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Despite the fact that Victoria has been a lacrosse hotbed, producing legends the likes of Gary Gait and Tom Marechek, the city has never had a collegiate field lacrosse program.

Brian Potter is attempting to change that by establishing a men’s and women’s field lacrosse program the University of Victoria (UVic). Read more with the University’s paper.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is also looking to field a new team. They had a few throw arounds last year and are looking to recruit new players and sponsors this season. For more information, email dreelie@hotmail.com.

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is currently the only collegiate field lacrosse program that actually exits in British Columbia (B.C.), The three aforementioned schools are B.C.’s largest Universities, however, there are 28 post-secondary schools in the Province.

Les Smith, Vice Chair of Youth Field in B.C., added he hopes that more schools get involved in field lacrosse, and not just at the collegiate or high-school level.

“There is a need to get field lacrosse in to the schools. We need to start at the younger ages the grade schools and middle schools, not just the high schools,” said Smith, noting how field lacrosse is providing Canadian student-athletes great opportunities south of the boarder and in Canada.

Canadian boxla players have enjoyed success in the field game. Canadian names in the news today include Kevin Crowley, Jay Card and Adam Jones – All-World selections at this year’s U-19 Worlds who have had prior success at the NCAA D1 level.

“One of our goals over the next couple of years should be to increase the level of opportunity for skill advancement for our players with the goal of increasing our representation on National teams,” added Cliff Pascas, Chair of the BCLA Field Directorate.

Pascas indirectly references how well the Province of Ontario has done with the development of its field lacrosse programs. 18 Ontario players were on this year’s 23-man Canadian U-19 National Team roster.

“Most of the minor field is geared towards high level,” offered Terry Lloyd, Vice President of Youth Field lacrosse in Ontario. “Due to the fact we are close to NY State, Maryland, Pennsylvania, etc, many of our teams travel to the states yearly for higher competition. This may start at the age of seven or eight year’s old.”

The field game is also a sanctioned sport in Ontario. “This means they have Provincial Championships and zone leagues across the Province,” added Llloyd. “It also operates in the spring. Schools are rated and play within the rated level.”

Zone leagues are something that the B.C. Field Directorate is considering. They are also trying to get the sport sanctioned in B.C. so high-schools teams are eligible for jerseys, refs, equipment, etc, but it has been a very long and difficult process. The current issue is 50 teams within the Province of B.C. need to play in order for a sport to be sanctioned.

Over the past nine years there have been about 35 high-schools that have ran field lacrosse teams in B.C., with some only lasting a year or two. Last year there were approximately 25 teams, while this year only 16 high-school teams competed at the year-end tournament.

The lack of structure and competition makes it difficult to compete with the United States who by comparison has seen a dramatic rise in the number of players at the youth, high-school and collegiate level.

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