Lacrosse players seek route to US colleges

ASSISTANT COACH of Jamaica women’s U20 lacrosse team, Dale Walker, says there are bountiful opportunities for his players to impress scouts as they prepare for the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship in August.

Walker said he has seen major improvements in the team since entering their training camp at the Stadium East facilities.

“Preparation is going well so far,” he said. “Thankfully, we got the Stadium East to prepare over the last week and a half and we’re very grateful for that. They have been responding quite well and have been showing improvement.”

He explained that before the camp, the girls would only train on weekends. The team now trains on a daily basis with longer sessions to improve Jamaica’s chances at the championship.

Jamaica, ranked 21st in the world, will face Hong Kong, ranked 12th, England, ranked fourth, Japan, ranked fifth, and Ireland, ranked 19th in the group stage.

The level of competition, Walker said, demands the best quality of play possible from Jamaica.

“Preparing for a World Championships on the weekends with only two days and three hours per day, so that’s six hours per weekend, isn’t enough. Over the last week and a half, we have been training for eight hours per day and we’ve seen improvement in their fitness, their endurance and their level of agility.”

GAINING EXPOSURE

Walker also said the international competition provides an opportunity for players to gain exposure to the highest level of the sport.

This, in turn, allows for players to attract university offers from scouts who will be watching their games.

He revealed several members of the team have already been offered scholarships from US-based universities.

“Most of these girls are local based and haven’t played internationally. However, we believe that they have the skills to compete against the best in the world. In fact, quite a number of these girls, by virtue of their skills demonstrated here, have been offered scholarships to play in the US.”

Head coach, Taylor Erwin, said much of the same, explaining that these offers give the girls the chance to further their education while competing at the next level of the sport.

“I will say that over 50 per cent of them are already getting recruited to college to play lacrosse, which is amazing. That opens up opportunities for them to continue their lacrosse career as well as continue their education and open up far more opportunities for them once they reach that point.”

However, Walker said while the offers may be plentiful, Jamaica Lacrosse also helps to advise the players about which offer may be the best for each individual athlete.

He explained they work alongside the parents to ensure the players are given the best offers possible for their careers.

“We have to face the fact, in Jamaica we have a high school programme but we have nothing beyond that,” he said.

“But we ensure that, along with the parents, they are getting good offers and they are not just going anywhere. We take that into consideration and we try to advise them to research on the colleges that send offers to see if it is a good place for them to go to.”