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Germany Lacrosse Blog: Ruhrpott Pirates

Editor’s Note: Please welcome Thorben Fiswick to the LAS Network. Thorben is 21 years old, studying law and playing Lacrosse in Marburg, Germany. He had his first experience with Lacrosse when he was 16 while going to school in England. Fast forward two quick years and he is still very active in the game. In this short period of time he has truly fallen in love with lacrosse, met tons of great people people, made many new friends and had a lot of memorable experiences.

Check out all of Thorben’s contributions here.

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LAX-pirates are Boarding the German Ruhrgebiet

Lacrosse was not represented in the area of the Ruhrgebiet in Germany until 2009. Around Dr. Christian Späth, a small group of former players of other teams including Düsseldorf, Greifswald and Helsinki (Finland), founded the first lacrosse team in the Ruhrgebiet. The Ruhrpott Pirates.

First training sessions were very well received in April 2009 by students of the University of Essen. A home base wasn’t found for the Pirates in the beginning, so regular practice could only be carried out on different squares and parks around the city of Essen.

But soon afterwards the connection to the ETUF Essen was established, which benefited in well-structured training systems and facilities. So the first friendly match could take place on ETUF against the Red Rhinos from Belgium in August 2009.

In the same year, the men’s team participated in the league operating in the second German division and the ladies joined together in a gaming community with the people of Düsseldorf.

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As an ambassador of lacrosse, the Pirates are always trying to make this beautiful sport popular in Germany. As a result, the “Glück auf Cup” was born in 2010 as an established annual tournament withe teams and Players all over Europe. This year’s edition of the cup will take place on 20th to 21st July in Baldeney Essen.

Playing for the men’s team isn’t easy. With the loss of Coach Adam Marshall, who moved to Munich and could immediately celebrate the first German championship with the Munich team, a difficult time began for the Pirates. Several players left the team due to a change of study or profession. Now, a year and a half later, the structures have strengthened again with Ralph Rüppell as a skilled coach and three players committed to be integrated into the team from their own youth. So the base for the coming years is already set.

The aim of the Pirates is to strengthen the team of the regular players by adding their own youth players and players of the student program of the University of Essen-Duisburg and to establish themselves in the top half of the ranking. In addition, the Pirates support the newly formed teams of Dortmund and Duisburg to further Grow The Game in Germany.

We’d like to give a big thank you to Thorben Fiswick, who assisted us in implementing our idea here on the blog!

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