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By Sam Laskaris
Windspeaker Contributor
OHSWEKEN, Ont.
The success that a Native lacrosse team experienced this past fall at a tournament has led to the creation of three Indigenous travel teams for this year.
A club called the Iroquois Golden Eagles, comprised of high school players from Canada and the United States, won five out of the six games it played at a field lacrosse tourney this past November in Milford, Delaware.
The Golden Eagles travelled to the American tournament this past fall to provide some exposure for their players in front of U.S. prep school and collegiate scouts.
“I had over 125 schools call or email me about a lot of the players,” said Jake Henhawk, the general manager of the defending Minto Cup (Canadian Junior A) champion Six Nations Arrows, who was responsible for picking the Golden Eagles’ roster.
Henhawk has now been put in charge of the 3d Lacrosse First Nations program that has been formed for this year. The venture is through 3d Lacrosse, an American-based company that provides lacrosse training and development.
The First Nations program this year will consist of three teams, divided into age groups, featuring high school players graduating in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Henhawk said the program was created because of the Golden Eagles’ successes. Of the 17 players on that team, six had already made their collegiate commitments prior to going to Milford.
But then seven others received offers for their efforts at the Delaware tournament. Three individuals got offers to join American prep schools. And four players got NCAA offers, either at the Division 1, D2 or D3 levels.
“Each player got a few contacts,” said Henhawk, who is also in his first season serving as the president of lacrosse operations for the Rochester Knighthawks, a professional box lacrosse squad that competes in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). “There’s still some that are still talking.”
Henhawk admits he was a bit overwhelmed just how much interest the Golden Eagles’ players generated.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Henhawk, who spent three seasons as the head scout with the NLL’s Vancouver Stealth before joining the Knighthawks this season. “It was my first experience to that part of the world. But it definitely exceeded my expectations.”
That experience convinced Henhawk to jump on board when 3d Lacrosse officials presented the offer to form the First Nations program.
“It’s been a couple of months in the works,” Henhawk said. “We’ve been crossing the ‘T’s and dotting the ‘I’s. Now we’re ready to go.”
The initial tryouts for the three First Nations teams will be staged May 5 in Ontario, in the Six Nations community of Ohsweken.
“We’re hoping to get 40-45 players per age group,” Henhawk said.
Program officials will then eventually select 20 players for each of the three teams.
Those who will be named to the team will have a bit of a juggling act to do. That’s because in all likelihood they’ll also be playing for a box lacrosse team at the same time.
The junior box lacrosse season typically begins in April or May and continues throughout the summer.
“It will be huge for them,” Henhawk said of the First Nations program. “It gives them a different experience. For some of them it reintroduces them to the field game. Some of them do play both (box and field lacrosse). But not at the level we’ll be playing at. They’ll continue with their box teams and play in these field tournaments as well.”
The plan is to have the First Nations clubs participate in five tournaments this season. Those events will be staged in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware and New York.
An exhibition contest versus an African-American squad is also scheduled for July in Baltimore.
Henhawk said program officials will also attempt to get participants as much practice time as they can.
“We’ll try to get them together as much as possible,” he said, adding that could be a difficult chore since there is bound to be a number of conflicting schedules due to box lacrosse commitments.
Henhawk added 3d Lacrosse could possibly start up travelling Native girls’ teams in the future as well.
“Hopefully within two years,” he said. “We’re hoping for that but we want to get these three boys’ teams up and going first. We want to crawl before we can run.”