Video: Iroquois Lax Hopes Good Karma Comes
by Matt DaSilva and Clare Lochary | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
MANCHESTER, England -- The 2010 FIL World
Championships here in Manchester have been marked as much by the
absence of one nation as it has the presence of 29 others.
The Iroquois Nationals on Sunday officially withdrew from the
world games following a weeklong faceoff with the U.S. and British
governments over their Confederacy-issued passports.
Six Nations players have traveled on Iroquois passports for
decades. They say it validates them as members of a sovereign
nation. But the British Consulate would not allow them out of New
York, as their passports do not meet post-9/11 security
standards.
Mark Burnham was the Iroquois team captain in five previous world
championships.
“You work for four years to get to this point and then all
that works for nothing,” said assistant coach Mark Burnham,
the Iroquois team captain in five previous world championships.
“It’s unfortunate that politics were involved in
something that should be the farthest point from the game or
sports.”
Burnham is part of the Iroquois contingent that arrived in
Manchester before the players’ passport hold-up.
“It’s a whole lot of emotions. You’re happy
because all the different people who treat us so well stop us and
ask us and are genuinely concerned,” said Nationals assistant
coach Bob Leary. “But for the guys who were going their first
year and the guys you don’t know this might have been their
last, it’s tough thinking of them. “
That the Creator’s Game goes on without its founding people
has left people here at a loss.
“I feel bad or the guys that have given up so much time and
sacrificed themselves – made it to a ton of practices and
training camps like ourselves to be in right frame of mind, the
right shape, to come over world championships to compete,”
said Team USA co-captain Ryan Powell. “It looks like they
might not get an opportunity to do that, so I feel bad for
them.”
Said Team Germany head coach Jack Kaley: “I feel terrible
for the Iroquois because I know how hard they worked to get that
independent status. It’s just another black eye in the
history of them being denied opportunities. In the 21st century,
you expect something different than that. I hope they come back
again. It’s their game! We’re playing their game, and
our politics denied them the ability to participate in their game.
Just terrible.”
Where one door closes, however, another opens. Kaley was in the
middle of a shower the night before the games when opportunity
knocked. The FIL wanted to bump Germany, a lacrosse nation on the
rise, to the top flight in place of the Iroquois.
He posed the question to his players.
“You could hear by their roar that it was a yes, an
overwhelming yes,” he said.
Team USA defeated Germany on Sunday, 22-4. But the excited Germans
were no worse for the wear.
“It was really exciting to play them,” said
18-year-old goalkeeper Philipp Maas. “We know that we have a
good chance with the big teams. It’s a great experience. We
are the first German team to play America and Canada, and
it’s a great thing.”
The Iroquois Nationals here in Manchester also hope their loss can
be another indigenous people’s gain. In a traditional
ceremony Sunday, they donated exclusive team apparel to the
Peruvian Lacrosse Association for raffle to raise funds and help
spread their game there.
“They wanted to help out anyway they can to bring some good
karma back home to their guys,” said Lax Peru co-founder
Shane Reed, who was living and teaching in Peru when he noticed
natives’ enthusiasm for a new game.
Reed was peddling his new LaxPeru wares here in hopes of raising
funds to start a team there.
“We had started to think we wouldn’t be able to
compete for a gold medal in the tournament. That was a night of
despair for the three of us that are represented,” Leary
said. “I woke up in and was tired of feeling sorry for myself
about it. I’m really proud to be on this staff.
It’s a blessing. It’s a tremendous honor and
responsibility to represent Oren Lyons and all the players. I
wanted to make something good happen out of the sadness, to grow
something better.”
Said Burnham: “It’s the Creator’s game.
It’s a friendly game. We try to still let the people think
it’s a part of culture, as well as somebody else’s, as
we try to support the game throughout the nations.”
This year’s Iroquois lacrosse team was believed to be the
strongest in program history.
“We’ve seen our competition,” Leary said.
“We would have been one of the strongest sides here and one
of the strongest sides we ever had. We’ll be stronger for
this at the end somehow.”
How good would the Iroquois have been?
“Ask the people that kept us from being here,”
Burnham said. “Maybe they have the answers.”
