I'd wanted a traditional wooden men's lacrosse stick for a long time but they always seemed so expensive when I had the chance to pick up. The first time seeing them in action was in the 1994 World Championship in Manchester, it was crazy to see the Iroquois team bring out wooden defense sticks and take lumps out of their attackmen and the team had a small number of players who chose to use wooden sticks on attack too. There was the opportunity to buy these amazing crafted sticks in the vending village but they were highly sort after, low in numbers and priced so high that there was no way I was asking my parents to buy me one when we'd purchased the full event pass as a family.
In 1999 I was on the England U19 coaching staff that travelled to Adelaide, Australia. That was an extremally talented team and for those involved in lacrosse for the past 40 years still consider one of the best England teams, assembled during a period when there were 12 U19 teams regularly competing on a Sunday evening under the Timperley flood lights. We fell to the Iroquois who once again brought those woodies out on defense and you could not fail to be impressed with how players handled them. I tried hard to trade one the last day of the tournament but not a single player would part with one.
It was the 2006 World Games hosted by Canada and I was the head coach for Finland. We had an amazing tournament and beat some very good teams, losing only one game to the eventual champions team Canada, at a time where there was no live streams and any games that were filmed now look like the footage was filmed using a turnip. I have some incredible memories of that tournament. With every World Cup there comes a trading frenzy on the last day with players trading their team gear or clothing with players from different nations. Strangely one of the most sort after items from the tournament was the "baby blue" track suit worn by the Finnish team and I somehow managed to trade a wooden stick strung with a black mesh pocket with either a Bucktooth or Thompson, the last day was a bit of a blur after the final game as most players had sank a few beers at this point.
I had my first wooden stick, it was a Mitchell Brothers stick and things rapidly escalated to the point where I would spend time searching the internet for wooden lacrosse sticks. In near 20 years I have put together what might be the most impressive collection of traditional lacrosse sticks on the planet. Some of the earliest sticks date back to around 1850 and my collection has sticks from most of the master stick makers. There are still a few on my wish list and I could spend years trying to track them down.
Over the past 5 years I have enjoyed showing the community some of the collection on various social media channels. There are far more people out there collecting wood sticks than you'd think, to the point where trying to buy good vintage sticks in good condition is more and more difficult. As they became harder to track down it led me to start working on bringing some of the "forgotten" sticks back to life, the sticks that had been stored away, unused and sometimes unloved.
It has been hugely rewarding to bring so many of these sticks back to being playable. Some I've kept, there a number of them I have gifted to people and a few that I have sold. There is actually now an area on our website where you can buy reconditioned sticks that I have lovingly restored. This passion for old lacrosse sticks might only be something that someone would understand once throwing and catching with a well made wooden stick but I honestly think it can lead to a deeper connection to the game along with it's origins and rich history.
Ours is a special game unlike any other.