Darren Reisig admits he couldn’t have ever imagined it happening.
Lacrosse, in which Victoria is a Canadian hotbed, is set to become an Olympic sport at Los Angeles in 2028 for the first time since London in 1908.
“This is awesome news and will help lacrosse grow,” said the former Victoria Shamrocks player and Claremont Secondary head coach, who is headed to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame this year with the Class of 2023.
“This is the opportunity lacrosse has been looking for.”
The Los Angeles organizing committee has proposed the inclusion of lacrosse, cricket, baseball, softball, flag football and squash. The proposal will be voted on during the IOC meetings beginning Sunday in Mumbai, India, with passage considered a formality.
The Olympic format of lacrosse will be what is called Sixes — a blend of the box and field games with six-on-six play on a shortened field. Reisig knows both versions of the sport and was a three-time Mann Cup national champion with the Shamrocks in box lacrosse and has sent more than 125 Claremont players to the U.S. collegiate NCAA in field lacrosse since 2008. He has also won the Minto Cup national Junior A championship in box with Esquimalt Legion and represented sa国际传媒 twice at the world field-lacrosse championships.
“I believe they have come up with a version for the Olympics that will really work and allow developing nations to begin playing and advancing in the sport,” said Reisig.
World Lacrosse, in a statement, described it as a “monumental milestone for our sport.”
Shamrocks head coach Mike Simpson agrees: “We all grew up wanting to be in the Olympics in some sport. This is going to be a great thing for young men’s and women’s lacrosse players.”
Simpson, a former player, is also a fan of the format: “It reconfirms the value of both brands — box and field. It’s going to be tons of fun and will make for lots of scoring.”
Lacrosse has been an Olympic sport twice, both times featuring only men’s teams. sa国际传媒 won gold and sa国际传媒 Mohawk Nation bronze as three teams contested at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and sa国际传媒 gold and Great Britain silver at the 1908 London Olympics with two nations playing. Lacrosse was a demonstration sport at the 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles and 1948 London Olympics and also box at the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games and field at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.
The L.A. 2028 intake of new sports will have the same sort of ramifications for the Island as the last big intake for Tokyo 2020. The latter included surfing, in which Tofino is the Canadian spiritual and actual home, and wall climbing, in which many of sa国际传媒’s top climbers train at Boulders Gym in Central Saanich.
The re-inclusion of women’s softball for 2028 is big news for sa国际传媒’s rising 18-year-old pitching star Ruby Anderson of Victoria. As it also is for Emma Entzminger of Victoria, who won the bronze medal with sa国际传媒 in the 2000 Tokyo Olympics, and is preparing to play in the 2023 Pan Am Games this month in Santiago, Chile.
Softball and baseball will not be in the 2024 Paris Olympics because the French have little connection to bat-and-ball sports. Anderson will be in the prime of her career but Entzminger will be 32 in 2028.
“It’s definitely on my mind, and I would love to do it, but I will take it year by year,” Entzminger told the Times Colonist.
