WESTERN'S DOXTATOR TO REPRESENT HAUDENOSAUNEE AT WORLD LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP
June 1, 2009
LONDON, Ont. - Lindsay Doxtator has been known to be seen on campus with a lacrosse stick more often than not. She's used to the odd glance she gets walking around with her "best friend", a stick dyed in Iroquois purple by pro star Delby Powless.
The peaceful, modest Western Mustangs varsity lacrosse player never imagined she'd be taking her stick and lacrosse gear across the world and representing a team comprised of the best aboriginal players from North America.
But Doxtator, 26, will be among the chosen few representing the Haudenosaunee, comprised of the very best women's lacrosse players from Iroquois nations in North America. What’s most special is that this is the first time a team has been assembled at the senior women's level for the Haudenosaunee, and the squad will compete in June at the 2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup in Prague, Czech Republic.
She is one of the first two Canadian-trained varsity women's lacrosse players to play on the Haudenosaunee team. It's a rarity - the Canadian and U.S. rosters don't have any OUA women's lacrosse players representing them.
With two part-time jobs and full-time schooling, Doxtator has had to budget her time well to be able to make the long trips for tryouts. What's even more special with her selection is that Doxtator has only been playing field lacrosse for three years, perfecting her game through constant questioning and "playing a lot of wall-ball."
Perhaps it's a sign of things to come for collegiate women's lacrosse players competing in Canada. The OUA women's lacrosse league is improving every year with better talent, coaching and larger player pools from growing high school leagues - it's an indicator of the raw talent north of the 49th in women's lacrosse.
Doxtator has only been playing lacrosse for eight years which makes her journey to the world championships that much more special.
Without a team to play for in Oneida, Doxtator had to develop her game at Western and in the competitive summer league playing out of Six Nations in Ohsweken, Ont., over an hour away.
Originally, Doxtator came to Western without visions of even playing varsity lacrosse, joining the women's hockey team first instead.
By her second year, she was recruited by former Mustangs women's lacrosse coach Craig Windley to play field lacrosse. She's now a vital part of the Dave Hastings coached Mustangs squad.
Hastings describes Doxtator as "a very modest person."
"She has all the tools of a great lacrosse player," Hastings said. "Lindsay has excellent vision on the field that enables her to make great feeds and take the ball to the net when the opportunity is there. We (the team and coaching staff) are very excited and supportive to see Lindsay playing at the World Championships."
"The experience she will gain and share with her Western Mustangs teammates will make her a player to watch for in the OUA 2009 season, and I expect to her to bring a very aggressive approach to the attack position."
"When you play against the best you always get better," Hastings said. "Lindsay finished in the Top 20 in OUA scoring playing in only two-thirds of season (missing the other third of the season away for Haudenosaunee tryouts)."
Doxtator said she feels fortunate to have developed quickly, adapting her skills from a few years of exposure to women's box lacrosse in Southwestern Ontario.
"I had very little exposure to field lacrosse, I learned the women's game just coming to practice at Western," Doxtator admits. "Craig (Windley) didn't want to tell me the rules, he just wanted to see what I could do and what I could get away with."
"I really have to credit the girls who helped me early on - Julia Dawkins, Melissa Kandola, Kristen Smart, Summer Windley - they helped me a lot."
She's continued to develop through training sessions with her new teammates with the Haudenosaunee squad.
"(New field lacrosse) players who have played box lacrosse before are able to learn (the field game) quicker, as the game correlates to the field game in many ways," said John Sung, head coach of Haudenosaunee team and head coach at Adrian College, a Division 3 NCAA school in Michigan, said Doxtator's attitude is what stands out the most.
"Lindsay's determination to get better and will to be a part of this team was noticed," Sung said. "At every training camp and tryout, she continually pushed herself."
"Her attitude is great. She's a great kid who is willing to do anything for the program."
Sung said Doxtator, who he describes as a dynamic player who will attack from the side of the net, will play a roll as a facilitator and set-up player on the field.
"She's one of those kids who have that set of skills and they are used to playing in tighter quarters. It allows them to be more creative and to be able to play with more ease," Sung said. "She seems like she is always the last one to leave the practice field and that speaks a lot of about her character."
Doxtator, who will be one of six to eight attack players on the team, is a right hand shot and will play with Six Nations product and fellow Canadian Awehiyo Thomas from Syracuse University up front. As probably the 'rawest' player on the team in terms of experience, Doxtator said she always asks questions to help her learn.
"I'm always learning something new, asking a lot of questions. I felt like I was always being a pest, asking 'what can I do, what can I get away with'," Doxtator said. "I feel like I've been under the radar the whole time."
Being a student-athlete has helped Doxtator to be successful off the field, too.
"It's been very important for me to be a student-athlete," Doxtator said. "I always have to be doing something. I like to multitask. Sport has helped me to stay on time and to be focused. It's helped me to develop mental strength and to be a leader."
With a degree in photography already under her belt from Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont., Doxtator is now studying in Western's Faculty of Health Sciences and works at the exercise and pregnancy lab with Dr. Michelle Mottola and as a peer mentor with the CAMH (Canadian Association of Mental Health) Centre for Prevention Science.
Entering her fifth year, Doxtator feels very lucky to have the opportunity to represent her school, her hometown and her people in Prague.
"I wouldn't believe it if you'd told me I'd be playing (in the 2009 world championship)," Doxtator said. "I still don't believe it. It's actually pretty ridiculous."
A multi-sport athlete who has played in many different organized sports leagues, Doxtator said it was a surreal feeling being on the field with "some of the best players in the whole world" at the Stars and Stripes tournament in Syracuse, New York, at an identification camp for the Haudenosaunee team.
She said at the last camp in North Carolina, the players told they'd be contacted. After seeing other players write on Facebook about being selected, Doxtator was not sure if she would get a spot.
"It was so nerve-wracking," she said. "I waited and waited. The next night, I heard the phone ring and thought 'oh my God, this is it'. It was a great feeling to hear I was on the team."
Very humble, Doxtator is pretty shy when it comes to her new-found fame. Her mother Carolyn and brother Gordie will be in Prague to cheer her on.
"My family has been very supportive," she said. "It's very important to have someone there to acknowledge what you're doing, to acknowledge that you're learning and developing at a good speed."
"I'm not one to boast about my accomplishments," Doxtator said quietly when asked about added recognition since her spot on the roster was announced. "We had a lacrosse day in the (Oneida) community with pro players and trying to get kids into the game. The Prague trip news had just come out, it was a pretty cool experience."
While the Haudenosaunee team is not a favourite for the tournament - usually dominated by Australia and the U.S. - Doxtator feels her team will surprise a lot of people.
"We're a quiet group, not yelling and barking orders. We're just calm and have the intuition of what needs to be done."
"This is our first run at it, and our biggest goal is to win our group in Pool C this year with Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Ireland and Korea," Sung said. "Anything else is after that is butter on the bread."
"In the future this team is going to be a tremendous group and one to watch in the world game in the future."
Doxtator hopes to be part of future teams as well. With sporting experience already in the Czech Republic, Doxtator travelled to Prague in 2005 with a select group of the top Canadian women's hockey players, and she will be a leader in helping the team understand the different culture and lifestyle in Prague.
Her experience overseas will help the team to prepare for the intangibles involved with travelling to a new country.
"Everyone was given an assignment after being named to the team to research one aspect of Prague. Mine was transportation," Doxtator said with a chuckle, and a slight roll in her eyes, before the discussion turned to the complexity of travelling into Prague.
A part of First Nations culture and one of Canada's national sports, Doxtator suspects she will look back at this trip and experience as a life-changing experience.
"Lacrosse is my top priority, neck and neck with school," she said. "Going to compete, playing lacrosse, it feels like it's a part of me. It's a part of our heritage, a part of our culture. There's a lot of pride here."
"This is something I hope to continue doing, that others will continue, my kids one day maybe even," Doxtator said. "I'm speechless."
Doxtator's trip is not a cheap one. As women's lacrosse in many ways is still at the grassroots level in fund-raising and sponsorship dollars, Doxtator has to foot most of the bill, with help so far from family and community fund-raising, sponsorship from the Oneida Band Council, and notice from the Aboriginal Sport Circle that they too will be sponsoring her.
Any donations to assist her on her trip can be made by emailing her at ldoxtato@uwo.ca. Donations to the team in general can be made by sending cheques to:
Haudenosaunee Nation Women's Lacrosse / P.O. Box 793 / Ohsweken, Ont. / N0A 1M0 / hnwl@live.ca
Doxtator wanted to thank her teammates and past coaches and family for their support during her career to date at Western. She will return with international experience to the purple and white when the 2009 season resumes in September.
ABOUT THE 2009 WOMEN'S LACROSSE WORLD CUP
The 2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup, which will be the eighth World Cup played, is the pre-eminent international women's lacrosse tournament. The tournament will be held at SK Slavia Praha Sport Centre in Prague, Czech Republic, from June 17-27.
Sixteen teams, the most ever, will compete in the 2009 World Cup tournament. New entries include: Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, Korea and the Netherlands. The Haudenosaunee will be the first team of women to represent the indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Women's World Cup. Lacrosse is seen as a sacred sport to the Iroquois and was traditionally a sport reserved for only men. In earlier tournaments, clan mothers protested the women's team playing the sacred sport and threatened to lay down on the field to prevent them from playing.
The tournament will also see the return of defending gold medal winner's Australia, as well as Canada, England, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, the United States, Wales and the host Czech Republic.
Teams have been split into three separate pools. Pool A (Australia, United States, England, Canada, and Japan) and Pool B (Wales, Scotland, Czech Republic, Germany and New Zealand) will play round robins games against each team in their pool to determine seeding for the quarter-finals.
Pool C (Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, Korea and the Netherlands) will play in two mini-pools to determine who will advance to the next round of play. The quarter-finals will be followed up by consolation games, the semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.
For more information, visit www.lacrosseworldcup2009.com
Source: Western Mustangs
Photo Credit: Craig Glover
The peaceful, modest Western Mustangs varsity lacrosse player never imagined she'd be taking her stick and lacrosse gear across the world and representing a team comprised of the best aboriginal players from North America.
But Doxtator, 26, will be among the chosen few representing the Haudenosaunee, comprised of the very best women's lacrosse players from Iroquois nations in North America. What’s most special is that this is the first time a team has been assembled at the senior women's level for the Haudenosaunee, and the squad will compete in June at the 2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup in Prague, Czech Republic.
She is one of the first two Canadian-trained varsity women's lacrosse players to play on the Haudenosaunee team. It's a rarity - the Canadian and U.S. rosters don't have any OUA women's lacrosse players representing them.
With two part-time jobs and full-time schooling, Doxtator has had to budget her time well to be able to make the long trips for tryouts. What's even more special with her selection is that Doxtator has only been playing field lacrosse for three years, perfecting her game through constant questioning and "playing a lot of wall-ball."
Perhaps it's a sign of things to come for collegiate women's lacrosse players competing in Canada. The OUA women's lacrosse league is improving every year with better talent, coaching and larger player pools from growing high school leagues - it's an indicator of the raw talent north of the 49th in women's lacrosse.
Doxtator has only been playing lacrosse for eight years which makes her journey to the world championships that much more special.
Without a team to play for in Oneida, Doxtator had to develop her game at Western and in the competitive summer league playing out of Six Nations in Ohsweken, Ont., over an hour away.
Originally, Doxtator came to Western without visions of even playing varsity lacrosse, joining the women's hockey team first instead.
By her second year, she was recruited by former Mustangs women's lacrosse coach Craig Windley to play field lacrosse. She's now a vital part of the Dave Hastings coached Mustangs squad.
Hastings describes Doxtator as "a very modest person."
"She has all the tools of a great lacrosse player," Hastings said. "Lindsay has excellent vision on the field that enables her to make great feeds and take the ball to the net when the opportunity is there. We (the team and coaching staff) are very excited and supportive to see Lindsay playing at the World Championships."
"The experience she will gain and share with her Western Mustangs teammates will make her a player to watch for in the OUA 2009 season, and I expect to her to bring a very aggressive approach to the attack position."
"When you play against the best you always get better," Hastings said. "Lindsay finished in the Top 20 in OUA scoring playing in only two-thirds of season (missing the other third of the season away for Haudenosaunee tryouts)."
Doxtator said she feels fortunate to have developed quickly, adapting her skills from a few years of exposure to women's box lacrosse in Southwestern Ontario.
"I had very little exposure to field lacrosse, I learned the women's game just coming to practice at Western," Doxtator admits. "Craig (Windley) didn't want to tell me the rules, he just wanted to see what I could do and what I could get away with."
"I really have to credit the girls who helped me early on - Julia Dawkins, Melissa Kandola, Kristen Smart, Summer Windley - they helped me a lot."
She's continued to develop through training sessions with her new teammates with the Haudenosaunee squad.
"(New field lacrosse) players who have played box lacrosse before are able to learn (the field game) quicker, as the game correlates to the field game in many ways," said John Sung, head coach of Haudenosaunee team and head coach at Adrian College, a Division 3 NCAA school in Michigan, said Doxtator's attitude is what stands out the most.
"Lindsay's determination to get better and will to be a part of this team was noticed," Sung said. "At every training camp and tryout, she continually pushed herself."
"Her attitude is great. She's a great kid who is willing to do anything for the program."
Sung said Doxtator, who he describes as a dynamic player who will attack from the side of the net, will play a roll as a facilitator and set-up player on the field.
"She's one of those kids who have that set of skills and they are used to playing in tighter quarters. It allows them to be more creative and to be able to play with more ease," Sung said. "She seems like she is always the last one to leave the practice field and that speaks a lot of about her character."
Doxtator, who will be one of six to eight attack players on the team, is a right hand shot and will play with Six Nations product and fellow Canadian Awehiyo Thomas from Syracuse University up front. As probably the 'rawest' player on the team in terms of experience, Doxtator said she always asks questions to help her learn.
"I'm always learning something new, asking a lot of questions. I felt like I was always being a pest, asking 'what can I do, what can I get away with'," Doxtator said. "I feel like I've been under the radar the whole time."
Being a student-athlete has helped Doxtator to be successful off the field, too.
"It's been very important for me to be a student-athlete," Doxtator said. "I always have to be doing something. I like to multitask. Sport has helped me to stay on time and to be focused. It's helped me to develop mental strength and to be a leader."
With a degree in photography already under her belt from Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont., Doxtator is now studying in Western's Faculty of Health Sciences and works at the exercise and pregnancy lab with Dr. Michelle Mottola and as a peer mentor with the CAMH (Canadian Association of Mental Health) Centre for Prevention Science.
Entering her fifth year, Doxtator feels very lucky to have the opportunity to represent her school, her hometown and her people in Prague.
"I wouldn't believe it if you'd told me I'd be playing (in the 2009 world championship)," Doxtator said. "I still don't believe it. It's actually pretty ridiculous."
A multi-sport athlete who has played in many different organized sports leagues, Doxtator said it was a surreal feeling being on the field with "some of the best players in the whole world" at the Stars and Stripes tournament in Syracuse, New York, at an identification camp for the Haudenosaunee team.
She said at the last camp in North Carolina, the players told they'd be contacted. After seeing other players write on Facebook about being selected, Doxtator was not sure if she would get a spot.
"It was so nerve-wracking," she said. "I waited and waited. The next night, I heard the phone ring and thought 'oh my God, this is it'. It was a great feeling to hear I was on the team."
Very humble, Doxtator is pretty shy when it comes to her new-found fame. Her mother Carolyn and brother Gordie will be in Prague to cheer her on.
"My family has been very supportive," she said. "It's very important to have someone there to acknowledge what you're doing, to acknowledge that you're learning and developing at a good speed."
"I'm not one to boast about my accomplishments," Doxtator said quietly when asked about added recognition since her spot on the roster was announced. "We had a lacrosse day in the (Oneida) community with pro players and trying to get kids into the game. The Prague trip news had just come out, it was a pretty cool experience."
While the Haudenosaunee team is not a favourite for the tournament - usually dominated by Australia and the U.S. - Doxtator feels her team will surprise a lot of people.
"We're a quiet group, not yelling and barking orders. We're just calm and have the intuition of what needs to be done."
"This is our first run at it, and our biggest goal is to win our group in Pool C this year with Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Ireland and Korea," Sung said. "Anything else is after that is butter on the bread."
"In the future this team is going to be a tremendous group and one to watch in the world game in the future."
Doxtator hopes to be part of future teams as well. With sporting experience already in the Czech Republic, Doxtator travelled to Prague in 2005 with a select group of the top Canadian women's hockey players, and she will be a leader in helping the team understand the different culture and lifestyle in Prague.
Her experience overseas will help the team to prepare for the intangibles involved with travelling to a new country.
"Everyone was given an assignment after being named to the team to research one aspect of Prague. Mine was transportation," Doxtator said with a chuckle, and a slight roll in her eyes, before the discussion turned to the complexity of travelling into Prague.
A part of First Nations culture and one of Canada's national sports, Doxtator suspects she will look back at this trip and experience as a life-changing experience.
"Lacrosse is my top priority, neck and neck with school," she said. "Going to compete, playing lacrosse, it feels like it's a part of me. It's a part of our heritage, a part of our culture. There's a lot of pride here."
"This is something I hope to continue doing, that others will continue, my kids one day maybe even," Doxtator said. "I'm speechless."
Doxtator's trip is not a cheap one. As women's lacrosse in many ways is still at the grassroots level in fund-raising and sponsorship dollars, Doxtator has to foot most of the bill, with help so far from family and community fund-raising, sponsorship from the Oneida Band Council, and notice from the Aboriginal Sport Circle that they too will be sponsoring her.
Any donations to assist her on her trip can be made by emailing her at ldoxtato@uwo.ca. Donations to the team in general can be made by sending cheques to:
Haudenosaunee Nation Women's Lacrosse / P.O. Box 793 / Ohsweken, Ont. / N0A 1M0 / hnwl@live.ca
Doxtator wanted to thank her teammates and past coaches and family for their support during her career to date at Western. She will return with international experience to the purple and white when the 2009 season resumes in September.
ABOUT THE 2009 WOMEN'S LACROSSE WORLD CUP
The 2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup, which will be the eighth World Cup played, is the pre-eminent international women's lacrosse tournament. The tournament will be held at SK Slavia Praha Sport Centre in Prague, Czech Republic, from June 17-27.
Sixteen teams, the most ever, will compete in the 2009 World Cup tournament. New entries include: Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, Korea and the Netherlands. The Haudenosaunee will be the first team of women to represent the indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Women's World Cup. Lacrosse is seen as a sacred sport to the Iroquois and was traditionally a sport reserved for only men. In earlier tournaments, clan mothers protested the women's team playing the sacred sport and threatened to lay down on the field to prevent them from playing.
The tournament will also see the return of defending gold medal winner's Australia, as well as Canada, England, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, the United States, Wales and the host Czech Republic.
Teams have been split into three separate pools. Pool A (Australia, United States, England, Canada, and Japan) and Pool B (Wales, Scotland, Czech Republic, Germany and New Zealand) will play round robins games against each team in their pool to determine seeding for the quarter-finals.
Pool C (Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, Korea and the Netherlands) will play in two mini-pools to determine who will advance to the next round of play. The quarter-finals will be followed up by consolation games, the semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.
For more information, visit www.lacrosseworldcup2009.com
Source: Western Mustangs
Photo Credit: Craig Glover