Striving for year-round lacrosse

A new U11 three-on-three box lacrosse league will be playing its first games in the coming weeks – and for those behind the project, it’s a testament to the demand for lacrosse to be played in the winter in Kahnawake.

The four teams of the Kahnawake LAX U-11 Co-Ed Lacrosse League – Á:kweks, Okwáho, Oskenón:ton, and Tsikera’wístak – are each made up of nine players and a goalie, mostly from Kahnawake but also some from Akwesasne.    

Justus Polson-Lahache, one of the league’s organizers along with Orahkwase McGregor and Miles Thompson, said that the idea to hold a season during the Kahnawake Mohawks Minor Lacrosse Association (KMMLA) offseason stemmed from how many parents were interested in their 15-player Future Elite program, which filled up quickly.

As a result, they decided to make the new league, going for U11 players as that is the biggest age group of players in the community – and the one their own children play in.

“We just wanted to make it open to as many kids as possible,” said Polson-Lahache.

Some of the league’s priorities are preparing players for the upcoming KMMLA season and keeping kids active in the winter, especially those who don’t play hockey or other sports during that time, he said

“A lot of people are really into it,” he said. “They want year-round lacrosse for their kids.”

So much so, in fact, that even before they hold their first games on January 25, they are already thinking of potential expansion to other age groups like U9 and U13, if they can get some support.

“This is sort of the trial run of something that we want to do in the future,” said Polson-Lahache.

“We’re collecting data to help us show and justify the need for year-round lacrosse programming, so that we can go to funders later and say ‘hey, look, this is what people are saying, this is how our program was run, this is the type of need that is there.’”

Polson-Lahache said it was not an easy task, nor a cheap one, to put together a league like this in just a few weeks, but they have had some sponsorship already and are hoping this experiment will be conclusive enough to keep going in the future with more monetary support.

The league games will be played one day per week for eight weeks, with the teams facing off against each other in a six-week round-robin format before semifinals and finals in the last two weeks.

Games will be played out of the Beau-Chateau Sportplex on a floor hockey rink with boards. The rink’s smaller surface is why the three-on-three format was chosen, Polson-Lahache said.

“It’s very similar to a real box lacrosse rink, only much smaller,” he said.

Signup for the league was free of charge, to further push the openness of the league.

“To have it free is very important to me because lacrosse is very expensive,” said McGregor. On top of typical equipment and league fees, lacrosse often necessitates gas, food, and potential lodging costs when athletes play teams in Ontario in the Ontario Lacrosse Association or other tournaments, explained McGregor.

“There are for sure a lot of parents who don’t put their kids in lacrosse because of the expenses. So having this league free to play is crucial to growing the game,” said McGregor.

Another important aspect is the co-ed nature of the league, as all teams have both boys and girls playing. Girls’ lacrosse continues to grow in the community after the return of minor girls’ teams last season.

“I have lots of nieces. One is very passionate about lacrosse. I would love for my two other nieces to get into lacrosse and to see them have that same experience, so to open it up for girls is very important to me,” said McGregor. “There are already two girl teams, and it would be awesome if we could have more.”

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