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Iroquois Nationals Box Lacrosse Tryouts Video

The Iroquois Nationals box lacrosse team hosted open tryouts on Thursday and Friday of last week. There were plenty of hungry and talented players vying for a spot on the 2015 WILC team.

I flew up to Buffalo, NY, early Friday morning, hopped in a rental car and made the drive out to the Cattaraugus Community Center, which is run by the Seneca Nation.

Checking out the Iroquois Nationals box tryouts today!

A photo posted by Lacrosse All Stars (@laxallstars) on

The CCC is a pretty incredible building, as it hosts an indoor pool, basketball courts, a weight room, training rooms, meeting rooms, and much more.

Part of the “much more” is a full sized box lacrosse arena complete with locker rooms, elevated seating, a scoreboard, and awesome purple turf! I got out on the floor while filming (and I managed to shoot around a little too with some kids, which was fun!), and the turf is perfect. It’s soft on the knees, consistent for grip, and perfectly laid down. No bubbles or bunching at the CCC! It’s easily the nicest box lacrosse facility I’ve stepped foot in.

So much purple! Love it! #iroquois box tryouts! A photo posted by Lacrosse All Stars (@laxallstars) on

On Thursday, the Iroquois hosted an open run, where around 50-60 players got after it. 13 goalies were in attendance, and that is a preposterous number. Some national teams don’t get 13 defenders at open tryouts… so that really shows the depth of the Iroquois program today. There were still 6 or 7 goalies on Friday, and over 30 runners were still around for two more rounds of tryouts. The guys got after it in a series of drills and scrimmages, and while the intensity level was definitely there, it was also very clean lacrosse.

I got to speak with Rich and Darris Kilgour, two of the Iroquois coaches for 2015, and the two were really looking for 6-7 guys to make the squad. The Iroquois currently plan on keeping 30 guys around (including many of the stars currently playing MLL and SR A box lacrosse – the Thompsons, Sid Smith, Johnny Powless, etc) for a while, before making cuts down to the 20 man FIL roster later in the Summer. Even then, they may keep some alternates around until the latter stages of prep.

It was great to be able to speak with Oren Lyons, and I really enjoyed watching Gewas Schindler shoot around during a break with his young son. The youth clinic was also a blast, and it was so fun to see the little kids throwing their best box fakes on an adult goalie! There is some great stuff at the end of the video from the youth clinic, so make sure you watch it all the way through!

Iroquois Nationals Box Lacrosse Tryouts

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=URw6A7dWoXs” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/URw6A7dWoXs/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Iroquois Nationals – 2015 Open Tryouts”]

Thanks to the Iroquois Nationals players and staff for being so welcoming! We can’t wait for the WILC, this has only gotten me more excited! Make your plans NOW, buy tickets, and attend the WILC. It’s going to be magical!