By Devan Mighton
Whenever you hear a local dignitary speak publicly, they usually start off with an ode to the Council of the Three Fires. They thank the three tribes of the Three Fires Confederacy, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi, the forebears of the land we call home here in Essex County.
For millennia, these people called this land home before the settlers came from across the seas. When they came to this land, early French explorers observed a fascinating sight. When tribes of this newfound land came into conflict, instead of fighting, they would sometimes come together as entire nations and compete in a battle-like sport they would call Tewaarathon, “the little war” in Mohawk, also known as Baggataway (Algonquin) or Kabocha-toli (Choctaw) to other tribes in the region. They called it the Medicine Game for its healing powers and the Creator’s Game as a gift from their creator, but the French dubbed it “La Crosse” due to the shape of the stick carried by each of the hundreds of warriors on the field.
Today, lacrosse is played around the world and in a variety of formats. Here in Windsor, we are represented by the Windsor Warlocks Minor Lacrosse Association and the Windsor Clippers Jr. B team, founded as the AKO Fratmen in 2003, in the popular Canadian variant of the sport known as indoor or box lacrosse. Box lacrosse is represented by a series of professional and senior leagues across North America, including the National Lacrosse League (NLL), Arena Lacrosse League (ALL), Major Series Lacrosse (MSL), and Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) at its highest echelons.
Box lacrosse broke away from what is known as field lacrosse in the early 1930s to provide tenants for hockey arenas in Canada during the summer months when there is no ice and quickly grew into a sport of its own. In the United States, field lacrosse (known just as lacrosse to them) is king. Their chief professional league is the popular Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) and many NCAA and ACHA colleges and universities have a varsity team for both men and women.
A former captain of the Windsor AKO Fratmen and four-year veteran of the Wheeling Jesuit NCAA lacrosse team has pledged to bring the outdoor version of “the fastest game on two feet” to Windsor-Essex with a new team—the MadMoose.
“I’m ready to give back to the local community,” says MadMoose head coach Trevor Veres. “We’re seeing a bunch of kids trying to go to the States and it’s costing them a lot of money—both the American profit-style, plus the tolls add up and the extra miles add up. There’s nothing really local, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to start something up here.”
Veres, with his wife Samantha, teamed up with a variety of local lacrosse parents, former players, and coaches to bring their MadMoose Lacrosse program to life.
“Our kids, Kayla and Ethan, really enjoyed playing it when they played it in the States and we really wanted to give that back to the community here,” explains Samantha.
“Right now, we’re offering box training for the Warlocks and it’s a blast,” adds Trevor. “We’ve played for the Warlocks, we coach the Warlocks, our kids play—and we want to make sure that we keep getting better. A lot of cities around the province are offering off-season training and Windsor didn’t have anything, so we’re offering off-season box training and we’ve started a travel field program that will be going to tournaments all throughout the US.”
The 2023 spring program, which started in February, features a 10U and 12U field lacrosse team that practices at the Fogolar Furlan in Windsor. After 10 weeks, they will sign off their season with a tournament in Edwardsburg, MI before making way for the beginning of the Windsor Warlocks summer box lacrosse season. The MadMoose plan on running a fall season, mirroring the US system, and hope to grow to up to a dozen age brackets with co-ed and girl’s options in the future. The organization is also planning team trips to see the NLL’s Toronto Rock and a variety of local college teams play.
Samantha is impressed by the growth she has seen in her daughter through lacrosse and wants to expand her horizons through the sport.
“The main thing that I’ve seen, especially with my daughter, is that it’s a big confidence builder,” she explains. “It really gives her a chance to play both co-ed or all-girls when she gets older—but it’s confidence—it’s becoming more firm within herself and being able to set better boundaries.”
Trevor adds that lacrosse is a sport for everybody and that, in the long run, it can further your education through NCAA scholarships.
“It’s just a great sport,” states Trevor. “You hear a lot of people say that it’s just training for hockey, but, at the end of the day, it’s a great sport on its own. You’re outside, you’re running around, and the scholarship opportunities in the States are growing every year—so it’s just another pathway for kids to further their education through sport.”
Samantha’s knowledge of the sport is through family ties. Her younger cousins, Kellen and Liam LeClair, graduated through the Warlocks system, played for the Clippers, and eventually made their way to the NLL, and are currently playing for the Buffalo Bandits and Calgary Roughnecks respectively.
Kellen, who helps out with the MadMoose on their box lacrosse nights, sees lacrosse as a wonderful crossover sport for those who want to develop their skills.
“For anyone, like hockey athletes or any other sport, lacrosse is an awesome sport to play,” explains Kellen. “For hockey, the skills crossover between the two sports so well, like hand-eye coordination, and you’re using a stick in a different way, but it translates really nicely and can give you, overall, better hand-eye coordination and situational awareness for different things that come up in hockey that you can implement from you’re lacrosse game.”
For Warlocks who want to get better at their sport for the upcoming summer box season, Kellen says that MadMoose is a great opportunity.
“For kids that are already playing lacrosse in the summer, I think it’s super-important to keep your stick in your hands throughout the winter, especially in a program like MadMoose,” he states. “We’re running a lot of stuff in just helmets and gloves and getting a ton of passing and catching going—that’s where you really get better, when you’re getting a lot of touches.”
“Practices like that, out-of-season, make a massive difference for once you’re actually playing games.”
Trevor and Samantha point out that there have been many helping hands in getting MadMoose started and getting the practices rolling, like University of Windsor director of athletic performance Chad Sutherland, former Wallaceburg Griffin Dave Douglas, former Fratman and Brampton Excelsiors scorer Jamie Pillon, volunteers John McRae and Vladimir Samoila, former Warlock and Wallaceburg Jr. B player Rain Whited, and former Fratman goalie Devan Mighton.
“It’s really bringing out a lot of the local community,” says Trevor. “They’re interested and everyone wants to see it grow. It’s great seeing all the positivity coming out here.”
“We’re trying to grow, trying to get people even with no previous lacrosse experience—anyone who’s interested in starting,” he adds. “You can come from soccer, you can come in from off the street even, it doesn’t matter at all. It’s a different sport, it’s a fun sport. If you’re athletic, if you’re interested in giving it a try—come on out!”
For more information on MadMoose Lacrosse, please follow them on Facebook and Instagram, or email them at madmooselacrosse@gmail.com.
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