Stone Evans a special lacrosse player

Since making his debut for Jamaica in the World Lacrosse Under-21 Championship last August, 17-year-old Stone Evans has been nothing short of outstanding.

At the recent Lacrosse World Cup, Evans was one of the players of the tournament, playing at a level that defied his age and cementing his status as one of the future stars of the sport.

At the 2023 World Lacrosse Championship, he scored three times and provided nine assists to lead Jamaica to the quarterfinals. But Evans, who was born in the United States to a Jamaican mother, said despite knowing that he had an impressive tournament, he never realised how special his performances were until he returned home.

“Since I have been back home, I watched the games and listened to the commentators talk about me, and it makes me feel very special. I knew I was going to do the best I could, but everyone thinks I stepped up in the right moments when my team needed me. So the most I can say is that I am very proud of myself for doing that.

“The moments with my team were really special. To have the people around me, my teammates, people back home, my coaches seeing that as well (was also special) because I wasn’t always doing things like that. I had to build my way up to get to this type of moment,” he said.

Jamaica defeated top-ranked teams such as Switzerland, Poland, New Zealand, and Italy en route to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Canada.

Although they were hurt by their quarterfinal defeat by the Canadians, the biggest disappointment was losing the eighth-place playoff game 8-7 to Israel.

Nevertheless, he believes that the country has a deep pool of players from which to choose as a number of the experienced players may not be around for the next tournament. Evans believes that they will only get better as a team and that the objective at the next tournament will be to take home a medal.

“In the moment as a competitor you are hurt, but when you talk to people and seeing your family calling you and saying how proud and happy they are of you, that quarterfinal game really showed how far we’ve come.

“The eighth-place game that we lost to Israel, that one hurt more. It was our last game, and knowing that it is every four years that you do this event and some players might not be here again, you don’t want to have that pain,” he said.

“But it is only up from here. The team in 2018 was very talented, but on paper, this team was, maybe, a little more talented, and each Jamaican team that we are going to have moving forward is going to be very special.

“I have learned from the older guys, and the experience is very special. I am one of the leaders now, and in the future, there will be younger guys like me, and I will look back and remember where I was as well.

“Our goal this year was to make it to the top ten. With four years to go, our goal is to win a medal. We have players in the player pool who I know, and I am ready to see them take the step up. I definitely see the Jamaica team claiming international glory in the future,” he added.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com