The North Island Rage swept a doubleheader from Victoria in U12 field lacrosse action on Thanksgiving weekend.
On a rain-swept Robron Field in Campbell River, the Rage edged the South Island team 12-10 in the first game and scored a decisive 17-11 win in the follow-up.
Doubleheaders are gruelling at any age and a lot of the success of our North Island players can be chalked up the presence of Adam Bakular Evans, back from four years at Lake Erie College, an NCAA Div. 2 competitor.
Incidentally, Campbell River’s Selena Lasota, a box/field standout, gets huge plugs and a couple of great photos in this month’s edition of Inside Lacrosse magazine. Selena plays for NCAA Div. 1 Northwestern Wildcats out of Evanston, Ill.
It must be noted, as well, that another Rage ‘alum’ and standout Victoria Shamrocks Junior A shooter is lining up with the Lees-McRae College Bobcats, who finished third in the highly competitive Div. 2 Carolinas Conference. You have to envy Tanner Jones. His new school is a small four-year co-ed campus high in the bucolic Blue Ridge Mountains.
There are around 600,000 minor league hockey players in Canada and 137 NCAA schools offering athletic hockey scholarships. There are about 100,000 minor league lacrosse players in the country and 447 schools actively recruiting for lacrosse. Do the math.
To see why Canadian players are prize recruiting targets, go to YouTube and watch “Jesse King vs. Johns Hopkins.”
QUICK STICKS The U14 Rage heads south to tackle the Raiders in Nanaimo in their next game, while the U16 Rage have an Oct. 29 contest in Parksville …
– North Island Rage