Disappointing outing for Iroquois squad

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Once again the Iroquois Nationals just missed out on a medal at the world men's field lacrosse championships. The Native squad was defeated 21-8 by Australia in the bronze-medal game of the world tournament, which concluded July 22 in London, Ont.

Canada beat the United States 15-10 in the gold-medal contest.

This marked the third straight time the Iroquois Nationals had placed fourth in the tourney. They also narrowly missed a medal at the 1998 tournament in Baltimore, Maryland and at the 2002 competition in Perth, Australia.

"We're definitely disappointed," said Delby Powless, one of the stars of the Iroquois Nationals' squad, who also plays box lacrosse professionally with the National Lacrosse League's Buffalo Bandits. "The goal was to get a medal."

Powless was especially disappointed with how things transpired for his side in its battle for bronze.

"We didn't show up in the last game," he said. "Unfortunately for us we tried to force things. It lead to us making mistakes and it led to (Australia) getting goals."

The Iroquois Nationals' bronze-medal efforts were especially disappointing as they had defeated Australia 12-10 in a round-robin match just four days earlier.

That victory marked the first time the Iroquois Nationals had beaten Australia in a world championship game. The world tournament has been held every four years since 1978.

Sid Smith, another member of the Iroquois Nationals' club, believes the fact his side defeated Australia in round-robin action ended up costing his squad in the end.

"I think we took them lightly," Smith said of the bronze-medal match up.

Though a medal was up for grabs in their final game, his teammates were still a tad ticked off their gold-medal aspirations had been dashed two days earlier, Sid Smith added.

"There was a bit of a letdown." Canada thumped the Iroquois Nationals 16-6 in a semi-final contest.

Delby Powless said going home empty-handed was even more difficult considering this was believed to be the most talented Iroquois Nationals squad that had ever competed at the world tournament.

"We got better but so too did the rest of the world," said Powless, who led his team in scoring with 23 points (18 goals, five assists) in eight games.

A total of 21 countries participated at the tournament. Clubs were placed into a pool primarily with teams of a similar calibre.

The Iroquois Nationals were in the highest calibre grouping along with Canada, United States, Australia, England and Japan.

The Iroquois Nationals posted a 3-2 round-robin record. Besides Australia, they also recorded victories over England (13-10) and Japan (13-11).

The Iroquois Nationals' round-robin setbacks included a 12-8 loss to Canada and a 21-13 loss versus the Americans.

Then, in their opening playoff contest, the Iroquois Nationals defeated Germany 14-6. Germany had earned a berth into the quarter-finals by dominating its round-robin opponents, winning all four of its matches, collectively outscoring its rivals 63-21.

Perhaps the Iroquois Nationals could have fared better in London if they had some more preparation time together.

The club did have a training camp in Portland, Oregon prior to the world tournament. But about a third of those on the 23-player roster were unable to attend for various reasons, including commitments to their summer box lacrosse squads.

So some of the Iroquois Nationals' players did not even meet each other until they were in London.

"It's tough to build a team like that, to do it on the fly when you get to the tournament," Powless said.

That was also the case for Powless when he competed at the 2002 world championships.

"When I went to Perth, I didn't even know who was on the team until I got there," he said.

Smith, who was participating in his first world tournament, had plenty of new faces and names of teammates to learn. He did not attend the Oregon camp as he also toils for the Six Nations Arrows Express Junior A box lacrosse team.

"Youlearn pretty quickly," Smith said of his teammates. "And you make friends pretty quick. It wasn't that rough."