This is part of a series about Comox Valley student athletes who are moving onto the next level in their sport.
Alec Molander’s name appears throughout the men’s field lacrosse record book at Lees-McRae College, most notably in the all-time leading scorer category. He earned the distinction last season during his third year at the North Carolina school.
A product of the Comox Valley Wild, the 22-year-old was named an all-conference second team all-star for the second year in a row, athlete-of-the-week April 9, and the lacrosse scholar-athlete of the year for the conference. On the academic side, he received an English award and was named to a national college honour society.
He is one of three local players to attend LMC. The first was Tanner Jones, who captained the lacrosse team last season in his grad year. Ryan Beauchamp is the other member. All three played field lacrosse with the North Island Rage, a combined team with Campbell River.
Molander says the LMC lacrosse team improved substantially his first two years, setting win records in each season.
“The day before we got back to campus this past summer our coach resigned, leaving us with no coach and no recruits. We fought through a lot of adversity and, with a new coach and lots of incoming players, should be looking at our most successful year to date in 2018/19.”
Before embarking on his fourth year, Molander will play his first season of senior box lacrosse with the Victoria Shamrocks.
“This is my first year with them, as it is the first year I have been old enough to play in the Western Lacrosse Association, after playing my three years of junior in Nanaimo.”
Molander moved from Coquitlam to Comox when he was seven. He attended Highland Secondary, but did his Grade 12 year in Victoria to play field lacrosse for Claremont’s academy program.
He credits the Rage for teaching him the basics of field lacrosse.
“Although I had been playing box lacrosse my entire life, I had never played outdoors until I began with the Rage in Grade 10. My time with the Wild was even more influential. The Valley is very fortunate to have such elite-level coaches as Peter Parke and Warren Dickie dedicated to growing the game locally, especially in such a small organization. I still often think of things they taught me when I was 15 or 16 years old.”