Quebec lacrosse players get chance to step up
After a decade, NLL returns to Montreal
When the National Lacrosse League returns to Montreal this weekend for the first time in 10 years, two Quebec players will get the chance to suit up with the pros.
Kahnawake’s Mark Kirby, who has been playing lacrosse since he was 4, will join the Toronto Rock and Patrick Hargreaves, a physical-education teacher in Laval, will play for the Rochester Knighthawks during Saturday’s exhibition game at the Bell Centre, which starts at 7:30 p.m. More than 8,000 people are expected to attend the box lacrosse game between the NLL rivals.
“It feels awesome, especially playing for Toronto Rock,” said Kirby, a long-time fan of the team.
“My nerves are just starting to kick in now,” he said on Wednesday.
Kirby and Hargreaves competed with about 30 lacrosse players for the chance to take part in the game at an evaluation camp last month. Both play in a men’s senior B league in the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League.
At 39, Hargreaves ranked first in conditioning, defensive abilities and physical strength at the selection camp. He started playing lacrosse 11 years ago, after falling in love with the sport when he attended a few Montreal Express games. The NLL franchise suspended operations after just one season.
Hargreaves, who plays defence, said he felt nervous and excited about the upcoming game.
“It will be really faster than what I’m used to seeing,” he said.
When the game was announced in October, Pierre Filion, with the Quebec Lacrosse Federation, called it a first step in the return of a pro team to Montreal.
NLL commissioner George Daniel portrayed it as an initial step in gauging interest in the market and re-introdu- cing lacrosse in Montreal.
Martin Routhier, the event promoter, said on Thursday there is some interest by investors but declined to go into detail, preferring to focus on Saturday’s game.
There are 3,200 registered box lacrosse players in the province.
Filion, the Quebec federation’s technical director, said he spends a lot of his time trying to convince people that lacrosse isn’t a violent sport. It’s a contact sport, he said. Whenever they start lacrosse in a school, he always hears from the principal who says: “I hear you guys fight.”
He tells them that’s not the case “but that’s the rap that we have,” said Filion, who added he doesn’t mind spending time trying to share the passion he has for “the reality of the game.”
“Once you see it, people will say: ‘Wow, what a show!’ Some will want to play.”
They do things in lacrosse that aren’t acceptable in hockey, but it’s a different game, he said.
“It’s a game of possession. So the game is such that in order for me to take the ball away from you I have to slash your stick, I have to slash your gloves, I have to push you, I have to cross-check you.”
The sticks are made of plastic and players wear a fully-padded helmet — the ball can’t go through the face mask — gloves, shoulder pads and other protective equipment, said Filion, who called injury levels “ridiculously low.”
Lack of familiarity with Canada’s national summer sport is another challenge in attracting people to play the sport, according to Filion.
“The exposure for our game is very, very limited,” he said. “But the exposure is there when there is a pro operation.”
Fantastic accuracy in passing and a game where everybody runs is part of what people can expect on Saturday, Filion said.
They’ll see a game of “non-lazy players,” he said. “We cannot cheat.”