Field lacrosse is the sport’s dominant style in the U.S., as evidenced by its dominance of the World Lacrosse Championships, which begin today in London, Ontario.
The event, held every four years, began in 1967. The U.S. won the inaugural event and has compiled an almost perfect record – 41-1 – marred only by a loss to Canada in the 1978 finals.
The U.S. and Canada meet in division play Sunday. While indoor lacrosse remains the dominant style in their country, the Canadians have improved their field game by attending U.S. colleges, including 39-year-old Gary Gait at Syracuse and rising star Brodie Merrill at Georgetown.
Gait, coach of the Colorado Mammoth, has Team Canada teammates in players with local ties like Gavin Prout (Mammoth) and Geoff Snider and Jeff Zwycki (Denver Outlaws).
The local connections for the U.S. are goalkeeper Trevor Tierney of the Outlaws and midfielder Jay Jalbert of the Mammoth.
Mammoth general manager Steve Govett, a member of the 1994 and 1998 Canadian world teams, served as player-coach of Team Canada in the Vail Shootout earlier this month and came away impressed.
“They’re probably the best Canadian team I’ve ever seen from an outdoor lacrosse perspective,” Govett said. “I do think the Americans are always the team to beat; they have unbelievable athletes.
“The hardest part is going to be the challenge of staying motivated and excited to be in that tournament for 10 days, whereby the only competition you have for both teams is one team. I could get thrown under the bus for that statement by a lot of other nations, but at the end of the day it comes down to Canada and the U.S.”
The 21-team tournament is set up in divisions of similarly skilled entrants. The blue division includes the U.S., Canada, and Australia, for whom Outlaws rookie Brendan Mundorf plays.
The yellow division is made up of relative novices in Bermuda, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark and Spain.
Germany, South Korea and New Zealand are a few of the teams in the orange division, and the red division includes Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland and Italy.
The championship is set for July 22.
Mammoth players in NLL draft
Mammoth forwards Dan Stroup and Chris Gill were selected by the Chicago Shamrox in Wednesday’s NLL expansion draft.
