“Our boys were really hustling and moving the ball,” said Cameron Bomberry, assistant coach for the Iroquois. “That's how we got all our opportunities to put the ball in the net. We got back to our style of game and pushed that on them. It worked out for us.”
The Iroquois, the only internationally sanctioned indigenous sports team in the United States, beat England, 19-10, at Percy Perry Stadium in Coquitlam, B.C. The team's run-and-gun style proved to be a force in some hard-fought games against the United States and Canada, the only teams to bestow losses upon the Iroquois. Team USA won the gold medal, defeating Canada 19-12 in the championship game, also on Saturday. The Iroquois successfully challenged both powerhouse teams early in the tournament with its young players - about half the Nationals team are high school sophomores or younger - against mostly Division I college players.
“Luckily, for three of us, we might get another shot,” said Warren Hill, one of three 15-year-olds on the Iroquois team. “That could really benefit us the next time. We'll have more experience and be used to this atmosphere.”
Hill and teammates Lyle Thompson and Randy Staats will all be eligible to play in the under-19 World Lacrosse Championships in four years. The team's win on Saturday was the first U19 medal since 1999. The Iroquois are relatively new to international play, taking to the world field in 1990 after the International Lacrosse Federation agreed to sanction the team. The organization recognizes the tribal sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, a league of Six Nations from Canada and the United States.
The Haudenosaunee are credited as originators of the modern-day game of lacrosse. It is the oldest sport in North America, a game commonly played by the Iroquois and Plains tribes. It is the oldest team sport known to the world.
“Lacrosse is life,” said Hill, who is from the Six Nations of Grand River in Ontario, Canada. “It's a big part of my life. There's really not much else to do but play lacrosse.”
The Iroquois Nationals organizers would like to see lacrosse teams develop across Indian Country.
“We're trying to grow this game among our aboriginal people,” said Bomberry. “We'll go to different Native communities and host a camp and demonstrate. It may be brand new. I just came from Albuquerque, N.M., a couple of weeks before the tournament and there were kids there who had never seen lacrosse stick.”
Lacrosse is a game all tribal communities can “share and grow,” said Bomberry.
“We represent all nations,” said Forrest Cox, an 18-year old Iroquois player from the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation. “Playing internationally is a cool feeling, and playing up against top levels.” He compared the level of competition as similar to the Olympics.
“It's awesome,” he said. “It's good progression for indigenous people, especially for Natives who created the game. Hopefully the kids that are on the U19 team will get another crack at the gold.”
Cox will likely move on to play for the Iroquois Nationals men's team, which is scheduled to compete in the 2010 championships in Manchester, England. Coach Bomberry has played in five men's tournaments since he was 19. The men have never won a medal, which made Saturday's under-19 coup, “an honor and a privilege to win with this group of boys,” he said.
The Iroquois will soon be scouting for the next round of players, meaning they will be looking for youths who are now 13 or 14 years old, even younger.
Bomberry attributes the team's bronze medal success to its growing sophistication. Even so, the Iroquois Nationals' recruiting efforts and training schedule hardly compare to the time and national budgets afforded the United States and Canadian teams.
But the tradition of lacrosse in Native America has been enough to make the Nationals a strong world competitor. Young players like Hill have been playing lacrosse since the age of 2fi. Hill has seen plenty of role models, including a line of cousins, uncles and a grandfather who were professional lacrosse players.
“They're given a stick from the Creator when they're babies on that reservation,” said Nedra Darling, the mother of Forrest. “On our own reservations, we need to take what the Iroquois have put out there and join this modern game.”
She said you don't have to be Iroquois to love lacrosse. “My son, it's been his dream to be on this team. He has lived his dream here. He's been embraced by several of the team members and families.”
The Iroquois Nationals represents all Indian nations, Darling said. “I hope so many more young people are able to take this journey. It's a safe journey. It's an honorable journey.”
The young men proved themselves to be world ambassadors during the tournament.
“People have complimented that our boys are the nicest, most polite boys of any of the teams here,” Darling said. “I've heard that over and over, all the way from the officials to the media booth to the guys who do the stats.”
Bomberry credits the goodwill and on-field success to an all-around team effort.
“We've put a great amount of work into this,” he said. “The boys have followed through on what we asked of them. They've been a good bunch of boys to be around, these young men who are world champions now.”
Reach reporter Jodi Rave by e-mail at jodi.rave@lee.net or call 1-800-366-7186.
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leah hill wrote on Nov 21, 2008 3:30 PM: