Taking lacrosse to a new level

A game of online poker more than three years ago between Kelson Borisenko and his pals turned into a three-hour tirade about the underwhelming hand Manitoba lacrosse players were being dealt.

The group of 20-somethings, who all played at a high level, agreed that while the province’s talent pool was on par with the rest of the country, the opportunity here to get noticed was not.

“For us, it was really frustrating to see all those guys around us that had that talent, who wanted to compete at that next level, but were never given that opportunity,” said Borisenko, who was drafted by the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League in 2020 after spending four years at Manhattan College (New York), a Division 1 program in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Out of those discussions came a plan for a local training program.

“We saw a need for high-performance lacrosse in our province,” Borisenko said.

The group developed Legends Lacrosse Club, a resource to develop players, generate interest locally and help the brightest talents make the jump to college.

The club trained 240 athletes this winter after becoming the official off-season development program of the Manitoba Lacrosse Association last October.

“When you look throughout the entire nation — Ontario and B.C. especially — they have really successful high-performance teams that give athletes exposure to these post-secondary schools and we never had that opportunity in Manitoba. So, Cory (Henkewich), Brett (Morrison) and myself decided to fill that void where we saw that fit was needed,” added Borisenko.

The camp, which runs each weekend from November through March, trains players 10 years and older and works on skill development and improving the overall fitness of each athlete. It also help players compile highlight tapes to send to U.S. talent evaluators.

When spring rolls around, Legends players go through final tuneups before breaking for the club season, which carries into September when the field lacrosse season begins.

Players reconvene at the end of October for the program’s lone trip, The Great Pumpkin Shootout in Minneapolis, another solid opportunity to make connections with coaches south of the border.

“What our goal is, is to get them to university, have some of their school paid for, give them the opportunity of a lifetime — and when they come back in four years, our goal is for them to give back to Manitoba lacrosse in some way,” Borisenko said.

Like many sports, lacrosse has experienced a boom in participation since the pandemic.

In October, the Manitoba Lacrosse Association said more than 1,800 players 22 and under participated in the sport in 2023, a boost from 2019 when 1,200 people across all age groups participated. The growth in female participation has been especially notable. In 2019, the MLA registered just 26 women across the entire province. It anticipates more than 400 registrants in 2024.

Much of that can be credited to more resources being available.

The Herd, a grassroots development program for women up to 19 years old that gained significant traction last summer, the women’s high school lacrosse league, which could field 12 schools this fall after having three just two years ago, and an all-girls box lacrosse league that began earlier this month, have helped boost participation numbers.

Winnipeg will also host the U19 women’s field lacrosse national championship at the Waverley Soccer Complex from Aug. 2-5.

Kaitlynn Anderson has had a front-row seat to the growth of the female game.

The 19-year-old, in her second year at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, an NCAA Division 1 program, remembers being warned by coaches that it would be difficult to be scouted as a Manitoban when she was coming up.

Now, she is one of 15 players Legends Lacrosse has helped reach a school south of the border in the last three years.

“Over the past two years, it has grown so much and I’m honestly so proud of our own province for being able to have all this growth,” Anderson said.

“My parents didn’t even know what lacrosse (entailed),” she continued. “Coming from that and now we had to go to Canada Games and play for Team Manitoba… it already grew so much from there, and that’s when me and my mom really thought we need better support and resources in Manitoba to not only help me and what I was going through but other people that are wanting to play lacrosse.”

Anderson will train with Legends Lacrosse, and also help coach the Oak Park Raiders’ and Team Manitoba’s women’s lacrosse team when she returns home for the summer.

She hopes to help make the path to a U.S. program easier for the next wave of female players.

“I think it’s been an amazing improvement but I do still think that there’s more room for improvement,” Anderson said. “Me being a resource and being able to come back in summer, and after the four years that I’ll do at UMass Lowell, there’s going to be another improvement.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam