John Etzel
For John Etzel, coming to Six Nations and, specifically, the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena was like a young hockey player arriving at the Air Canada Centre. “That’s exactly how it felt to me,” says the 17-year-old Team B.C. lacrosse player from the Tsawout First Nation on Vancouver Island. “I’ve always wanted to come here. It’s what I’ve always thought of since I was a little kid, and just to be here right now is just an amazing feeling.” Etzel, who plays intermediate lacrosse for the Nanaimo Timbermen, is from one of the country’s lacrosse hotbeds and is a big fan of the National Lacrosse League. At Six Nations he’s met Miles and Jeremy Thompson, who star in the NLL. “Those guys are my idols,” he says. “It makes me super proud that there are so many Indigenous players in the NLL. I love the sport, and every time I play I’m just playing my heart out.” Etzel is in touch with the cultural roots of lacrosse, the most spiritual-based of all team games: “I’ve always thought of the game as the Creator’s Game or the Medicine Game, and whenever I was sad or something I’d just go outside and toss the ball against the wall and clear my mind. That’s how I get over stuff.” He has three wooden sticks, but didn’t string them for the NAIG tournament. He has a composite (plastic and metal alloys) stick here but says he feels “more traditional” with a wood stick, which has “more feeling.” And he’s noticed differences between B.C. lacrosse and Team Ontario lacrosse, more in the atmosphere than in the style of play. “It’s crazy here,” he says with a laugh. “There’s a lot more energy. I think the game we play is fairly similar. They play a bit faster here, they pass the ball more. And they’re more tricky, more fancy with their sticks. “It’s a really good experience.”