IL Indoor

The next wave of professional lacrosse superstars has developed an academy to create future generations of Canadian lacrosse players. Next Level Lacrosse Academy, sponsored by Team 22, was founded to provide a high-intensity training camp to refine skills and educate players on what it takes to excel at the NCAA level.

“Our program spawned from our love of the game and our unique journeys from high school and prep school to NCAA lacrosse at the Division I level,” said Director Adam Gardner. “Our training camps are for the elite player who has already committed to an NCAA program or has aspirations to play NCAA lacrosse.”

Next Level Lacrosse Academy will offer two camps this summer in Scarborough, Ontario. With the backing of Team 22, the first Next Level Lacrosse Academy is set for Friday, June 28th at L’amoreaux Sports Complex Field 5, which is located at Mary Ward High School (3200 Kennedy Rd at McNicoll). The second Next Level Lacrosse Academy is set for Wednesday, July 17th to Thursday, July 18th at the L’amoreaux Sports Complex Field. The cost is $160 per day. (Read More…)

Danny Farmer (17) and the Senior Raiders gave the Senior Knights a run for their money. (Photo: Remy Greer)

At first glance it appears that predicting which teams will represent Alberta at the Minto and President’s Cup shouldn’t be that difficult. The Calgary Junior A Mountaineers sit atop Alberta Junior A Lacrosse League with an 8-1-0 record and are on a 5-game winning streak while the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League Senior B division’s standings suggest that last year’s champion, the Rockyview Knights of Airdrie, are the odds on favorites to repeat in 2013 and make the trip to Kahnawake in August. The Junior A Mountaineers, who are defending provincial champions, have been incredibly dominant in that 5-game run, outscoring their opponent by an average of 15.2 to 6.2. They deserve to be an early favorite at the halfway point of the Alberta Junior A Lacrosse League season, but the Okotoks Raiders can’t be excluded from the conversation about which team will be Alberta’s entry at Queens Park Arena this August. (Read More…)

Check out this recap of a full day of celebration in Rochester as the Knighthawks celebrate their second straight National Lacrosse League championship. From the round of golf for the players to the parade through Rochester to the fan celebration in the evening, the Knighthawks catch the action along with a few thoughts from those who made it all happen.

It's fun to be an Arrow these days. (Photo: Ward Laforme, Jr.)

There’s plenty of change and loads of surprises to be found in this year’s OLA Jr A series. One thing that hasn’t changed as much as many people thought it would, though, is the strength of some of last year’s top teams. Remember how Orangeville was supposed to really struggle this year because 13 players graduated from last year’s Minto Cup champions? Well, the Northmen are 10-3 and sitting in first place. This week they’ll play a home and home with the Whitby Warriors, Ontario’s other Minto rep last year and another team that lost a bunch of players but is still not to be taken lightly. The Six Nations Arrows, meanwhile, are 9-3 and seem to have righted the ship after a surprising three-game losing streak. (Read More…)

Aaron Wilson

Tuesday night’s Major Series Lacrosse game between the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks and the Brooklin Redmen was a defensive battle where goals were hard to come by…except for the eight-minute stretch in the second period where KW scored six of their goals to pull out an 8-7 win.

Brooklin’s Kiel Matisz scored the only goal of the first period and Tyler Patterson made it 2-0 a little over four minutes into the second. Then the Kodiaks made their big run. Aaron Wilson got things rolling with a pair of goals 41 seconds apart. Ryan Benesch, making his first appearance with the Kodiaks this summer, sandwiched a pair around markers by fellow lefty forwards Jordan Critch and Mike Teeter and KW was up 6-2 just like that. (Read More…)

Shawn Evans, here in the 2012 Mann Cup, is among the MSL 3 Stars for the third time in four weeks. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Shawn Evans was the biggest star of the National Lacrosse League season, and so far in Major Series Lacrosse this summer it’s been more of the same. Evans leads MSL with 55 points through 9 games. His 41 assists are more than anyone else has points. He’s putting up the kind of season that Shawn Williams (who is currently second with 12/26/38 in 7 games) did last summer, when he led the league in scoring by 21 points and was a single assist short of having as many helpers as anyone else had points. Evans was the first star in Week 1 and the second star in Week 2. Now, after having missed out on honours last week, he’s back on top. (Read More…)

Corey Small

It was no small feat. Then again, it was. Yeah, bad play on words and we’re sure Corey Small has never ever heard that before. So it may be a bad play on words but the play itself of Small had nothing bad about it this past week as he answered the bell for Victoria and played a very big role in a very important win. Scoring 10 points in almost any game is impressive enough, but when you consider the context of Victoria’s win, Small’s effort in the lone Victoria game for the week is even more commendable. So there’s the praise for this week’s top gun, but Small isn’t the only name on the list. Let’s check the rest of it for this week’s edition of the WLA 3 Stars. (Read More…)

Brooklin Redmen's Shawn Williams named Offensive Player of the Week (Photo: Tim Prothero)

There were seven games in Week 4 of Major Series Lacrosse action. The Peterborough Lakers (6-3) soared into first winning all three games they played last week.  Right behind the Lakers sit the Brooklin Redmen (5-1-1) and Six Nations Chiefs (5-1-1) , both of which won games they played early last week then played each other to a rare tie on Saturday evening.  Next are the Brampton Excelsiors (2-6) who went 1-2 last week.  Rounding out the group are the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks (2-5) and the Oakville Rock (1-5); both teams lost the 2 games they played last week.

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The North American Lacrosse League has announced that it will no longer be operating. Word comes from a post on the Facebook page of the Kentucky Stickhorses, one of four teams that operated in the 2013 season and the only one that was prepared to go forward. The Stickhorses played a series of exhibition games in 2012 when they were the only franchise able to field a team for the full season. They were joined by the Boston Rockhoppers, Rhode Island Kingfish and Baltimore Bombers in 2013 for the first full season. Boston took the league championship, downing the Stickhorses in the title game.

Below is the full text of the message posted by the Stickhorses this morning: (Read More…)

Wes Berg

Saying there’s a new kid on the block wouldn’t be entirely accurate. But when a fella makes his season debut in the middle of June and rolls foes for 18 points in 3 games, guess who’s getting ILIndoor’s BCJALL First Star for this week? Yeah, Coquitlam’s Wes Berg has had the type of game for years now that no one can afford to ignore, and this week certainly is no different. So here he is, Mr. Berg as our First Star of the week. He’s joined by a Coquitlam teammate and Victoria also has a name on the list with its first rep since having 2 of the 3 Stars back in the week of May 20. So beyond knowing that Berg is on the list, there are 2 other names we’ve got to discuss. Who are they? Turn the page to find out. (Read More…)