A year 1n review > Douglas College women’s soccer 2017 Davie Wong Sports Editor eaded into the 2017 season, the Royals women’s soccer team had a point to prove. The surprise CCAA bronze medalists were looking to cement themselves as a perennial Nationals contender. With the Royals hosting the 2018 CCAA Soccer Championships, they have certainly had the spotlight on them this year. To be fair, they've performed very well. A 7-2-3 season with 23 points, capped off with their second PACWEST gold medal win in three years can only be described as success. The highlight of the regular season was a big 4-0 thrashing of the Langara Falcons. The lowlight comes at the hands of the same Falcons, when they defeated the Royals 1-0. In terms of awards, the Royals received their fair share. A Player of the Year award to Mikayla Hamilton was well earned. Sam Kell earned an All-Star call-up for her league leading 8 goals. Both also earned a CCAA He) dk Lacrosse: Aer bake Lol - Ks a Greg Waldock Staff Writer Our Ds being considerably less popular than hockey, lacrosse has somehow become a part of Canada’s national identity. The refrain “technically lacrosse is our national sport, not hockey” is a cliché passed down the ages, even though it’s never been the full official national sport. But how did this strange game become such a core part of the culture, and why is it so important to Canadians? The history of lacrosse is one that starts before Canada does, and takes a long route to where it is now. Though it was designated as our official summer sport in 1994, it has unofficially been the iconic Canadian game for much longer. In many ways lacrosse has been a summary of our history. It started All-Canadian awards. Michelle Wessa capped her career off with an All-Star award. Alexa Gazzola and Nicole Scott were the best goalkeeping pair in the PACWEST with an average of 0.9 goals per 90 minutes. Chris Laxton was once again robbed of the Head Coach of the Year award. But what’s new? His team has only finished with the best record in the PACWEST for three years straight, but obviously he must just have talented players. At National Championships, the Royals had a terribly tough draw. They made the most of it, nearly defeating the three-time defending national champions, but they would end up dropping into the bronze medal bracket before being defeated by the Algonquin Thunder. The team would end up fifth after defeating the GRPC Wolves. The squad would be the first to tell you how disappointed they are with the finish but this makes next year all that more exciting. After having a year of high-level competition under their belts, the Royals will be ready to push for a big finish at home next year. Hopefully as a game among Indigenous tribes around the Great Lakes. It existed in different forms between different Haudenosaunee groups who called it baggataway or tewaarathon, depending on who you asked and what variation they were playing. After the American Revolution and the forced migrations of Haudenosaunee people up the St. Lawrence River, it seems to have been picked up by local French Canadians and adopted as a sort of “common man sport.” By the mid-1800s it was regularly played across what is now Quebec and Ontario, enough for its first formal leagues to form and lacrosse to become a Canada-wide sensation. William George Beers, a Montreal dentist, wrote down the first rules for lacrosse and began to campaign for its status as national sport. When Canada turned from a colony to a Dominion, he claimed that head coach Chris Laxton can lock down the key players in his squad for at least another year. Alexa Gazzola is facing an interim in her career. After her second year with the Royals, the spunky goalkeeper is likely getting looks from U-Sports teams looking to add a talented keeper. Will she stay on another year for the National Championships? Only time will tell. Mikayla Hamilton will likely return after a huge year of growth from her. Captain Sam Kell will indefinitely be finishing her career with a big fficial sport? sport, from the Great Lakes to Vancouver Island au a aa Parliament made lacrosse the official game despite no record of Parliament doing so. Regardless, the rumour spread and some of it has stuck to the current day. Beers remained a passionate supporter of lacrosse until the day he died. By that point, lacrosse had formal teams, a founding father, a fake status as the official sport of the Dominion, and had begun drawing massive amounts of spectators. There was only one thing the game wasn’t ready for: The Irish Catholics. It’s important to remember that Canada in the late 1800s was not the Canada we live in today. The Catholic/ Protestant and Irish/English/French divide ran deep and bloody. Given that, it’s no surprise that when the Montreal Shamrocks entered the league in 1870s, they would be fighting a little more personally and roughly against teams with names like “Protestant Montreal.” Photo via CCAAsportACSC Flickr National Championship opportunity. Martina Pettenon, one of the standout rookies this year, will likely return to play a bigger role in the team next year. Preet Thandi, my selection for Royals Rookie of the Year, played a huge role for the Royals this year, and will likely continue to do so next year. The only question is who will fill in the spot left by Michelle Wessa. My guess is that we'll see Taylor Wettig slot into the role but, once again, only time will tell. What that means is that it will be a very exciting off-season for head coach Chris Laxton. Photo of Montreal Shamrocks via Wikimedia i 5 The Shamrocks shook up the league for over a decade, drawing in spectators with their violent clashes in the game and controversial attitude outside. The late 1800s were lacrosse’s halcyon days. This is the time during which the sport became engrained into Canadian identity. It spread by settlers moving across the west and, by the turn of the century, it was one of the few things that unified Canadians from Halifax to Victoria. Though the professional leagues would collapse by World War | and its fanbase diminished over the next century, lacrosse would remain a major influence on the sport cultures that would follow. It experienced a resurgence in the early 2000s and today grows as its Indigenous history is increasingly recognized and its importance to Canada is remembered.