Laxers take trip to the big leagues

It was a trip of a lifetime for many Kahnawa’kehró:non youth lacrosse players, as the Kahnawake Mohawks Minor Lacrosse Association (KMMLA) went to Ottawa last Friday not just to see a National Lacrosse League (NLL) game, but to be a part of the night’s events by playing a scrimmage during halftime of the Black Beaks-Halifax Thunderbirds game.

Kahsennenhá:wi Kirby, registrar and the board member of the KMMLA and organizer of the trip, said that the Black Bears reached out to the minor lacrosse associations in their Ontario Lacrosse League zone to give them an opportunity to fundraise and come to a game.

“Every association promotes the game they would be going to and tries to sell tickets with a code. For every sale from the ticket, $4 goes back to the association,” said Kirby.

Depending on how many tickets were sold, the association would have access to a different reward package, Kirby explained.

Instead of waiting to see how many tickets they would sell, KMMLA instead decided to cut out the middleman and buy all 300 tickets.

To do so, the KMMLA asked Onkwata’karitáhtshera if they could use the funds the association has access to from the Community Wellness Plan Initiative Funding (CWPI) to purchase the tickets. When it was approved, they went ahead with the purchase of all 300 tickets, to be able to give them away for the trip.

“They were on board with it because it was a good idea for these families,” said Kirby.

What they got for the 300-ticket package was a few unique opportunities. They were able to do a meet and greet with some Black Bears players, some of the older kids were chosen to be ballboys, they got to give high-fives to the NLL players as they came out of the tunnel, and the biggest perk of them all, serving as the halftime entertainment by putting on a scrimmage game.

While signing up those who would come to the game, Kirby started to notice that many of them were U11 players.

“We decided to choose them to play in our scrimmage,” said Kirby. As such, 20 players were chosen and divided into two teams, which played each other during the halftime of the Black Bears’ 14-9 loss to the Thunderbirds.

Kirby said that it was a huge success and made a lot of the players excited to play lacrosse this year.

“Mothers and fathers were messaging me, telling me their child was in love with lacrosse and even more locked in now,” said Kirby.

“They’re just so much more ready for the season and excited that they met players and to see that they could play in the NLL, this could be their dream, and the dreams could come true.”

Kirby said that those who were able to go found it to be an incredible time.

“A lot of parents were so excited that they had this opportunity. Maybe they could never go to a game, or they never drive. They all got to go because we had so many tickets. So, we really helped them out,” said Kirby.

On top of money raised by ticket sales, the Black Bears are also selling a shirt on their website that features the Black Bears’ logo in the front as well as the logos and year of founding of all the Zone 5 associations, which includes Kahnawake.

A portion of proceeds from the sales will go to the associations directly, to use at their discretion.

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