by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
“My Indian name is Thaiwhandutts (He brings up the sun), my English name is Edward Shenandoah, and I was born September 23, 1974. I am Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation although I was born and raised in the Onondaga community,” said Edward. He is the Manager/Director of Tsha’ Thoñ’nhes (Where They Play Ball), the Onondaga Lacrosse Fieldhouse.
Edward Shenandoah was a typical lacrosse player in the Onondaga community. Typical in the sense of being a soon-to-be lacrosse player since the day he was born. He had a small wooden stick in his possession when he took his first breath when he was born. Like all other future boy lacrosse players, the wooden stick got larger as he got older and he started playing when he could walk.
Edward played field lacrosse for Lafayette High School, Syracuse, NY from 1990 to 1993. He competed for the U-19 Iroquois Nationals World Field Lacrosse Championships at Hofstra University, Long Island in 1992. In 1993, he played his rookie season for the Onondaga Athletic Club winning its first ILA championship. He also had earned a bid to the Presidents Cup in Vancouver, BC as a senior men’s box lax player. In 1994 he set the single season scoring title for the Morrisville College Mustangs, in 1995 he won a bronze medal at the Jr. B Founders Cup with the Akwesasne Lightning, and in 1997 he played his first year of pro box with the Syracuse Smash.
In 2000, Edward began coaching with the Onondaga Nation at the Founders Cup in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2002, he played for the Iroquois Nationals world field lacrosse championships at Perth, Australia. Between 2000 and 2009, Edward played Senior B Lacrosse at the Onondaga Nation.
In 2009, he retired as an active player in men’s box lacrosse. He was named to the Iroquois Nationals coaching staff as a face-off specialist in 2010, was the head coach of the Onondaga Redhawks men’s team from 2010-16 and were five-time Can-Am Champions and a Presidents Cup Champion. In 2015, he was named to the indoor world championships as an official for the games. From 2016 to the present he is the head coach of Sweden’s Indoor National Box team.
“Over the years I have volunteered on almost every level of lacrosse as a coach and as an official for our minor sports organizations,” said Edward. “This has been my way of giving back to our community. Lacrosse has given me so many opportunities to travel the world. I can only hope I have given a few players the same chance.”
Edward became one of more than a few Iroquois-affiliated coaches who were invited to lead international teams into the growing box lacrosse competition arenas. “In the winter of 2016, I was asked by Oren and Rex Lyons if I was interested in traveling to Sweden to help coach the Sweden national box lacrosse team,” said Edward. “I was very glad to accept this opportunity. The deal was to go to Sweden to watch and evaluate players, select a team, and start practicing over the following week.”
“Rex and I had very high hopes upon entering the practice facility as there were over 100 players participating in a field lax tournament. But when the tournament ended, we were left with only 21 runners and three goalies to start practice. There was less interest in box lacrosse in Sweden than we expected. With 23 players allowed on a national team roster, this meant there was only one person that needed to be eliminated or cut from what would eventually be the first ever Sweden National box lacrosse team,” added Edward.
“Our initial offer was good: Travel and expenses would be covered,” said Ed. “As well as an additional stipend for time away from work and family. Unfortunately, after the first trip we were notified that there was no money for funding future trips. The Swedish Lacrosse Federation was apologetic that we had taken time and made commitments that they could no longer support. With this news, Rex could not go forward and resigned to his previous commitment. I on the other hand had stayed in contact with team manager Curt Kinney, who had his mind set on making this work. Through team chats and other lengthy emails, our team of 23 and 3 goalies decided they would like to shoulder the burden and pay for all my travel accommodations from this point forward. While the team crunched numbers and split the costs of travel for our next training camp, I started to plan appropriate drills and practice plans as we were heading to the Czech Republic for the annual EBOX and Ales Hřebeský memorial tournaments.”
“With our team selected and our first bit of competition out of the way we decided that we needed to compete in the first ever European box lacrosse championships being hosted in nearby Turku, Finland,” said Edward. “This tournament gave us a good idea where we stood: 10th out of the 14 European teams. Sweden as a team played very hard and learned a lot of valuable lessons throughout the tournament. We became well aware that we needed to do a lot of work to be competitive. Our team begun holding box lacrosse camps as often as we could. But with our players being spread over the entire country of Sweden, travel time and costs made it’s almost impossible for everyone to attend every training event.”
“Entering our third year as a team, we began preparing for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. We successfully added a defensive coach, Joni Jalvanti, to the roster. Preparing for WILC’19 would prove to be our most difficult journey as a team to date. Not only was the team completely self-funded, but we also wanted to be as ‘homegrown’ as possible. This would prove to be the hardest task. With our homegrown talent pool being less than 30 players, and our players having to sponsor not only themselves but a coaching staff as well, our player pool was quickly cut down to less than 25 players. Finances were a factor, and some players were supporting families, while others had work or school obligations, and some even had a combination of all three. These are all factors when a player decides whether or not to make such a huge commitment. When it was all said and done, we had 16 Swedish players ready to travel. This was the crucial moment since we could not compete in eight games over 10 days with only 14 runners and a couple goalies. So, we had to recruit from Swedish descendants and seek eligibility exemptions for non-Swedish players living in Sweden. We were then able to boost our ranks to 21 players, but still fell short of a full roster consisting of 23,” added Edward.
“We successfully navigated through any and all hurdles to compete and finish 15th in the world lacrosse community,” said Edward. “Not gaining any ground, but definitely not giving any either. Our team showed grit, poise, and a lot of heart to compete and place the way we did. I am proud of the Sweden indoor national box lacrosse team. Going forward, our goals have been set on the next European box championships in Hanover, Germany. In preparation we will attend EBOX and Ales Hřebeský memorial in Prague, Along with multiple box lacrosse camps in Sweden. With the championships being within driving distance from Sweden, we expect to have full rosters and set our goals as a team to hopefully advance in tournament placement.”
“I have known Ed as a friend, cousin, teammate, competitor and many other roles and he continues to be one of the most outstanding and supportive people that I have ever known,” said Neal Powless, head coach of the Netherlands Box Team. “It is an honor to share the field with him when we play, and an even bigger privilege when we get to compete against each other as coaches of European Lacrosse teams. He’s a great ambassador for the sport, our community and Indigenous people all over the world.”
“It was awesome to get to play him in the European Championships in 2017. We took a picture celebrating the opportunity before the game, and then we competed as we always have like we were kids and as intense as we possibly could. Thankfully we both beat each other once so we are tied, for now,” added Neal Powless.
“Ed Shenandoah is a true Haudenosaunee Ambassador,” said Gewas Schindler, Director of Iroquois Box Lacrosse. “He has been traveling for the past few years back and forth to Europe to help the Swedish national box team prepare for last months 2019 world indoor lacrosse championships. Ed has proven he can play and coach at the highest levels. Syracuse Smash of the Nationals Lacrosse League along with coaching for the Onondaga Redhawks President Cup Championship team. The Swedish box players have picked up the game quickly after Coach Shenandoah arrived. It is really great to see him represent the Haudenosaunee and Team Sweden in Langley, British Columbia.”
“Ed came to us in 2016 when we had a training camp up in Luleå, located in the northern part of Sweden,” said Mattias Eklund, Captain, Swedish Box Lacrosse. “And since then he started to work with the team towards our first goal, the European championship 2017. He was able to come and join us at AHM and Ebox in Prague leading up to the championship tournament. Since then Ed has been joining us at multiple camps and tournaments in Prague. Throughout this year Ed has mostly been working with us from a distance. It’s tough when we live an ocean apart. But through our Assistant Coach, who lives in Finland, Ed has been sharing his ideas and mindsets for the game. We also managed to get a week together in Prague. During that week we got a couple of great scrimmages against other nations and also some practices.”
Edward Shenandoah is continuing to grow the game of box lacrosse in Sweden and he is one of many others who are influential as teachers of the game.
Photograph credit: Larry Palumbo and Arttu Sesselaar.
