At this Summer's World Games England U-19's are entering a team in the Festival tournament running alongside the main event. This year that side will feature four new players who all play at the same club team. As previously mentioned in the Interview with Matt Bagley this represents the first international call-up for four Blues Lacrosse players, Ewan Willsmer, Lewis Arnold, James Kidd, and Ollie Barrett. One of the things we love best here in the Gamma Gamma Frat House is the growth of the game, so we thought it'd be prudent to catch up with Ewan Willsmer and Lewis Arnold and find out a little bit more. Read more after the jump.
Youth lacrosse development is a relatively hot topic of conversation in the UK game, with some arguing that not enough is being done to develop players from an early age, while others argue that the recent explosion in the game at the University level will eventually precipitate more development as players graduate, move to local clubs and hopefully begin to set-up development for younger players. Whoever is right, you can still find some shining examples of clubs with a great youth structure, who develop new laxers who can make an impact in their first team.
This year Blues Lacrosse Club were Southern Flags champions, and amongst their ranks were a plethora of players who have come through the junior ranks (kudos here to Croydon Lacrosse Club as well). Whilst not alone in following this recipe (also in the South we can think of East Grinstead, Hitchin, and Bath to name but a few) it's great to see 4 of these players who will be bearing the name England across their chest this summer.
TopJLax: You all currently play at Blues Lacrosse Club - how did you get involved in the sport, and what age did you pick it up?
Ewan Willsmer: I started playing at the age of 13 or 14 at a “lunch-time club” on a Friday at my secondary school, Woodcote High School. It was hardly lacrosse, throwing pop balls at each other with normal men’s sticks and trying to shoot the ball into a small orange hoop but it was good fun and it soon became routine for a Friday. The “club” was run, at the time, by the current blues LDO, George Buckley. A number of us soon realised we would like to take the sport a bit further and George started running afterschool sessions with us before Justin Baronowski and Amit Biswas suggested we went down to a Blues training session. There wasn’t a junior program at the time so it was a bit intimidating playing with the men. Being tall, I was given a longstick for my first session and game but very quickly decided running and scoring goals was more my thing.
Lewis Arnold: I was a late bloomer amongst my friends that play, when i first picked it up at 16. I remember seeing James Kidd and Ewan Willsmer walking around my old highschool with sticks. At first I thought it looked a bit strange but starting to watch lacrosse videos online in my free time and really wanted to give it a go.
TopJLax: How does the coaching work at the club?
EW: At Blues we don’t have an official coach but are very lucky to have England’s Matt Bagley running our sessions. He brings back the drills he has learnt with the national squad and mixes them into our training sessions. Our LDOs give individuals tips and areas they can work on as well as adding new drills to the sessions.
LA: As much as everyone despises getting yelled at by an always energetic American, it is very effective and gets us ready for games, as well as constantly improving our game.
TopJLax: What's your favourite lacrosse memory?
LA: It has to be when I travelled out to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to take part in a Lax camp along with Ewan, James and another member of my club Scott Sterling. It was such a great experience to play with great players our age and just to play in America in general, it was truely beneficial to my game and would leap on another opportunity to do it again. I would truely recommend this to any upcoming players.
EW: It’s going to sound a bit trivial but my favourite lacrosse memory was at the 2008 Southern Junior Flags at TASIS in Thorpe. We were playing the TASIS team, coached by Matt Bagley, in the semi-final and were one goal down with less than a minute to go. It was all getting a bit desperate until James Kidd ran through a couple of players to score the equalising goal lying on his back on the floor. I then took the faceoff with 15 seconds left, bringing the ball forward for a fast break and passing it to Chris Willson who buried the ball in the goal for the win. We then went on to win the tournament!
Ewan Willsmer: I started playing at the age of 13 or 14 at a “lunch-time club” on a Friday at my secondary school, Woodcote High School. It was hardly lacrosse, throwing pop balls at each other with normal men’s sticks and trying to shoot the ball into a small orange hoop but it was good fun and it soon became routine for a Friday. The “club” was run, at the time, by the current blues LDO, George Buckley. A number of us soon realised we would like to take the sport a bit further and George started running afterschool sessions with us before Justin Baronowski and Amit Biswas suggested we went down to a Blues training session. There wasn’t a junior program at the time so it was a bit intimidating playing with the men. Being tall, I was given a longstick for my first session and game but very quickly decided running and scoring goals was more my thing.
Lewis Arnold: I was a late bloomer amongst my friends that play, when i first picked it up at 16. I remember seeing James Kidd and Ewan Willsmer walking around my old highschool with sticks. At first I thought it looked a bit strange but starting to watch lacrosse videos online in my free time and really wanted to give it a go.
TopJLax: How does the coaching work at the club?
EW: At Blues we don’t have an official coach but are very lucky to have England’s Matt Bagley running our sessions. He brings back the drills he has learnt with the national squad and mixes them into our training sessions. Our LDOs give individuals tips and areas they can work on as well as adding new drills to the sessions.
LA: As much as everyone despises getting yelled at by an always energetic American, it is very effective and gets us ready for games, as well as constantly improving our game.
TopJLax: What's your favourite lacrosse memory?
LA: It has to be when I travelled out to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to take part in a Lax camp along with Ewan, James and another member of my club Scott Sterling. It was such a great experience to play with great players our age and just to play in America in general, it was truely beneficial to my game and would leap on another opportunity to do it again. I would truely recommend this to any upcoming players.
EW: It’s going to sound a bit trivial but my favourite lacrosse memory was at the 2008 Southern Junior Flags at TASIS in Thorpe. We were playing the TASIS team, coached by Matt Bagley, in the semi-final and were one goal down with less than a minute to go. It was all getting a bit desperate until James Kidd ran through a couple of players to score the equalising goal lying on his back on the floor. I then took the faceoff with 15 seconds left, bringing the ball forward for a fast break and passing it to Chris Willson who buried the ball in the goal for the win. We then went on to win the tournament!
TopJLax: You've all been selected to play for England U-19's at the tournament at this years world games...how did you get involved with that setup?
EW: To be honest I was not planning on trying out but the week before one of the trials, Matt Bagley sent us an email suggesting we tried out so on the day, we woke up at 4:45am and I drove us up to Manchester Uni for training at 9am. I thought I had done pretty well in the session and just kept my fingers crossed until I got an email when I was on my last day of college playing pub golf. It definitely made the night better.
TopJLax: What's the training routine like for the U-19's?
LA: Well we currently have training sessions lined up in Manchester prior to the World Games, and will probably be more difficult and technical then the trials themselves. Unfortunately as far as I know all training sessions will be held in or around the Manchester area, so there are more long journeys ahead.
TopJLax: Are you doing any personal training to help your game before the tournament?
LA: Not as much as i'd like to be doing! Unfortunately i'm going through my A-levels at the moment, as i'm sure many other of the team members are, so I can't go up to the Blues and hit the cage with my friends as much as usual. As soon as my exams end, the guys and I will definately be training together, which will usually just consist of a lot of 1v1 play.
EW: I am really busy at the moment with exams but I still try to get up to my old school where there is a good wall and a fence, to play wall ball and shoot at least once a week.
TopJLax: What do your school/college/uni mates think of you playing lacrosse?
EW: They really take it as though it were any other sport. People I have newly met sometimes laugh, taking the sport for the womens form of the game but start to get more and more interested when I explain the contact involved!
LA: The ones that don't play don't really seem to show interest in the sport. Unfortunately lacrosse isn't a well-known sport so it's hard to keep a conversation going to someone who doesn't know what you're speaking about, but when we invite some people up to watch games, they always seem to enjoy it!
TopJLax: What are the dreams/plans for the future?
EW: My biggest dream is of course to play full England at some point. The American college route didn’t work out because of the steep tuition and living fees but I definitely wouldn’t say no to a year or two in America if the opportunity arose.
LA: Definitely to play for England! Its a little late to start looking into American Colleges at my age, so i'm going to train hard to reach my goal with England.
TopJLax: Who's the toughest player you've played against and why?
EW: I can’t single out one player but it has to be some of the full England players up North when we go on tour. It’s hard work but it’s a challenge and it’s fun putting yourself up against the best players in the country.
TopJLax: What about the hardest team to play in the prem?
EW: In the Prem I would have to Hampstead. Seeing as most of them are American, they’re great players and you can never let up because they score in bunches, punishing you quickly. We always have physical games with EG due to the rivalry, on the field.
LA: It depends on the conditions of the game, such as Home/Away and what players they have.. during the end of the season we ended up having a really right game against Purley at their grounds.. it was tight throughout and we just about managed to pull of a one or two goal win. No team will have an easy season in the Premiership.
TopJLax: Finally, who's your favourite NCAA team/pro team?
EW: Even though they are doing terribly since Rabil left them, I have got to say that I am still a Johns Hopkins fan. The first lacrosse video I saw was a Kyle Harrison highlight reel, I’m sure everyone knows which one I’m talking about and well Hopkins just stuck from there. I’m not as keen on MLL and don’t really have a favourite team but it’s fun to watch for the highlights!
LA: In the NCAA it has to be Hopkins, purely because they were the first college team I watched, with players such as Kyle Harrison and Paul Rabil making it look easy. In the MLL I'd say the Boston Cannons, again because i saw them first and they have quality players all over the field.
TopJLax would like to thank the Boys from Blues for joining us for a chat about their Lacrosse experiences and would like to congratulate them all for their selection the the England U-19 Festival team. If you have any other stories of junior success in the UK please sound off below or write to articles@topjlax.com - laters
