Thinking outside box is Claremont’s forte
Lacrosse program an NCAA success story
From the it-wasn’t-funny-at-the-time file, we present Darren Reisig’s thoughts on the beginnings of Claremont Secondary’s lacrosse academy.
“We had 18 kids and no goalie in Year 1. I wasn’t sure it was going to exist for a Year 2,” said Reisig, the program director and head coach at the high school north of Saanich, as well as being a physical education teacher there. “We were guinea pigs. We had no idea where it was going.”
Where it has gone, so far at least, is that Claremont has sent 80 players and counting to NCAA field lacrosse teams since that initial season in 2004-05, according to Reisig.
Scholarship amounts have varied, he admitted. Men’s field lacrosse teams routinely have rosters in the 40s, but Division 1 squads in that sport are only permitted to give out 12.6 athletic scholarships per year, according to NCAA rules. Full rides are rare.
That said, there has been some massive successes from Claremont products. The most notable is likely Jesse King, who finished up his four years of eligibility at Ohio State in 2015 and is that program’s fourth all-time leading scorer.
King, 26, also shines in box lacrosse. In 2015, he helped the Victoria Shamrocks of the summertime Western Lacrosse Association win the Mann Cup, Canada’s national Senior A club title. In the winters, he plays in the National Lacrosse League and he was part of a marquee trade this off-season, going from the Georgia Swarm to the Calgary Roughnecks.
Box lacrosse promotes stick skills with it being played in tighter quarters. That is something not lost on NCAA coaches, Reisig said.
“They want Canadian talent,” said Reisig. “If they had three or four more scholarships per team, I think you’d see many more guys going.”
Reisig and Claremont co-coach Chris McKay do their best to promote players, though. The first team from Claremont played strictly on Vancouver Island.
This year, the not-for-profit program will make trips to Baltimore, New York, Seattle, San Diego, Las Vegas and Denver.
Reisig and McKay have also founded B.C.’s Best, an NCAA identification camp that runs in the summer. In June, the camp attracted more than 40 coaches, including from schools such as Ohio State, Denver, Michigan State and Penn State. There was also a girls camp this year as well.
“It’s something that Chris and I are pretty proud of,” Reisig said of B.C.’s Best. “We get coaches from all over and they come here to see the untapped talent.”
Reisig, 50, and McKay, 38, are both former members of the Shamrocks. Reisig played in five Mann Cups and was part of three championship sides, including in 2003, when he was captain. He retired from summer lacrosse after that season.
In the NLL, he was one of the initial signings with the Vancouver Ravens in 2001 along with goaltender Jeff Gombar. Reisig was the team’s first captain and played two full seasons with the Ravens before being traded to the San Jose Stealth midway through his third.
Reisig was also a member of the Canadian entry at the 1994 and 1998 world field lacrosse championships.