Festival spotlight shines on lacrosse

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For the fifth straight year, youngsters from across Ontario gathered at one of the country's top sporting venues to showcase their lacrosse skills.

The skills competition, held on Nov. 27, was staged at Toronto's SkyDome. The facility is home to the Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League as well as the Toronto Blue Jays, members of Major League Baseball.

The lacrosse competition was part of the Canadian Aboriginal Festival, held in Toronto from Nov. 26 to 28. About 70 participants displayed their various skills during the competition while vying for medals and prizes.

Though the majority of the participants were Native, the competition was open to all.

"We're definitely on the climb again," Trevor Reid, co-ordinator of the lacrosse skills competition, said of this year's participation numbers.

The inaugural event in 2000 attracted about 80 entrants, then the numbers had slowly declined until this year. About 50 youngsters took part in last year's event.

Competitors were divided into five different age groups. The youngest division was for tyke (7- and 8-year-old players). The other divisions were novice (9-10), peewee (11-12), bantam (13-14) and midget (15-16).

All participants entered a timed agility challenge. This event featured an obstacle course which competitors had to weave their way around.

Entrants could also enter up to three other events. The most popular ones were a hardest shot event, a shooting accuracy competition and a breakaway segment.

Another event was a penalty kill category, in which entrants were timed on how long they could keep a ball away from a pair of opponents. There was also an event that saw two players try and score as many goals into a guarded net as they could during a 30-second span.

As for the netminders, they were judged on how they performed during the breakaway and two-on-goalie situations.

About a dozen players from the Six Nations Arrows' Junior A team, which captured the Ontario Lacrosse Association championship this season, were on hand and assisted with the running of the different categories.

Arrows' captain Stewart Monture was envious of the youngsters who took part in the skills competition.

"When I was younger, we never had anything like this," he said.

Monture said the skills competition at the annual Canadian Aboriginal Festival is the only one of its kind that he has heard of. And he thinks it's a rather good idea.

"Anything like this is good, especially in the winter when everybody is waiting for the (lacrosse) season to start," he said.

Following the skills competition, members of the Arrows displayed some of their own skills. They ran through various drills for about 15 minutes.

"That was great having them this year," Reid said of the Arrows' participation. "They are some of the best junior players in the province. A lot of them will probably go to the pros some day."

And Reid believes the participating youngsters also received a huge thrill because of where they were competing. Some were making their first trip to SkyDome.

"Being in the 'Dome makes for a great day," Reid said.

Reid was also impressed with the calibre of some of the competitors.

"A lot of the events went right down to the wire," he said. "And there were tie-breakers in some of the competitions, which shows you just how close things were."