Stealth honour heart-and-soul player
TEAM LEADER: Vancouver lacrosse club chooses retired defender Hodgson as first to have jersey in rafters
Retiring Curtis Hodgson’s jersey is one of the better things the Vancouver Stealth have done.
Hodgson’s No. 6 will be pulled from circulation with the National Lacrosse League club and raised to the Langley Events Centre rafters Saturday during a visit from the Saskatchewan Rush (7 p.m., TSN 1410 AM).
It marks the first time the Stealth have honoured a player in such a manner.
Hodgson, 36, who decided to retire this off-season after 13 years in the NLL, is not the typical candidate for such accolades, having been a steady, stayat-home defender. He admits “when it comes to stats, the only ones of mine that are jersey retirement-worthy are games played.”
That said, the Stealth are a franchise still looking to gain traction on the floor (they’re last in the nineteam league with a 1-7 record) and in the community (they’re drawing 3,610 fans per home game in a league that averages 9,036 a contest) and further establishing former team captain Hodgson as a standard bearer both internally and externally makes sense.
He was a heart and hustle guy. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, moving with them from San Jose, Calif. to Everett, Wash. to their LEC home base. He played every shift of his 226 combined regular season and playoff matchups like he was desperate to earn just one more hop over the boards.
His numbers in a sport where personal stats can be eye-popping are decidedly modest, with 36 goals and 73 assists over his career. Even with that, you talk to people who played alongside him and they’ll tell you Hodgson was someone with sway in the dressing room.
As well, when the Stealth announced in October they were doing this, coach Jamie Batley talked about Hodgson’s “class and dignity.”
Those aren’t words that come up in sport much anymore. Those aren’t words, frankly, that come up nearly enough in a positive vein in life anymore.
“Hodgy is an unbelievable leader, on and off the floor,” said Brett Mydske, a Rush defender who played alongside Hodgson last summer with the Western Lacrosse Association’s New Westminster Salmonbellies, where Hodgson also sported the captain’s C.
“He’s one of the guys the dressing room has the utmost respect for. He’s a players’ captain and he knows how to get the best out of his teammates.”
Chris Gill, a Colorado Mammoth assistant coach who suited up alongside Hodgson in New Westminster and then was an assistant coach there, added: “He came to play every game every year.
“He wasn’t flashy, didn’t get a ton of recognition. As a true defender, you are at your best when you aren’t being noticed, because it means you aren’t getting beat, and Hodgy had a ton of those games.”
It’s easy to debate whether Hodgson’s jersey should have been the first to be retired by the Stealth. For instance, they could have gone instead with Lewis Ratcliff ’s, saluting his 14-year career that ended in 2015 and featured 472 goals, including 183 with the Stealth. Maybe that’s something for down the line.
No matter. It doesn’t take away from what Hodgson accomplished. The key is for the Stealth to follow through, and make sure they find two or three guys like him, however they have to go about it.
Hodgson has stayed with the organization, highlighted by heading up the Stealth’s youth academy. That should help.
“I was always a big believer in hard work and leadership by example and thinking team first,” said Hodgson, who is a Burnaby South Secondary vice-principal.
“I’d like to think that this represents those values.”