Box Lacrosse on the Reservation

This weekend I am headed to Six Nations, Ontario, for the 2008 Warrior’s Cup pre-season box lacrosse tournament. US Indoor Lacrosse has put together a team with the intention of getting American field players box experience. The whole process of working with Americans with little to no box experience has got me thinking about my early days learning the game.

When I was in high school and college I would play in an indoor league in Potsdam, N.Y. Most of the players had no real box experience and the goalies were field players playing in a modified field net. I think it was 5 feet high by 4 feet wide. It was a ton of fun and got me used to playing in a hockey rink, but was far from box lacrosse. I think this is a pretty typical experience for Americans playing “indoor” lacrosse. So when I tried out for the Boston Blazers in the fall of ‘93 I thought I knew something about the game. Obviously I was wrong, and I got cut from that team.

I realized there were a few areas I could improve on to try to make the team the next year. Be in better shape … both aerobically and physically. But ultimately I had to learn the box game. This one was going to be tough. I had no idea how to address this other than studying MILL game tapes.

Lacrosse had become the most important thing in my life early on at Bowdoin and was an integral part of me getting through my father’s death from cancer in December of my freshman year. There have been many crucial points in my life where I have wanted something to happen that hasn’t; whether it was going to a particular school, making an elite travel team in hockey, or even continuing to play lacrosse at all. In looking back things seemed to work out for the best and I started to develop a trust in the path that I was on. So when I came back to Canton, N.Y., in the summer of 1994 from graduate school at Connecticut College to find out a group of my friends from Canton were playing box lacrosse on the Akwesasne Reservation, I was amazed but not completely surprised at the opportunity in front of me.

I walked into my first day of practice to meet the Tri-Town Warriors owner and head coach, “The Great” Peter Burns. Pete looked to be at least 60 years old and had some sort of kink in his neck that forced his head at an angle to one side. He was a legendary player in his day and was so psyched to be providing an opportunity to play the game. Pete welcomed me in and treated me like a son from day one. He spent a day or so driving around Ontario looking for the perfect wooden stick for me to use. I welcomed the chance to use a woody as I felt it was part of the learning process. It took some time to figure out how to use it or even scoop on a concrete floor. I think I snapped one just about every week or so for the first month. It was obvious that Pete had gotten a lot from playing the game and understood the importance of passing it on to us.

The Iroquois Lacrosse Association at that point had teams from Caughnawaga, Onondaga, Oneida, Oka, in addition to Akwesasne. Being one of only a few non-natives in the league, not to mention having dreadlocks, I literally had a target on my back. The NLL is rough, the ILA was brutally violent. I would get cross checked in the head on a regular basis and even got two-handed from behind with a wooden stick for no reason other than they wanted me off the floor. Titanium is a treat to be hit by compared to the beating of a wooden box stick.

It forced me to learn to play in a hostile environment. I had always liked hitting people, but I learned a new level of aggression and intensity playing there. That was the first of three summers I spent playing in the ILA.

Reservations like Onondaga continue to practice lacrosse as a spiritual endeavor. In Akwesasne the traditional teachings about the game aren’t as prevalent, but the importance of the game in their society is everywhere. Playing with people that took lacrosse as seriously as I did, helped to reinforce in my own mind the importance of the game. It is not that I was brought up being taught that lacrosse is a gift from the creator. But over time I have come to understand that lacrosse is indeed a gift. One of the most meaningful experiences in my life has been stepping on the floor for a game or practice and giving everything I had. It is a very primal experience. I expect a lot of us experience something similar when we play that is hard to explain or put into words.

In this day and age it is easy for our motivations to be influenced by money or the pursuit of fame or personal accolades. In my mind there is nothing more real than playing with your teammates, your brothers, and getting lost in the battle … being so obsessed with winning that you are willing to do whatever it takes.

Standing on the floor at the Air Canada Center in 2001 having just defeated the Rock in one of the great upsets in NLL history, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and content. To me, that is the ultimate gift the game gives to you for having dedicated yourself to it. I am sure my dad an Pete were looking down on me that day with as much pride in me as I had for myself. Thank You.