Garrett Billings and Mike Grimes will be playing lacrosse this weekend at the Langley Events Centre.

But they won’t be wearing Langley Thunder uniforms, and they’ll be playing on opposite sides.

The National Lacrosse League comes to town this Saturday when the Toronto Rock and Washington Stealth meet in a pre-season game at the LEC.

The Rock and Stealth have competed for the NLL championship the past two years, with the Stealth taking the title in 2010 and the Rock victorious in 2011.

Billings is an offensive catalyst with the Rock; Grimes, a major player in the Western Lacrosse Association’s Thunder’s run to their first ever Mann Cup national championship appearance, is a key defender with the Stealth.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for two years,” Billings said. “I’m excited to get this game underway.”

Billings and Grimes know each other well – they were teammates with the Thunder in 2009 and ’10, and prior to that played together for the Burnaby Jr. Lakers back in 2007.

Billings respects the way Grimes, a 6’3” 220-pounder, plays the game.

“He’s fun to play against, a great defender, and he’s great with the ball on his stick, too,” Billings said.

“We’re big rivals. He’s a right-handed forward, I’m a left-handed defender so we run into each other quite a bit on the floor. He’s one of my responsibilities,” Grimes noted. “Off the floor, he was a great teammate. I considered him one of my better friends on the team. It’s a nice rivalry.”

Last season, former Thunder player Stephan Leblanc led all Rock scorers in goals (33) and points (76) while Billings tied for second in points with 75, on 31 goals and 44 assists.

Billings and Leblanc suited up for the Six Nations Chiefs of Ontario’s Major Series Lacrosse over the summer months.

“Summer in Six Nations was fun, even though we lost to Peterborough [in the playoffs] despite having one of the most talented rosters I’ve ever seen,” Billings said.

With Six Nations, Billings had the opportunity to play alongside Cody Jamieson and Sid Smith, two of his biggest rivals going back to his junior days.

Following the NLL season, Billings opted to stay in Ontario and play for the Chiefs because he was just starting his career and had a job that required him to stay in the Toronto-area. Now 25, Billings works for Velocity Trade as a foreign exchange broker. Six Nations is located close to Brantford, about an hour and 15 minute drive to Toronto.

Closer to home, 25-year-old Grimes and the Thunder surprised a number of senior A lacrosse pundits by winning the WLA playoff title (defeating the defending league champion New Westminster Salmonbellies along the way) before falling to the Brampton Excelsiors in five games in the Mann Cup championship series, played at the LEC.

“When it first happened it was bittersweet,” Grimes said, regarding the Thunder’s series loss to Brampton. “After we had a chance to sit back after a month or two… just to get past [2010 Mann Cup finalist] New West was a big step for the Thunder. I consider the season to be a great success, even though we did end up losing in the final.”

Grimes’ former teammate watched the Mann Cup games in person.

“It was great crowd – like a high school reunion,” Billings recalled. “I couldn’t go 10 feet without shaking hands with someone.”

Billings and Grimes have gone head-to-head during the past two NLL finals.

Billings hopes the Rock will make another trip to the championship: “Even though our team looks a lot different than it did a year ago you can never discount a team run by [general manager] Terry Sanderson and [head coach] Troy Cordingley.”

Grimes believes the Stealth has what it takes to take another shot at the league title.

“We’ve had a team that made it to the finals the last two seasons and we really didn’t have that many changes,” he said. “We’ve had players step up the last couple of years and I expect them to do it again this year.”

The weekend will be more than just the rubber match involving the past two defending champions. It will feature plenty of activity for lacrosse players, coaches and fans. Festivities begin with a coaches’ chalk talk and social Friday, led by the Rock and Stealth coaching staffs.

The next day, the teams will open the doors to their practices for the public prior to hosting on-floor player clinics for local youth players on the Saturday afternoon (led by coaches and players from both teams).

The game itself will be played Saturday night at 7 p.m. with a post-game autograph session directly following the final whistle. The evening will conclude with a social in the Langley Events Centre banquet hall where fans can interact with players and coaches from the two teams.

Tickets will be available at the door and are on sale at the LEC Ticket Office today, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

On Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., there will be a scrimmage featuring the NLL’s Calgary Roughnecks and Colorado Mammoth at the LEC. Fans with tickets to the Saturday game get into the scrimmage for free.

sports@langleyadvance.com