Dan McDermott is adding to his international lacrosse resumé by playing for Team England at the inaugural European Box Lacrosse Championships in Finland.
The 14-team event, which is taking place in Turku and Kaarina, features eight countries in the top tier and the remaining six in the second flight. England has been seeded second and is in a round-robin group that includes Germany, Czech Republic and Finland. If all goes well, they will meet top seed Israel in the gold medal game July 15.
The Richmond native is among nine Canadians on England’s 26-player roster that includes his Ladner Pioneers’ teammates Nate and Sam Clare. He had no idea he was even eligible for the team until Nate approached him during an off-season workout.
“Danny was looking like an absolute beast in the gym and I could tell he was in for a big year,” recalled Nate. “I slipped it to him if he had English heritage and it turned out he had enough to make it work.
McDermott’s grandmother being English made him eligible to play for a second country on the world stage.
He played for Canada at the U19 World Field Lacrosse Championships back in 2012 which ironically also took place in Finland.
“It’s a real honour,” said the standout defender, who joined the Pioneers last season and already has been appointed an assistant captain. “I got to play for one of the top teams in the World and now one of the top in Europe. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Games in Turku will be played at the 12,000 seat Gatorade Centre that has hosted three World Hockey Championships and features Olympic size dimensions.
The tournament is taking place in the heart of the Pioneers’ season.
They have three regular season games remaining and entered this week with three-point lead over Langley for first place in West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association.
The hope is the team can remain in the top two positions of the league standings and earn an opening round bye in the playoffs. McDermott is slated to arrive back home on July 17. That would give him three days to recover from jet lag prior to the start of the semi-finals.
McDermott came through Richmond Lacrosse and the Burnaby Mountain Selects program before earning a scholarship to the New York Institute of Technology where he earned All-American honours.
Boxla bits…
Another Richmond Lacrosse product will be trying to close out his junior career with another league championship and Minto Cup appearance.
Nick Jensen was traded from the Delta Islanders to the Coquitlam Adanacs last week just prior to the B.C. Junior “A” Lacrosse League roster deadline.
It was Jensen’s game three overtime goal that ended the Adanacs’ seven-year reign as BCJALL champions to earn the Islanders their first-ever title last summer.
Delta (4-15-0) has struggled this season with a massive departure of graduated players.
