Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Prepared by J.P Donville Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 1 Dedication At the heart of every great lacrosse club in Canada is someone like Brian Kruse. He’s the person that quietly puts in unbelievably long hours in support of lacrosse, and at one time or another holds virtually every role in the club organization including President, coach, registrar, and referee. And, he manages to do this, year in and year out, with a smile on his face. Brian Kruse, the driving force behind the Oakville Hawks Lacrosse Club and an important contributor to the Oakville Buzz Lacrosse Club and the Edge Lacrosse Club, lost his battle with cancer earlier this year. However, the mark that Brian has left on his community, his sport and thousands of kids, coaches and parents will go on forever. Like so many others, I assumed that Brian Kruse himself would go on forever – I never knew how sick he was until he was already gone. As such, I never had the chance to say thank you to Brian for all things that he had done for the Oakville Hawks and the sport of lacrosse generally. I therefore dedicate this inaugural edition of Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA to Brian Kruse. Thank you so much for all that you have done to make our community and our sport a much better place. You will be missed but never forgotten. Introduction The Toronto Nationals Lacrosse Team was formed in part to help develop and support the growth of field lacrosse in Canada. One of the things we are interested in is the development and performance of Canadian players at the university level, both in Canada and in the US. This report examines the trends in participation rates by geographical region, city and player position as well as the statistical performances of the 153 Canadians who played NCAA lacrosse in the US in 2009. Statistics, data and information related to the tables included in this report were derived from public sources (primarily team websites) and all errors of omission and/or accuracy are the responsibility of the author. Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 2 Field of Dreams Playing lacrosse in the United States has increasingly become the dream of young lacrosse players throughout Canada. Those young players can of course draw inspiration from the likes of Paul and Gary Gait, Tracy Kelusky, John Grant Jr, Taylor Wray, Geoff Snider, Brodie Merrill and others who have played in the US college system and then gone on to further stardom in the NLL, MLL, and Team Canada. However, these ultra elite athletes might also convey the impression that only the very top athletes are wanted down south. In 2009, there were 153 Canadian men who played lacrosse in the NCAA at various competitive levels and at schools small and large. This is their story. Let’s look at the numbers It may come as a surprise to many fans of the sport of field lacrosse that there are so many Canadians playing in the US college system. According to data derived from US collegiate lacrosse program websites, there were 153 Canadian men playing in the NCAA in 2009, with 75 playing in Division I, 39 in Division II, and 38 in Division III. Close observers of Canadian lacrosse have always known about the high profile players who were at the top of the Junior A box lacrosse leagues and then went on to repeat similar stardom in US universities. However, the sheer breadth and depth of the Canadian contingent in the US today probably comes as a surprise to many. To the best of my knowledge no organization including the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA) has ever tracked the number of Canadians playing in the NCAA prior to this year, but anecdotal sources suggest that as recently as 2002, the total number of Canadian men playing in the NCAA was less than 50. In terms of provincial representation, the 153 Canadian players in the NCAA come from across the nation with seven provincial associations able to boast of at least one player in the NCAA. Our database also includes two players from Six Nations that have been listed under the “Iroquois” designation and one well-known goalie (Remington Steele) who has played for Team Canada but lists his home town as Dallas and is represented in the database as “other”. As we see below, Ontario represents the largest contingent of players in the NCAA in 2009 with 85 players (56% of the group), followed by BC with 41 (27%) and Alberta with 13 (8%). Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 3 Canadians Playing in the NCAA in 2009 By Province of Origin Ontario 85 BC 41 Alberta 13 Saskatchewan 4 Iroquois 2 Manitoba 2 Quebec 2 Nova Scotia 2 Other 1 0 102030405060708090 Source: Toronto Nationals Lacrosse (MLL) Scouting Department Canadians tend to be recruited to play offensive positions in the NCAA and the reasoning behind this is quite simple – Canadians know how to score. This assertion is not based simply upon anecdotal evidence. For example, in 2009, Division I Teams (including Bryant and Presbyterian) scored 8,295 goals of which 828 of these goals were scored by the 75 Canadians. Based on a typical NCAA roster of 40 players, this means that Canadians represented 3.2% of the NCAA population but managed to score 10% of the goals (and 9.1% of the assists). Thus, not surprisingly Canadians tend to be represented largely at either midfield (46%) or attack (37%). However, the latent success of players such as Brodie Merrill (defence), Chris Sanderson (goalie), Kyle Miller (goalie), Geoff Snider (face-off) and others has slowly led to the realization that Canadians can contribute meaningfully at all positions in the sport. This point is reflected by the fact that 17% of the 2009 class is represented by either defence or goalies. Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 4 Canadian Lacrosse Players in the NCAA - 2009 - Ranked by Position Played Midfield 70 Attack 57 Defence 20 Goalies 6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 Source: Toronto Nationals Lacrosse (MLL) Scouting Department Another statistical point that is worth noting from the class of 2009 is the surge in the number of freshman playing the sport. In 2009, freshman accounted for 42% of the Canadian’s playing in the NCAA. While it is normal for the freshman year to be larger than all others at any university given the fact that many students do not complete their studies, the surge in freshman numbers probably points to a confluence of factors that we will discuss subsequently. The key point to note however is that the number of Canadians playing in the NCAA has been rising rapidly over the past three or four years and will probably rise again sharply in 2010. Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 5 Canadian Men in the NCAA in 2009 - Ranked by Class Year Freshman 65 Sophomore 39 Junior 31 Senior 17 Post-Grad 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 Source: Toronto Nationals Lacrosse (MLL) Scouting Department So which specific communities have been the most successful at getting their student- athletes into the NCAA? The bulk of the Canadian lacrosse players in the NCAA come from the kinds of communities that we would expect – box lacrosse power houses such as Orangeville, Victoria, St Catherine, Coquitlam and New Westminster. However, further analysis points out some fascinating anomalies in the data which suggests that the strength of a community’s box lacrosse program explains only in part which communities are the best at getting their players to the NCAA. For example, 7.8% of the Canadians in the NCAA come from Orangeville which is clearly an important community in terms of youth lacrosse – but is this enough to explain Orangeville’s phenomenal success in placing kids in the NCAA? Oakville and Toronto (Beaches) are both among the top five communities in Canada in terms of placing players in the NCAA, yet neither is considered a powerhouse in Canadian box lacrosse. At the other end of the spectrum is Six Nations. This community of 18,000 has won virtually every significant trophy in Canadian Lacrosse in the past five years yet only boasts two players in the NCAA. Canadian Men’s Lacrosse and the NCAA 2009 Page | 6 Largest Concentration Of Canadian Lacrosse Players Playing in the NCAA in 2009 By City/Club Orangeville 12 Victoria 8 Toronto 7 St Catherines 6 Oakville 6 Coquitlam 6 Calgary 6 Caledon 5 Ne w We s tm ins te r 5 Saskatoon 4 Brampton 4 Port Coquitlam 4 02468101214 Source: Toronto Nationals Lacrosse (MLL) Scouting Department A look behind the numbers The preceding discussion paints a fairly clear picture of the participation levels of Canadians in the NCAA from a variety of perspectives. However, it does not explain the sudden surge in participation levels in the NCAA by Canadian men over the past 3-4 years. It is my sense that the pre-conditions for this surge have been building in Canada for close to twenty five years but it is the emergence and proliferation of “intermediaries or agents” over the past five years that explains the sudden surge in participation by Canadians in NCAA lacrosse. Field lacrosse was an important sport in Canada’s early history with huge crowds turning out to witness games in places like Toronto’s Centre Island and at Queens Park in New Westminster.