceburg Red Devils, Wallaceburg Head Coach Justin Durston took a few minutes to answer CKSN’s questions regarding his team’s early season performance, and what they’ll need to do in the season’s second half to improve. Below are the Chatham-Kent Sports Network’s questions, followed by responses from Wallaceburg Red Devils coach Justin Durston regarding the Red Devils, lacrosse, his brother Jordan, his team and more.

Q: Your Wallaceburg Red Devils are 4-5 throught the first 9 games of the season. How would you describe your success so far this season?

A: We have had some success this season, but at the same time our expectations were set fairly high. We have one of the youngest teams in the league and we’re sitting around .500 after the first half of our schedule, which was by far the hardest part of our schedule. We have lost to Guelph, Six Nations, Windsor and Orangeville, whom are all amongst the top of their divisions. Our only real break down game I saw was against Welland.

Q: What has been the strength of your team so far this season?

A: Our strength of our team has been different every game. Some games we get lots of goal scoring, other games our defense has been good, as of late it’s been our goaltending from Kirby Celotto. He’s giving us a chance to win games. Once we manage a way to put everything together we will be a team that other teams won’t want to play against in a playoff series.

Q: What is one thing the Wallaceburg Red Devils will need to do in the season’s second half to maximize your success?

A: We have had a lack of teamwork, but it’s been how these kids have played the game most of their lives. We have 3-4 kids from each age group on our team that are used to winning games by themselves in minor, now at the junior level they have to make the adjustment to playing as a team and buying into the team system. We played that way at home to the Spartans on saturday and we saw the results, a 13-5 win. Again, this is a very young team learning systems they have never been introduced to before.

Q: Your brother is the team’s current leading scorer, what has it been like coaching him?

A: Realistically I have coached my brother his whole life. Numerous hours have been spent with him out in the driveway and at the tennis courts. He is actually a rookie this year, but has 40 games or so under his belt to his junior career. I expect a lot out of him because I know what he is capable of doing when his game is on and sometimes we get our emotions mixed because of what I do expect of him. At the end of the day though, he’s my kid brother and he’s having a great season for a 17 year old in the junior league.

Q: Other than Orillia who is 0-10, the Red Devils have allowed the most goals against in Ontario with 119. I hear some people saying it’s goaltending, others saying it’s defence. How would you respond to fans about the number of goals you’ve allowed?

A: Our goals against average is very high; however, we have played the toughest part of our schedule leading up to this point. 16 goals against division leading Guelph, 20 to Six Nations, and 21 versus division leading Windsor. 3 games – 57 goals against. Most of these goals against came in the 3rd period where the wind may have been knocked out of our sails and we left our goalies out to dry. I think once the season is complete you will see our goals for continue to get higher and our goals against drop. We have 6 of our remaining games versus Sarnia and London, one against Owen Sound and Niagara, who are bottom teams, two against Windsor and one against Elora. I think we could potentially go 9-2 in the remaining half of our schedule but like you said, we do have a lot of work to do keeping goals out of our net.

Editors Note: The Chatham-Kent Sports Network would like to thanks Wallaceburg Red Devils coach Justin Durston for answering our questions, and we wish the Red Devils the best of luck in the remainder of their season. Continue to follow CKSN for lacrosse news, scores, and highlights.