By Josh Bell
Field lacrosse is only in its fifth year of operation as an official NCSSAA sport, but the national capital high school sports association will play host to the OFSAA provincial festival for the second time in that span.
The top ‘A/AA’-sized schools from across Ontario will be in town for the June 4-5 event, and that will include two entries from Ottawa. A number of teams are in the running to take those spots to represent the capital, but there’s no doubt the St. Matthew Tigers are the team to beat locally.
The Tigers are the defending champions and have been a consistent dominant force in the NCSSAA for the past few seasons. For fourth-year player Lyman Beatty, St. Matt’s success largely has to do with teamwork.
“It’s really just the way we blend together,” explains Beatty, whose squad is off to a 4-1 start. “We are able to work off each other’s strengths and weaknesses and come together as a team.”
Another strong contender are the John McCrae Bulldogs, who were responsible for that lone loss in St. Matthew’s record.
“There are probably four or five teams that are all in the hunt,” says Bulldogs coach Paul Leck. “It’s good, it’s going to be a fun year.”
With tight competition expected, ball possession and patience will be two keys in big matches, Leck believes.
“They are all pretty good, skilled players in the league,” he adds. “It will be the team that plays together and gets everyone on the same page.”
In the hunt along with the Tigers and Bulldogs are the St. Mark Lions and St. Francis-Xavier Coyotes.
St. FX coach Brady Ready is in his first season as the coach and recognizes the difficulty ahead of him.
“To win is pretty tough,” he signals, “but hopefully with some hard work and gritty performances we can pull it off.”
OFSAA helps sport rise
With OFSAA only a few weeks away, many are looking forward to the event as a stepping stone to the continued growth of local field lacrosse. NCSSAA league convenor Al Smith is enthused to have Ottawa hosting the event again, after a successful 2011 ‘AAA/AAAA’ OFSAA.
“It’s great to have it here; it is part of our development plan for high school lacrosse,” underlines Smith, a co-founder of the Ottawa Nemesis field lacrosse club. “If we could have an OFSAA here every two or three years it’s great. It develops the players. We can have two teams in the tournament because we’re hosting it rather than having to travel with only one team. It also helps because we can develop referees because they get a chance to ref at a provincial level. It’s a win/win for us.”
Stacey Simpson, St. Mark coach and the OFSAA tournament convenor, learned two years ago that no one had yet stepped up to host the event.
“I volunteered to host it because obviously I love this city and lacrosse is a growing sport in the city,” says Simpson, who also coaches for the Nemesis. “I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to have some exposure to the sport and try and get more kids out. I’m pretty keen on the idea.”