Sometimes it’s outside the arena where it matters most and two guys making a difference right now are Rochester Knighthawks defender Brad Self and Calgary Roughnecks forward Shawn Evans. The Peterborough Ontario natives are the co-founders of Nationwide Lacrosse, a children’s camp they plan to take across Canada. Their motto is “Dream. Believe. Achieve” and they are hoping that each child who participates in their camp will not only reach their goals in lacrosse, but also in life. The camp is geared towards children ages 6-12 and it will teach the fundamentals of the game at a grassroots level.
Their intention for Nationwide Lacrosse is to start out by focusing on the smaller communities who don’t have access to the knowledge that these two professional athletes can bring. “We’re going to go to smaller communities who have lacrosse associations and we’re going to try and develop those players” Evans said. “Hopefully we do a good job with it and these kids or even these cities will go pro one day”.
Self told In Lacrosse We Trust that the idea for Nationwide Lacrosse started after they won the Mann Cup last summer with the Peterborough Lakers. “Shawny and I have been working at lacrosse camps for a long period of time and have helped out and instructed at other camps too. During the Mann Cup series last summer there was a high level of interest from out of town kids and people started getting in our ear that we should go off on our own and do our own camps. Shawny and I started talking and came up with the idea for Nationwide Lacrosse. We’re going to work on the fundamentals skills that we as pro players aren’t necessarily working everyday when we’re at practice”
Once the idea was in place the pair started sending out emails across the country to get a sense of people’s interest and the response was overwhelming. They received lots of feedback from association’s who said they would definitely be interested in helping the pair out and getting a camp set up in their city. “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. Shawny and I have been on the road trying to continue to get Nationwide Lacrosse going. We have eight camps booked, we have a Facebook page set up, a Twitter account, a Youtube channel and we’ll be updating things as we go” said Self. “We’re pretty excited to continue to grow the game at a grassroots level”
Evans and Self will be at every camp instructing and depending on the amount of kids registered they may bring in some special guests. All of their instructors will be world class athletes who share the same passion for the game as they do. “We want to bring on guys that are playing in the National Lacrosse League or in Peterborough with the Lakers. Or people that have high IQs in lacrosse and are great with kids. We want people who share the same passion that we do for the game and who want to see it grow like we do. Those are the type of people that we want and if they have those traits than we’re obviously open to bringing them on to help out” stated Self.
They already have several camps set up within Ontario but their ultimate goal is to go coast to coast with Nationwide Lacrosse. Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Alberta and Nova Scotia have also shown interest in having some type of camp in their provinces and the two superstars are hoping they can make that work. “To be able to get out to those places and see lacrosse grow and get it to the same level that hockey and some of these other sports are at would be amazing. To eventually have high level lacrosse players playing all over Canada would be great because it is our National sport and hopefully it continues to grow like it has been; not only here but in the United States and beyond” said Self.
Their first camp ran over the March Break with 47 excited participants and none of them left disappointed. They were taught the fundamentals of trapping, scooping, loose balls, passing, catching and they also worked of their defensive skills. “We’re teaching the kids every aspect of what they need to know when they play lacrosse” Evans said. “The kids who come to our camp will have so much fun and they’re going to learn a lot from us”.
Evans told us that the parents were very impressed with the inaugural camp and gave the pair lots of positive comments at the end of the week. “The feedback from the first camp has been great. We’ve had parents saying that their kids have learned more in one week than they did all last summer playing lacrosse for their first time. It’s good for us to hear that feedback; to know that they’re learning and getting better is a big thing for us”.
Watching the camp from the sidelines it was evident that Self and Evans share the same passion for lacrosse and are both eager to help kids hone their skills. The big difference with this camp is that they don’t just stand back and watch the drills; they are constantly giving pointers and are very hands on with their instruction. Nationwide Lacrosse is very unique in the sense that it gives kids the opportunity to learn from two of the best players in the world today. Whether you like to play defense or offense, anyone who participates in a Nationwide Lacrosse camp is going to walk away a better player and they will remember this experience for the rest of their lives
If you are interested in registering your child or bringing a Nationwide Lacrosse camp to your city, you can contact Brad Self or Shawn Evans by visiting NationwideLacrosse.ca.
