Grow the Game®

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp

UPDATED: Team USA Backs Out Of Bowhunter Cup

This is the news we didn’t want to hear: Team USA Backs Out Of Bowhunter Cup.

UPDATE: Team USA Backing Out of the Bowhunter Cup may be a misleading title… according to a source close to the action, “US Lacrosse has had no direct connection with the Bowhunter Cup. Since the decision has only recently been made that US Lacrosse will sponsor and field a team for the FIL World Indoor Championship in 2015, there have not been any discussions between US Lacrosse administrators and Bowhunter Cup organizers.”

Well that’s interesting! Maybe the US team NEVER planned on going? Or maybe something got lost in communication? Whatever the reason, my feeling is that three weeks (that’s how long USL has been involved in this team) was not enough time to put together a true national team and do it right.

Over on the Iroquios Nationals site, IroquoisNationals.org, it is being reported that Team USA has withdrawn from the Bowhunter Cup. For the last couple of years, the Bowhunter has pitted Team USA’s box lacrosse squad against the Iroquois Nationals, and while the Nationals hold a strong record in the contests, Team USA has usually put forth a pretty solid team and represented themselves well. This year, there is no Team USA… so the event is cancelled, right?

Wrong.

This year’s Bowhunter Cup will go on, and instead of featuring two national teams, this game will instead showcase the best Haudensaunee players, and they will be divided into two teams. The fans will still get to witness a great game, and it should be an awesome and lively show in Buffalo.

The big issue here, at least to me, is that Team USA withdrew from the event less than a week before the game was supposed to be played. This just doesn’t look good for anyone. Maybe there is a good reason for the withdrawal, and we have a request in with US Lacrosse for a quote and more information.

At the end of the day, US Lacrosse was in a tough spot having only taken over this team a couple of months ago. Putting together a quality staff for the WILC 2015 was done rapidly… but perhaps putting together an actual team proved a little harder.

My hope is that US Lacrosse uses this moment to readdress how they approach box lacrosse. Admit a mistake was made, and tell us that things will change moving forward. Then, make those changes happen! We put a lot of effort into making sure our national field teams get taken care of, and it’s time to start treating box lacrosse the same way.

USL has not been running the box show for that long, so I am NOT going to blast them for this misstep, but now we know that things need to be done better, and prioritized more, and that’s a good place to start.

Good luck to all the Haudensaunee players taking part in the Bowhunter Cup this weekend! And good luck to US Lacrosse as they get our national box lacrosse team moving again.