After a long absence, the sport of lacrosse made its return to Squamish during the first ever Lacrosse Jamboree, which took place at Brennan Park Arena on Saturday (June 25).
Close to 50 boys and girls got to get a hands on experience with the sport and Naomi Walser, who was running several of the drills at the event said the turnout was a nice surprise.
"It's been an awesome day," she said. "It's so refreshing to see kids interested in the sport, especially some of the really young ones we had here today."
Walser is no stranger to the sport. She represented Canada as both a junior and a senior player and now is involved in coaching the sport. She said she was impressed by some of the skill possessed by some of the young Squamish players.
"All the drills seemed to flow really nicely," she said. "For some of the players being so small, they were a lot more skilled than I expected."
Players were divided into smaller groups at the jamboree, with specific skills worked on such as ball handling and shooting accuracy. Players also had the chance to test their talents against several goaltenders. The West Vancouver Police Department was also on hand to use their radar gun to record the speed of players' shots, with the fastest shot receiving a prize. Walser said there seems to be enough interest in Squamish to put together some sort of team or league.
"It seems as though with this amount of youth that came out here today there is definitely enough interest," she said. Walser pointed out that Squamish also has some talented senior players, noting that five players from her North Shore Indians women's team call the town home.
One person who agrees with Walser's assessment of the lacrosse landscape in Squamish is Mike Chandler. The Squamish resident was a part of back-to-back Pee Wee provincial championship Squamish teams back in 1992 and 1993 and said he thinks the sport should come back.
"This is a really good turnout and it's great for the community," he said. "Someone has to take the reins because there is enough interest in the sport. Squamish does have potential but we need some more support from the community to make it happen."
Chandler said he's pleased that the sport is now on the District of Squamish's five-year recreation plan but admitted that there is a lot of strong competition from other sports in town.
"The one tough thing is that you have to compete with soccer," he said. "But lacrosse really helps develop hand eye coordination, it's really good for guys who play hockey."
He pointed out that the provincial championship team he was on slowly dwindled away but the talent was impressive. Several players from that team went on to have notable careers in the sport and Chandler said the talent is still in Squamish today, with local youth playing on a North Shore team that will be competing for provincials.
Chandler said he's not sure what the next step will be for the sport but that this event helped generate interest.
"I think the jamboree definitely created some buzz," he said. "It would be good to get some drop-in floor time for the kids but there's also Monday nights at the Totem Hall."
For more information on the sport locally, check out the groups Facebook page by typing "Squamish Lacrosse" into the search bar.
