by By Dan Ninham
Canada won its fifth consecutive gold medal on September 28 defeating the Iroquois Nationals 19-12 in the 2019 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship game.
The Iroquois Nationals earned its second consecutive silver medal while USA edged England 11-8 to win its fifth straight bronze medal.
During pool play on September 23, Canada beat the Iroquois Nationals by the same score 19-12. The Iroquois Nationals narrowly beat USA 9-7 in the semifinals to move to the championship game.
The motto of the 10 days of lacrosse between September 19 and 28, 2019 was “Honoring The Game. Celebrating The World”. The field included 20 international teams.
“Canada’s really tough,” said Iroquois Nationals Head Coach Rich Kilgour (Tuscarora). “ They had a full lineup and were at full strength. This was the best Canada team ever.”
Canada has a double talent pool of a hundred players while the Iroquois Nationals have about 40 to choose from. This is not an excuse and is a means to work twice as hard to compete.
“Every year our guys are doing better. We had injuries to five key players who couldn’t play. Nothing against the players who did play and we did a great job. We got tired at the end,” added Kilgour.
Iroquois Nationals Cody Jamieson (Mohawk) was voted the Most Valuable Player of the WILC ’19. Teammate Randy Staats (Mohawk) was voted on the All World Team.
“Cody Jamieson is the best in the world. He came back to play at the elite level from a torn ACL twice and a torn achilles tendon,” said Kilgour. “Cody is an off the floor and an on the floor captain of our team. This is another reason to be proud.”
There is more behind the scenes work of a team captain than most people know. “During the 4th quarter in the semifinals against the US, Cody brought the team together and directed a talk to ‘believe it!’ He then led the team by example and others followed,” said Kilgour.
“Cody showed passion for the game with his tenacious offense and unmatched leadership,” said Gewas Schindler (Oneida), Director of the Iroquois Nationals Men’s Indoor Lacrosse Program.
“Cody has been around and has played in some huge championship games,” said former Iroquois Nationals Assistant Coach Mark Burnam. “He knows to take a team on his shoulders and lead by example. Cody has always led by example and he knows the game so well he truly has that special character to lead.”
“Randy Staats is a world class box and field lacrosse player,” said Schindler. “He has evolved his game into one of the worlds best scorers. His All World Trophy is long over due. Randy is now one of our captains and leaders for the Iroquois nationals men’s programs. Randy is irreplaceable, he proves that everyday on and off the floor.”
“I’ve coached Randy at Six Nations for a decade now,” said Kilgour. “He leads by talking and he leads by playing.”
“Randy is battle tested and he’s going to be there to the end and you can always count on him,” said Burnam. “While that tournament was going on you know he’s never going to give up and you’re always going to get a hundred percent out of that guy. No matter if he is injured, no matter what time the game is, if your losing or winning, Randy Staats always brings it to the table. I’ve seen it in high school while I was coaching him a number of years back. He was playing in the Dicks Tournament of Champions and he did this jump move and when he came down we all heard his knee pop from the sidelines. I mean you knew it was his ACL and I literally had to drag him out of that game to get him off the field. Not a lot of guys will play injured and I mean injured, not hurt, but injured, and Randy is that type of player. The guys a true warrior.”
“We have four more years before we do this again. We have to put more logs in the fire,” added Kilgour. “We have to get other nations involved to be competitive.”
The extra logs on the fire could come from other Iroquois nations joining the talent pool. One of these areas is the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin.
“It took us about 20 years to find out the right formula to get our young men ready to compete at the next level,” said Curtiss Summers (Oneida), Director of the Oneida Community Lacrosse Program. “That was the last time we had two young men make the Iroquois National team in 1999 in Japan. It took awhile to reintroduce our game to our community and now we have young men ready to compete. We now have a flourishing youth program eight years strong and a successful high school team.”
“In the past seven years we’ve had 12 guys go on to play DII and DIII college lacrosse. Next year if everything goes well, we’ll have a few more going to play college lacrosse. It’s been extremely exciting to see our first batch graduate from college last year and then this past spring. Now, going to the tryouts for the Nationals has been a dream for these guys for a while. And one of them being my son, he has dreamed of wearing the Nationals colors,” added Summers.
Iroquois Nationals WILC ’19 Assistant Coach Jason Johnson and his son-in-law pro player Quinn Powless were invited guests in Oneida a few years ago. Hall of Famer Cam Bomberry was an invited guest too. Mark Burnam was an invited guest to the Oneida Nation three weeks ago at the Northern Indigenous Lacrosse Youth Development Clinic. Rich Kilgour is also invited to the Oneida Nation for a near future youth development clinic weekend. “You have my number now,” said Kilgour.
There are more and more logs going into the fire to have a bright future with the Iroquois Nationals.
