Sam the field lacrosse man
Sam Smith has made himself into an important member of the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons boys field lacrosse team.
The 15-year-old, Grade 10 student was part of the practice roster last season and didn’t see any action while he learned the game.
“He wanted to try lacrosse and see what the game was all about,” Fort Erie coach Justin Pychel said. “We gave him a chance to come out and play and this year he earned a spot on the team on his own and he’s really excelling.
“Our schedule really facilitates putting players in certain situations to help them experience full games.”
Smith is thrilled to be seeing game action.
“It’s fun. I can play with my buddies and it’s good for activity,” he said. “I like to stay healthy. You’re out running around and it’s good for your stamina, good for football.”
Smith didn’t mind biding his time while he learned the ropes.
“I learned a lot, learned how to play the game and how the game works,” he said. “It sucked and it was boring but at least I got to practice. I knew I wasn’t going to play. I never played before so I couldn’t blame my coach.”
Smith, who plays defence, is popular with his teammates as evidenced by him being doused with water during his interview time while his buddies shouted, ‘MVP, MVP.’ ”
“It’s super fun to play with all my buddies. It’s awesome. As long as I’m having fun that’s what matters to me,” he smiled while wiping his soaking wet hair off.
Pychel has been impressed with Smith improvement.
“He’s a quick athlete who plays football so he’s physical as well. He’s learning the technical side of the game but he’s been putting in the work, showing up to practice and doing a great job.”
The Gryphons defeated the West Niagara Wolfpack 12-2 Thursday at a Niagara Region High School Athletic Association jamboree on their home field.
The Wolfpack came into the game with only 10 players and by the second half were using a few members of the Gryphons to fill out their roster as injuries and exhaustion caught up with them.
Pychel said the message to his team was to try and keep on an even keel during such a lopsided affair.
“We’ve seen it before where we have two games where we won pretty handily and then we go and face a tough team like Crossley or Simcoe or Sir Winston and the team seems to get deflated,” he said. “We’re trying to teach them to keep that even keel and not be too high or too low.”
Pychel said he has high hopes for the Gryphons going forward
“We have a team of all Grade 9s and 10s with two or three Grade 11s. I would like to get back to the SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) finals. We lost last year by a couple of goals (to Denis Morris) and it was a good learning experience for our younger players and definitely improve on that and give them a run for their money.”
West Niagara coach Laura Tober said it’s all about baby steps for the program, which is in its first year.
“Because we’re not established as a sport at the school, we’re dealing with other spring sports that are more established — soccer, baseball, track,” she said. “Essentially what we’re looking for is playing the long-term game and ideally building the want to play the sport and building a like of the sport.”
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 5,900 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
