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In
2005 lacrosse in Ireland
took a big step forward with the establishment of the first Irish college
lacrosse team, UCD Lacrosse. Through the guidance of Joe Caulfield and
Michael Kennedy, 50 college students were taught about a game which was
previously completely foreign to them.
After
some weeks the new club teamed up with Dublin Lacrosse to travel to
Frankfurt to take on the top team in Germany. For some of the
players it was the first competitive lacrosse game they had ever seen, let
alone played in. A night in the airport really helped the bonding process
along, solidifying the existence of UCD Lacrosse and guaranteeing it to
last for many years to come.
It
wasn’t until March 2006 that UCD teamed up with
Dublin to travel again. This time they
ventured to Amsterdam
to enter in the Lowlands Tournament. This was the biggest tournament that
the UCD players had ever been apart of. The combined team of UCD and Dublin finished an
impressive 4th in the tournament.
April
2006 saw a huge step forward for UCD Lacrosse. The team separated from
Dublin Lacrosse to enter their own team in Dublinfest. UCD had never played without the more
experienced players of Dublin yet still came
away with a win over York
University. Although
this was the only win the club saw through it was a massive success to be
able to field a UCD only team in the tournament.
In
July 2006 four UCD Lacrosse players travelled to
London, Ontario
to represent Team Ireland White in the World Lacrosse Festival. The team didn’t
see much success but the four players returned with a wealth of information
to pass on to those unable to travel to the tournament.
September
2006 rung in a new college year and a chance for UCD lacrosse to expand its
player base. A total of 115 players signed up for the club over twice as
many as the year before. The field used for training which was usually
sparsely populated was jam packed with people curious about the sport they
saw in American Pie or read about in Enid Blyton
books. It was a physical representation of how much the club had grown in
the previous 12 months.
The
new club members travelled to Berlin
in November 2006 to play a selection of German teams. This time the team
was without any Dublin
players, making it an all UCD trip/team. The club represented themselves
well and competed in every game. The girls’ team showed the biggest
improvement in both their numbers and their play.
The
DBLL (Dublin Box Lacrosse League) saw a lot of UCD Lacrosse players make a
big difference in the outcomes of the games. The league helped a lot of the
new players develop much faster than normal and got three of the UCD
players ready to represent Ireland
in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships in May 2007.
April
2007 brought along the second coming of Dublinfest
for UCD Lacrosse. Having played last year and not qualified for the
playoffs the team were hungry for victory. After a shaky first game, the
UCD men got their rhythm and started to win games. They reached the
semi-finals facing Munich.
On paper both teams were 100% evenly matched setting the up to be huge. It
wasn’t until midway through the third period of overtime that the game was
decided. Unfortunately for UCD the game went Munich’s way. The girl’s team also saw
huge improvements from the 2006 performance winning twice as many games as
before.
The 2007-2008 season was an outstanding year for
UCD Lacrosse. The men's and women's team traveled
to Bratislava & Vienna
for away games, hosted 7-game season series against Dublin Lacrosse, participated
in DublinFest with great success, and sent 15 UCD
players as representatives of Ireland
on the National Teams to the European Championships in Finland.
At the Euro's the Men's team came in 6th out of 18
teams, and the women finished 4th. A great showing for Irish Lacrosse and a
huge accomplishment for UCD Lacrosse.
The success of UCD Lacrosse will prove
invaluable to Irish Lacrosse over the coming years in both numbers and
performance in International competition.
The 2008-2009 review can be seen here
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