What a Rush!
Mason Kamminga’s dreams came true this summer.
Just a couple of weeks after helping the St. Catharines Athletics to an Iroquois Cup as Ontario junior A lacrosse champions, Kamminga was selected by the Saskatchewan Rush in National Lacrosse League draft earlier this week.
“It’s amazing,” the 22-year-old St. Catharines native said. “It’s a summer where two of my life-long dreams and two of the things that I’ve been working towards the last five summers finally came true. It’s a realization of a lot of hard work put in my myself and my teammates and parents, a lot of sacrifices coming to fruition.
“Winning that championship, which has been the main goal of my life for the last five years, and then seeing my name picked, it’s been surreal.”
Kamminga, a graduate of Denis Morris, was selected by the Rush in the third round (45th overall).
“It’s something I’ve always dreamed about since I was a kid, being a professional athlete,” Kamminga said. “At first it was hockey and then when I got into lacrosse when I was five I fell in love with it and always dreamed of playing in the NLL and watching the Bandits growing up.”
Kamminga dedicated himself on and off the floor to give himself the best opportunity to be selected.
“For the draft, in the last five years I didn’t think I had a chance at going but in the last couple of years I’ve worked hard and improved my play and my conditioning and got in shape and played well,” he said. “I think me working on my conditioning and me working on my head, because I was my own worst enemy with getting angry with penalties, so I worked really hard on myself mentally and that’s what gave me the huge jump this year.”
Kamminga can be utilized in a number of positions.
“My versatility has really helped my game, that’s something that I pride myself on, being able to take draws, being able to play D, being able to come up and play O. Whatever you need,” he said.
Kamminga wasn’t sure how the draft was going to unfold, but as it grew nearer, began to feel better about his chances of being selected.
“I heard talk of me going and raising my stock,” he said. “I was just hoping to go at some point, I really didn’t care where. There were two mock drafts a week before and those put me at 23rd and the last pick of first round so that’s when I really started to get super excited knowing my name was going to most likely get called at some point.”
Athletics general manager Jeff Chcoski had no doubt Kamminga was going to be chosen.
“I knew for sure he was going to go, it was just a matter of where,” Chcoski said. “He really did have a great tournament. He was amazing but don’t forget he played some of those senior games (with Six Nations) and put up some numbers there too and then for him to go to senior, he really captured some eyes at the end.”
Kamminga has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining at Detroit Mercy where he majoring in accounting and plans to complete his Master of Business Administration. He will be eligible to play for the Rush in 2022.
“It’s a good thing,” Kamminga said. “I get a whole other year to develop and work out and improve your game and another summer to play senior A playing against pro guys. It will be big going to camp having that extra year.”
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