Ottawa Black Bears preparing to 'go deep in the playoffs'

The capital's professional lacrosse team is preparing to hit the field for the first game in the regular season with a focus on local talent, says the team's head coach.

Head coach Dan Ladouceur -- a five-time NLL champion – told CTV Morning Live Friday the team's focus is to get stronger by drafting local talent, as it's currently looking at the upcoming draft for the 2024-25 season. He points out the rich lacrosse culture in Ottawa.

"So that when we bring our lacrosse product to Ottawa, we bring a very competitive product," he said.

The team's head coach says their goal this season is "to go deep in the playoffs," while telling everyone the capital's team is here to stay. He adds that they are bringing a dynamic offense with "a young athletic defensive core."

The Ottawa Black Bears unveiled the team's jersey on Thursday. Player, Larson Sundown, who helped design the jersey, explained the meaning behind it.

"The idea behind the design was one to use a people's motif, which is the symbol of a man in the indigenous culture," Sundown said. "And we wanted to use a collection of them to symbolize the menu of the indigenous cultures in the area as well as the Nepean and Gloucester community to bring the game of lacrosse to the capital region and continue to make it great."

During the off-season, Sundown plays in the Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) -- the Ontario based senior lacrosse -- and spends the rest of his time either running, or at the gym training with weights as much as he can to stay sharp, he says.

Ladouceur says the MSL is an important tool to assess the players.

"We get to watch our current roster players, we get to watch the players, the kids that are coming out through the junior ranks," Ladouceur said.

Home games will be played at the Canadian Tire Centre. The franchise’s inaugural regular season home game is anticipated to take place in December.

Fans interested in signing up for tickets and learning more about both the Black Bears and the NLL are asked to visit the team's website. 

Lacrosse is one of Canada's national sports. An Act of Parliament in 1994 declared lacrosse to be Canada's national summer sport, with hockey the national winter sport of Canada.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Ted Raymond