Britannica Educational Publishing - Lacrosse and Its Greatest Players

Published in 2015 by Britannica Educational Publishing (a trademark of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.) in association with The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

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First Edition

Britannica Educational Publishing

J.E. Luebering: Director, Core Reference Group

Anthony L. Green: Editor, Comptons by Britannica

Rosen Publishing

Hope Lourie Killcoyne: Executive Editor

Meredith Day: Editor

Nelson S: Art Director

Brian Garvey: Designer

Cindy Reiman: Photography Manager

Karen Huang: Photo Researcher

Supplementary material by Adam Augustyn

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lacrosse and its greatest players/edited by Meredith Day and Adam Augustyn.First Edition.

pages cm.(Inside Sports)

Distributed exclusively by Rosen PublishingT.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Audience: Grades 512.

ISBN 978-1-6227-5593-6 (eBook)

1. LacrosseJuvenile literature. 2. Lacrosse playersBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. Lacrosse playersRating ofJuvenile literature. I. Day, Meredith, 1988 II. Augustyn, Adam.

GV989.L34 2014

796.347dc23

2014029201

On the cover, page 3: Rhys Duch of the Hamilton Nationals. Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Pages 6-7 Daniel Milchev/Stone/Getty Images; pp. 10, 18, 28 34, 68, 69, 70, 73, 77, 78 iStockphoto.com/KeithBishop; pp. 11, 21, 31, iStockphoto.com/justinkendra; back cover, interior pages background image iStockphoto.com/bhaslam24

CONTENTS

T he goals just kept on coming. As halftime approached in its first game of the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship in Denver, Colorado, England had surrendered six goals in a row. The other team, led by the four Thompson brothers, had spread out all over the field, making good passes and striking the ball past the goalkeeper over and over. At the end of the night, the 23 players from upstate New York, Ontario, and Quebec were victorious by a score of 15 to 4.

But these men were not competing for either the United States or Canada. Rather, they represented the Iroquois Nationals, which is the only indigenous team sanctioned to compete internationally. The Iroquois have this honor because they, along with other American Indian tribes, played the game now known as lacrosse long before Europeans came to North America. For the Nationals, many of whom grew up on Indian reservations, lacrosse is a game both physical and spiritual. As midfielder Jeremy Thompson told the Denver Post, Its our way of life. Its deep in our culture. In our cradle board, we are given a wooden lacrosse stick. We grew up playing since weve been walking.

The Iroquois 2014 victory over England was even sweeter because they had been unable to compete at the previous championship, held in Manchester, England, in 2010. The English authorities refused to grant them visas because their tribal passports were deemed a security risk, even though the U.S. government vouched for their authenticity. The Iroquois players could have traveled on U.S. passports, but they decided not to because they felt that their tribal sovereignty should be recognized internationally.

Four years later, the Iroquois Nationals had a triumphant return to the championship with a close-knit, talented team that took the bronze medal, its best showing ever. In fact, it marked the first time that a team other than the United States, Canada, or Australia finished on the podium at the World Championship. Were competing at the highest level and I think it just gets better from here for the Iroquois Nationals, Lyle Thompson told LaxMagazine.com.

This 1847 engraving shows American Indians playing an early version of lacrosse. The game still has cultural significance for the Six Nations of the Iroquois. SSPL via Getty Images

From its American Indian roots, lacrosse spread across the United States and Canada, then to England, Ireland, and Australia. It is now played around the world by men, women, and children of all ages. College lacrosse has become particularly popular, with hundreds of U.S. universities fielding strong teams and competing for national championships. Professional leagues for both field and indoor lacrosse are growing, and star athletes such as Gary Gait and Kelly Amonte Hiller have continued their record of success as coaches, too.

Read on to learn more about this exciting, fast-paced, ball-and-stick game and its most accomplished players!

L acrosse is the oldest organized sport played in North America. American Indian peoples in the eastern half of the continent played an early form of the game long before European contact. The game was then much more violent than it is today; in fact, the Cherokee tribe called their version of the game little brother of war. Some tribal contests took days to complete, featuring thousands of players and goals located miles apart. The purpose of the game, called baggataway, was to disable as many opponents as possible with ones stick before focusing on scoring a goal. The arduous competitions were seen as excellent training for combat, and many tribes treated them as mystic ceremonies, complete with pregame rituals and solemn dances. In some areas men and women played together, and in other areas women had their own version of the game. Indians on government reservations in the United States and Canada still field strong teams.

Baggataway , the American Indian game that lacrosse is based on, involved many players and was considered preparation for combat. The Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images

T HE M IDDLE A MERICAN B ALL G AME

Another forerunner of lacrosse was the sport known simply as the ball game, which was played by Indians throughout ancient Middle America. It originated among the Olmec people in the second millennium BCE . Then it spread to other cultures, among them the Zapotec, the Maya, the Toltec, and the Aztec. The game was mainly of a religious nature. Various myths mention it, sometimes as a contest between day and night gods. The court represented the heavens. The ball represented the Sun.