|
Friday, 04 August 2006 |
Endgame - By Rasmus Bonde Stouby
It is the feeling you get when you see a green field, the scent of newly cut grass tickling your nostrils. When you put on your padding, and slide the helmet over your head. When in that very second you run on to the arena, feeling like a warrior with moldy pictures of Native Americans are displayed in the back of your brain. The sport is a religion. The sport is a culture of its own, because anything can happen out there. Seven perfect passes in a row, a dodge, another pass and a beautiful goal. That’s why you have to love the game.
The expedition of Danes, who briefly colonized Canada, is of a strange shape. Lacrosse is such a young sport in Denmark, that our most experienced "100% Danes" have roughly three years of lacrosse in their backpacks. To exemplify this is Canadian Dane Hansen, who features in the statistics as our youngest but also one of our most experienced players. He has been playing since he was four years old, a luxury still only some countries can offer.
Team Denmark is what you could call a non-competitive team. We always play to win but, like other nations, had trouble filling the spots on the roster because every player pays for his own trip. So unlike Germany or Ireland, who can create an atmosphere of competition on the team, the general consensus is that everyone has to have a good experience from every tournament.
In the sunset of the games the debates in the group switched from such things as playing time, who got lucky last night and other personal aspirations, to discussing the future and the impact of the tournament on Danish Lacrosse.
During the two years leading up to the games it had become somewhat of a mantra that Danish lacrosse would strengthen and grow from our participation in a World Games. It’s a statement I have heard repeated in conversations with many of the coaches from small lacrosse nations. While I supported that theory earlier, I now think that expectation is overrated.
Lacrosse in Denmark is a plankton-size sport. Attention from the media sharks is hard to come by and to fully reap the potential benefits of a high level event people at least need to be told that it’s going on. Canada 2006 has gone by unnoticed in Denmark.
There is no way I would trade any of my world cup memories for anything, but the time, efforts and volunteer work put into this project could have arguably gone into promoting growth internally in Denmark. In the past two years, Denmark has also been to the European Championships and hosted the Women’s Newcomers European Championship. Not bad for a scrawny lacrosse nation, but particularly after Finland put us back in school at the World Games, we have realized that a foundation resting on 60 players is far from enough. It has shown us that the future focus of our efforts should be internal. We need to build a league of more than the current two teams before spending more resources on glorious tournaments abroad.
Whether or not Danish Lacrosse is still too small an entity to play in a tournament of this scale, it is impossible not to feel overwhelmed with pride and respect. We took Denmark to her first ever World Games. Attackman Alex Gorman put it like this in a post-games e-mail:
" The memories are still coming back of everything that took place over the course of those two weeks. I keep telling myself that we are all members of the first National Lacrosse team in Danish lacrosse history. When you step back and think about it, I find myself saying ‘Holy shit.’ It hits you like a truck. We have all made a mark and done something that is important to all of us.”
We did do well and with a decent 16th place result we have legitimized lacrosse as a sport in Denmark. The trip inspired new ways of fundraising and player recruitment and we can tell those new players that everything is possible with this game. That lacrosse is a ticket to unique and unforgettable moments of friendship and achievement. A ticket to high-level events.
Like when a guy such as Janus Lund (Attack) runs from behind the crease, gets double teamed by two Koreans, but sort of jumps OVER one of them and puts the ball in the net with arguably the ugliest finish in the annals of lacrosse.
All of us, I think, have strengthened and grown as players. Other than my memories from the field and with the team I was fortunate enough, through my job at Inside Lacrosse, to have the opportunity daily to offer my perspective on the World Games for InsideLacrosse.com. During the two weeks, I had conversations with loads of readers. To hear the opinions and to get their approval has made my personal experience with the World Games unforgettable. Talking to you guys is part of what made the tournament worth every hard borrowed cent.
There is a sweet taste of irony in the fact that while we can't seem to get caught by the media search lights back home, we have been one of the closest covered teams in the tournament. I never imagined that so many people would take an interest in a small team like Denmark. I think everyone in the Danish camp enjoyed the positive attention.
After the tournament Matt Cone and Dave Piechowski, our coaches and friends, resigned from the Danish national team. Matt Cone discovered Danish Lacrosse when it was in its infancy, and with the help of Dave Piechowski, he took us to the World Games three years later.
If the European championships were Danish Lacrosse's baptism, this was the confirmation. Now we need to line up with the other lacrosse youngsters in Europe and spread the game.
|
