Lacrosse: Canada's Unacknowledged National Summer Sport

Many believe that Canada’s national sport is ice hockey, forgetting about our national summer sport, lacrosse. Ice hockey is our national winter sport, and we treat it with praise and pride ourselves on having it as a part of our culture, but lacrosse gets pushed into the background. If Canada’s national summer sport is lacrosse, isn’t it time we treated it that way?

Every year, Canadian male lacrosse players hope for scholarships to play in the NCAA for the benefits of pursuing a student athletic experience. With dreams of succeeding in the United States, they leave their Canadian families behind in hopes of a better opportunity.

Some players wish to stay in Canada, but know that Canada doesn’t offer the same experience, leaving their fates in the hands of U.S. Schools like Duke University, Syracuse University, and the University of Denver, offer programs that encourage glowing academics with funding that challenges lacrosse players to improve their abilities.

Canadian men’s lacrosse has been left out at the OUA, inevitably labelling it at lesser importance, despite it being Canada’s national summer sport. It seems to be viewed as a sport of leisure here, stripping it of its professionalism, whereas the US treats the game with more prominence, pushing players out of own our country, instead of letting them grow here.

Despite the talent found here, Canada isn’t doing nearly enough to honour or nurture its national summer sport. The US News estimates the average athletic scholarship in the America to be $18,000. The cost for a Canadian to go to an American school without a scholarship would be roughly $55,000 per year, as opposed to a Canadian student staying in Canada to avoid excessive student debt.

Scott Del Zotto is a talented lacrosse player coming back from playing in the NCAA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to now playing in the CUFLA for Western University while playing for the Toronto Rock in the NLL. He has experienced this divide first hand.

He explains his reasoning for going to the US as seeking the benefits to play lacrosse at a professional level with more promising athletic opportunities. These opportunities should be offered in Canada to celebrate their national summer sport, instead of encouraging students to find opportunities elsewhere.

As Canadians, we work to remember our history and give recognition to Indigenous people, yet we don’t recognize their sport on a professional level. Lacrosse comes from the Mohawk and Ojibwa communities. The British took control and modified the sport, creating their own rules and clubs, excluding Indigenous people. With its historic significance and Canadians working towards remembering our history, Canada should celebrate the traditional game of Indigenous people and acknowledge the stolen sport as well as our stolen land.

The Baggataway Cup is the largest accomplishment for the CUFLA that has been named after the traditional Indigenous name for lacrosse, Baggataway. The Western lacrosse team has won the Baggataway Cup the last four years straight but receives little to no recognition and funding from the University.

This issue stems from the core in knowing that lacrosse in Canada not being given the same level of funding as other Canadian sports. For example, Western lacrosse players provide all of their own equipment and play on the backfield, hidden in the shadows as much as possible.

The promotion for lacrosse is minimal and almost non-existent. There are banners that celebrate football and homecoming games that draw fans’ attention, whereas lacrosse is put in the back of the campus with mostly family members in the stands. With no praise and no recognition, the team’s accomplishments go unnoticed and students become unmotivated in pursuing their dream.

“We should be teaching lacrosse from a young age. Look at how baseball is treated in the U.S., we should do that with our national sport,” says Del Zotto.

Baseball is ingrained in American culture as they celebrate their national sport, and we see its influence in movies and television. Where is this celebration of lacrosse and the tribes that brought us the game?

In addition to the funding, our education should teach students about lacrosse to shine a light on Canadian culture and encourage kids to play as it is a part of our history.

“We aren’t even a part of the OUA, which is why lacrosse will never go anywhere in Canada,” says Del Zotto. “It’s really sad.”

We are putting limitations on advancing our national summer sport, damaging the young ambitious players’ potential to thrive. It’s time to start acknowledging and celebrating our culture instead of pushing it away.