NEWS

The Iroquois Nationals Fall Ball Tourney would showcase and highlight the talents of indigenous athletes and to serve as a team selection tool for the World Lacrosse Championships in Denver this summer.

Gewas Schindler, 2014 General Manager said, “The 2013 1st Annual International Iroquois Nationals Fall Ball Tournament was truly a success. We were able to play 47 of our Haudenosaunee and Indigenous athletes that are committed to represent our people this July at the 2014 Men’s World Field Lacrosse Championships. This fall tournament gave us a chance to evaluate our players against a high level of play benefitting our program immensely.”

The numbers in the Iroquois Nationals’ player pool is small to the likes of other Blue Division countries, such as: United States, Canada, and Australia but it is the quality talent of the indigenous athlete which is firmly equitable to any lacrosse athlete in the world.

The 2-day tournament brought nearly fifty Haudenosaunee and Indigenous athletes from all over North America for these tryouts. This tournament is the first time these players have come together all season. Each individual player is vying for an Iroquois Nationals team position. The Iroquois Nationals are proud to play on behalf all indigenous peoples this summer at the WLC in Denver, Colorado, July 10-19th.

At the International Fall Ball Tourney, the Iroquois Nationals played two games with an additional 2 quarters of lacrosse, each quarter of game time represents a different line-up or combination of players on the field. In this type of lacrosse exhibition tournament there are no losers-no winners.

The first game of play was against Team Israel. The game was under the lights. A number of Iroquois Nationals alumni such as; Mike Thompson, Neal Powless, Ace Stout , Boss Bucktooth and several others, came to support and watch from experience lacrosse perspective the set and run-n-gun plays of the team. The game had plenty of lacrosse finesse and teamwork for the Iroquois Nationals and Team Israel. The Thompson boys, Lyle, Myles, Jeremy, and Jerome continued to showcase their smooth and seamless style of pass plays on the offensive end of the field for the Nationals. The official score was 0:0.

The Iroquois Nationals were looking forward to the next game of the tournament, a matchup against NCAA National Championship Team- Syracuse University. This was another game of finesse, teamwork, and special team combinations. For Iroquois Nationals this first quarter of the game played out offensively solid, dropping in 6 consecutive goals, as the Orangemen were also able to score. The next quarter of play – the Iroquois Nationals substituted a new line-up of defensive players; Marsh Abrams and Jesse Jimerson, and offensively Jeff Shattler, Brendan Bomberry, and Ty Thompson worked the entire field, adding another 4 goals. The Syracuse team worked equally up and down the field for 5 goals for this quarter. The second half, the teams working evenly with intensity as the clock served as the bona fide opponent. The Iroquois Nationals using a new squad of players each quarter substituting as many line-ups as time would allow. The face-offs, ball control, defense, and special teams combinations was an objective to these quarters of lacrosse play. The official score Iroquois Nationals 0: Syracuse University 0.

The last game of tournament play brought Sienna College to Cortland, New York. The game was exciting allowing the Iroquois Nationals to provide additional time for all line-ups for this first Fall Ball tournament. The game had plenty of lacrosse teamwork for the Iroquois Nationals and Sienna College. The official score was 0:0.

The exhibition games by Team Israel, Syracuse University, and Sienna College were excitingly fast, the extreme talents of a countless number of players was exhilarating, and at the close of the tourney there were lots of handshakes of camaraderie amongst players and enthusiasts, all setting up the ”must-see” lacrosse for this summer’s WLC competition in Denver , Colorado.

Iroquois Nationals Players: Jeff Shattler, Roger Vyse, Zack Miller, Junior Bucktooth, Jeremy Thompson, Seth Oakes, Joe Hall, Randy Staats, Mike Lazore, Mary Ward, Tyson Bomberry, Shane Francis, Travis Hill, Warren Hill, Vaughn Harris, Brenden Bomberry, Jeff White, Neal Hopps, Ty Thompson, Oakley Thomas, Grant Bucktooth, Jesse Jimerson, Rod Squire, Hank Delise, Frank Brown, Myles Thompson, Pete Jacobs, Myan Adams, James Cathers, Mike White, Spencer Lyons, Zack Hopps, Grant Bucktooth, Tom Montour, Jesse Jimerson, Lyle Thompson, Trey Adams, Drew Bucktooth, Isaiah Kicknosway, Anthony Patterson, Marty Ward, Billy O’Brien, Kyle Isaacs, Chris George, Adam Bomberry, Brett Bucktooth, Cody Jamieson, Sid Smith, Craig Point, Johnny Powless, Zed Williams, Kedoh Hill, and Quinn Powless.

The Iroquois Nationals have more lacrosse action- come to the Bow Hunter Lacrosse Cup this Saturday, October 12th at 8:00pm against the USA Developmental Team at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Six Nations.

Next month you can see the Iroquois Nationals versus Team Canada on November 17th at 8:00pm in the Belle Centre in Montreal, Canada and remember you are all invited to the 2015 WILC, September 18-26, 2015, hosted at the Tsha’hon’nonyen’dakhwa’ Arena at the Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, see 2015wilc.com.

Pull out your lacrosse calendar to pencil-in the “BowHunters” Oct.12th, “IN vs. TC” Nov 17th and “2014WLC” on July 10-19th, see you there.

Check out Iroquois Nationals.org, WILC2015.com, twitter-Iroquoisnatslax, and Facebook “Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse.” Done:toh.

Associated Press File Photo
Ron Cogan, left, and Marty Ward, second from left, join other members of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team in Battery Park, N.Y., in July 2010. The team has been on a wild roller-coaster ride for the past three years. It went from a top position in 2010 to the bottom, and then back somewhere near the top last week.

It took one day for a sports team to jump from last place in a league to the top.

That wasn’t a scene from a triumphant sports movie. It was the reality last week for the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team.

The team has been on a wild roller-coaster ride for the past three years. It went from a top position in 2010 to the bottom, and then back somewhere near the top last week.

It was reinstated June 13 in the elite Blue Division after a much-anticipated vote by members of the Federation of International Lacrosse.

Of the 28 member countries of the federation and the five-member board of directors, the Nationals “won by the appropriate two-thirds majority,” said federation president Stan Cockerton.

“Obviously, we feel great,” said Gewas Schindler, general manager of the Nationals, speaking from Six Nations. “We’re really excited to be in the Blue Division, the premier division. And we feel that we’re rightfully placed with the support of the countries and the membership.”

But why did they have to be reinstated from a demoted position? To answer that, you have to go back three years.

In July 2010, the Nationals were to compete in the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England.

But there were complications over the team’s Haudenosaunee passports.

Team members come from Haudenosaunee communities in Canada and the U.S. and play as their own country in international championships. Half of the team comes from Six Nations, Schindler said.

Before 2010, their passports were accepted when travelling abroad for lacrosse games, said Neal Powless, assistant director of the Native Student Program at Syracuse University and a former Nationals player.

“We’ve never travelled under an American or a Canadian passport,” Powless said. “When we went to Tokyo, we travelled under the Haudenosaunee passport, and to Turku, Finland, and, in 1994, I myself participated in the world championships in England and I used a Haudenosaunee passport.

“It didn’t make sense to travel on someone else’s passport and then compete under your own passport,” he added.

But, in July 2010, English and American officials didn’t consider the passports official. The team was left waiting at an airport in New York City while trying to negotiate a solution with British consular officials, according to Spectator files.

The team couldn’t enter England on its passports, it didn’t play in the championships and eventually it returned home.

The worst was yet to come. Cockerton explained that FIL “rules stated that you get seeded by the previous world championship. Because the Iroquois Nationals did not play in Manchester, they were seeded in the last spot. Which was 30th.”

For a Blue Division team accustomed to being ranked in the top six in the world, the demotion was devastating for the Nationals.

Sid Smith was on the team in 2010 when it tried to travel to Manchester. The 26-year-old defenceman from Six Nations said: “We tried so hard to get out there and then, hearing we were demoted, it was a bit of a slap in the face.”

The team appealed the decision to the FIL but, as Schindler said: “Three months later, they said ‘We haven’t changed our minds.’ So then we appealed a second time and we said we want this to be a membership vote of all the countries.”

The team reasoned that the passport issue was between the U.S. and England, and unrelated to lacrosse.

More importantly, Schindler said all the teams wanted to see the Nationals reinstated in the Blue Division: “Everyone in the world wants to see us play in the premier division. If we compete in the 30th position, we would be playing against competition far below our level and it would be very lopsided.”

While the FIL board of directors processed the second appeal, a petition in support of the Nationals was launched in late May on change.org. The petition, posted by Washington Stealth lacrosse team president David Takata, called for the restoration of the Nationals to the Blue Division, and garnered more than 7,000 signatures from around the world.

Speaking before the FIL’s decision on June 13, Schindler said the petition started because the fans wanted to watch fair and competitive matches: “They don’t want to watch us play in the 30th rank against competition that won’t be entertaining to anybody. With any sport, you turn your TV off if the score is too bad. And that’s why the petition is growing and growing.”

Postal voting closed June 10 and the result was made public June 13.

Cockerton said the results demonstrate the membership was ready for change: “The old rules wouldn’t have allowed them to participate in the Blue Division. We have to try to amend the rules and, whatever decision our committee comes up with, we can go back to the members to get them approved.”

Now that the Nationals are back in the Blue Division, they can start preparing for the next world championships in Denver in July 2014.

“We’re looking to pick this team,” Schindler said. “We’re looking to having those players in the best condition to represent our country so they can represent our people back home from the Haudenosaunee confederacy and also prove to the world that we belong in the Blue Division.”

MEDIA RELEASE

June 16, 2013

FIL ACCEPTED AS A MEMBER OF

INTERNATIONAL WORLD GAMES ASSOCIATION (IWGA)

Saint Petersburg (05/26/2013). The International World Games Association (IWGA) welcomed the Federation of International Lacrosse as one of the three new members to their Association. The delegates representing the 33 members of the IWGA voted in favor of admitting the FIL and the (IFF)-International Floorball Federation and the (IFMA)- International Muaythai Federation Amateur expanding their membership to 36 member federations.

Ron Froehlich, President IWGA welcomed the increase in IWGA membership. The IWGA is continuing to look for new sport federations to become a part of the international community of sport.

Tom Hayes-Director of FIL Development and Ron Balls Director of FIL Finance represented the FIL for President Stan Cockerton at the IWGA General Assembly. Tom and Ron made a presentation to IWGA delegates in support of our application that included a five minute film on lacrosse in the FIL. The film highlighted the rules of the game, action footage from events, and film from various clinics conducted from our newest countries. The film was enthusiastically received by the IWGA membership as some federations had not seen the game of lacrosse previously.

The admission to the IWGA makes the FIL eligible for the 10th World Games in Wroclaw, Poland in 2017. The IWGA quadrennial event includes multi-sports from the total membership and is formatted similar to the Olympics.

Tom Hayes, Director
FIL Development

tom.hayes@filacrosse.com

As Honorary Chairman of Iroquois National Lacrosse it is my duty and privilege to thank the national lacrosse teams and your organizations from around the world for your overwhelming support of the Haudenosaunee-Iroquois-the originators of this game.
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Press Release
Saskehah

Contact: Gewas@wilc2015.com
Bob Liff : bliff@mrss.com

“The Iroquois Nationals salute the Federation of International Lacrosse for respecting our role as founders and leaders of the sport of lacrosse. The close of the FIL Postal Ballot of June 10th is behind us, and for the future we look forward to our competitive participation with other national teams on and off the field in the Blue Division for the 2014 World Lacrosse Championships in Denver, Colorado.

The Iroquois Nationals extend a “Niawenha – Thank You” to all of our supporters, fans, and friends here and around the World. Done:toh.”

Skanonh – Peace,

Iroquois Nationals Board of Directors

Open letter to the FIL General Assembly,

On behalf of the Iroquois Nationals, I am reaching out to call upon you, the FIL General Assembly, to allow us to participate in the Blue Division at the upcoming 2014 World Lacrosse Championships in Denver, USA.

The standing of the Iroquois Nationals as a Blue Division Team is on the line. In February of 2013 the Iroquois were notified of a ruling handed down by the FIL Board of Directors. That ruling declared the Iroquois Nationals team could no longer compete at the Blue Division level based on the teams “non-appearance” at the 2010 FIL World Championships in Manchester, UK. The FIL Board of Directors is only 6 seats. Out of those six seats, only five vote on issues at hand. Those five voting seats are 3 from the United States, 1 from the UK and 1 Australian.
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