Photo Credit: Vancouver Warriors Twitter
After the Vancouver Warriors were eliminated in the NLL semifinals last season, head coach and general manager Curt Malawsky said that the Warriors were going to be aggressive in free agency and boy, were they ever. Malawsky went back to his old well and signed four Calgary Roughnecks with whom he won the NLL championship in 2019. One of those players was future Hall of Famer Curtis Dickson.
At 37 years old, Dickson is no question still an elite player in the NLL. Don’t believe me? The numbers don’t lie. He signed in Vancouver this offseason after his fourth 100-plus-point season in the NLL. He played for the Roughnecks for 11 seasons before a two-year stint with the San Diego Seals, then returned to Calgary for another season. He made the difficult decision to leave Calgary for the second time to play for his hometown team and former coach. He spoke on how big of an influence Malawsky was in deciding to sign with the Warriors.
“ Being with him for so long in Calgary for my first 11 years in the league, obviously (I) became really close with him and the culture that he brings with him. I think everyone kind of expected this to be a five-plus year rebuild in Vancouver and he’s sped that up exponentially.”
Dickson also praised Malawsky for his ability to attract free agents to Vancouver.
“ It doesn’t matter if it’s local or out of town guys, he’s drawn players to the city now to come play here. So at the end of the day it was a no-brainer for me to come back home.”
Dickson signed in Vancouver along with teammates Jesse King, Reece Callies and Shane Simpson. He credited his new teammates for making him and the rest of the Warriors’ new signings feel welcome right from the beginning, the sign of a tight knit locker room.
“ They welcomed me and all the new guys with open arms and made us feel like part of the family right from the get go.”
Curt Malawsky changed the culture for the better as soon as he arrived in Vancouver. You might not know this, but the Warriors weren’t the same winning team they are today before Malawsky got here. Dickson is a huge fan of the culture Malawsky built, and it’s arguably the biggest reason the Warriors have had success.
“ I knew exactly what I was coming into having played (for) Curt for so long and he demands excellence. If you’ve ever watched Curt when he played he was the same way, he hated to lose and that’s the mindset he brings to us. Learn to hate to lose more than you love to win, (and) it’s been working out so far.”
Dickson won a championship playing under Curt with Calgary in 2019 but hasn’t been back to the finals since. Winning is the most important thing to him, and it’s a big reason why he signed here. He spoke on why having a winning culture is important not only for him but for teams as well.
“ (Winning) makes it a lot more fun. Winning is why we play and to win championships. I’ve been on both ends. I’ve been on good teams, in 2019 we won the championship and I’ve been on not so good teams. I know it’s getting down to the end of my career and I wanted to give myself the best opportunity that I (could) to win another championship. So that was obviously a big reason why I came here.”
In the NFL, you often hear about the “diva wide receivers” , someone who only cares about their stats. They don’t care if their team wins or loses; all they want are their yards and touchdowns. That is a big no-no if you want to be a Vancouver Warrior and play under Curt Malawsky, as the Warriors are the most unselfish team in the NLL. None of their star players care about their stats, Adam Charalambides, Keegan Bal none of them care about how many goals or assists they have. All they talk about is winning. Curtis knows just how special that is, especially for a team that has aspirations of going the distance.
“ That’s exactly the character you want to build your team around, not just offensively. That’s what we’ve been saying since training camp. We want to be an offense by committee, we don’t need one or two guys filling the net every night and we have the talent to do that.”
The storyline about the Warriors last year was that they needed to find a way to score more goals, as they were in the bottom half of goals scored in the NLL last season. Adding Dickson, who has the fourth-most goals ever with 601 and nine 40-plus-goal seasons under his belt, is pretty good. Throw that in with Jesse King, Adam Charalambides, Keegan Bal and Marcus Klarich, and you’ve got yourself an elite offense.
But anytime you add new players to a team, there are going to be growing pains and it’s going to take time to gel. The Warriors are 6-2 and are currently third in the standings but are just sixth in goals scored. I expect them to finish in the top three by the end of the season, and they are coming off three straight outings scoring 12-plus goals. Curtis had seven goals in Vancouver’s 16-15 win over the Rochester Knighthawks and did that all in the first half. He knows that the chemistry will only improve offensively and that the Warriors are trending in the right direction.
“ We’re playing our best lacrosse as of the last few weeks and I think that’s important… The chemistry and gelling does take time and we’re all obviously good lacrosse players and I’ve been around the game long enough that I knew it was going to happen eventually. It took a little longer than we would have liked but I think last game was a sign of things to come.”
The Warriors are at the halfway point of their season and are currently in a playoff spot. But the playoffs are still a ways away, and Dickson knows that teams that go far are the ones that pull it together at the right time.
“ It’s all about how you finish in this league. In 2019 we went on a three game win streak to end the regular season and then went on a heater from there. So you (have) to make sure you’re playing good lacrosse at the right time… so we gotta keep the momentum going and keep playing good lacrosse.”
The Warriors have a tough task this weekend, facing the first-place Saskatchewan Rush on the road before coming home for Rock and Roll Night to face the three-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits in a semifinals rematch. So the Warriors are going to need the momentum going.
