Native American player upset over McGill’s decision to cut lacrosse this season

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Isaiah Cree has had a lacrosse stick in hand since the day he was literally born.

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On the day of his birth, Cree’s great-grandfather gave him a wooden lacrosse stick that he had made by hand, engraving on it the baby’s name and date of birth.

“Ever since I was able to walk, I’ve had a lacrosse stick in my hand,” recalls Cree, 21, who grew up in the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation in upstate New York.

Cree was eager to continue his lifelong passion for lacrosse when he entered McGill University two years ago. Unfortunately, he was unable to play as a freshman due to an ACL tear in his knee, and McGill’s lacrosse season was eliminated last year, along with all college sports in Quebec, due to COVID-19.

Cree could understand that.

What he can’t understand is why he can’t play lacrosse for McGill this season.

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Lacrosse was one of nine sports McGill decided to cancel this season, affecting 15 teams (men and women). Nine sports (affecting 16 teams) were selected to compete, including basketball, soccer, hockey, rugby, soccer, swimming, track and field, volleyball, and cross country. The other eight sports that were cut, along with the lacrosse team, were baseball, golf, field hockey, badminton, rowing, downhill skiing, artistic swimming, and lumberjacks.

Most of the sports that were eliminated are Level 2 sports at McGill, which do not have full-time coaches and the same administrative and medical support as Level 1 teams, which have full-time paid coaches. The only Level 2 teams that were selected to compete were rugby, track and field, and cross country.

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“The pandemic has increased the level of care required for medical and general operations of all competitions,” said Geoffrey Phillips, McGill’s executive director of athletics and recreation, in an email in response to questions about the school’s decisions with regarding sports teams. “Consequently, we had to weigh several security concerns against the level of administrative oversight, including staff capacity, resource availability, travel restrictions, finances, medical requirements, and league governance structures for each. team. For example, teams participating outside of regional or national sports governing bodies (eg RSEQ, OUA or U SPORTS) presented far more challenges and were considered higher risk. “

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The lacrosse team competes in the Canadian College Field Lacrosse Association and had a perfect 10-0 record in the East Division in 2019 before losing in the semifinals of the national championship tournament. McGill’s team, which had five indigenous players on the roster in 2019, won two national championships, in 2012 and 2015. The 2021 CUFLA season began on September 18 with McGill as the only one of 14 teams not participating. The teams competing in the East Division this year are Bishop’s, Ottawa, Carleton and Queen’s.

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Cree said he and his teammates were in “complete shock” when they learned of a press release on July 21 about McGill’s decision to cancel lacrosse this season.

“I don’t mean to say lacrosse is better or anything,” Cree said in a telephone interview. “I feel like all sports should have a season this fall, but I don’t understand their way of choosing who played and who didn’t. It bothers me when teams like soccer are playing and struggling to have a winning record every year, but lacrosse, which just came out of a 10-0 regular season, was knocked out.

“I find it a bit ironic because McGill goes to great lengths to say that they want indigenous students, they want a large indigenous population,” added Cree. “But they cancel their most indigenous athletic team and probably McGill’s most diverse team. All the world at First Peoples’ House (where Cree lives on campus with other indigenous students) he’s quite upset with his decision. “

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Tim Murdoch is also very upset with McGill’s decision to cut lacrosse. He coached Team McGill from 2003 to 2019 before resigning, but remains in the Friends of McGill Lacrosse Advisory Council. Murdoch noted that The lacrosse team is largely self-financed by donations from alumni.. He added that the team’s financial accounts are frozen by the university and that new coach Nic Soubry no longer has an office or even an email address for McGill, making it nearly impossible to recruit future players.

“It’s Indigenous Awareness Week (September 13-24) at McGill and I keep coming back to that, ”Murdoch said in a Zoom interview. “It is very disturbing and I get very excited about it, I will try not to do it. But we work so hard as a group to be inclusive, we are so proud of our indigenous students / athletes.

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“Honestly, I see McGill lacrosse as a national example of indigenous inclusion,” Murdoch said. “This is a sport that has been around forever … long before John McGill came along, there was lacrosse.”

Sports Illustrated recently posted a daily Ben Pickman cover story online under the title: “As Lacrosse Moves Up, A Reckoning With Your Past.” History notes that in Canada, recent horrific discoveries of unmarked graves for indigenous children in former residential schools “have forced a humiliating conversation about the role of sport in the ‘cultural genocide’ against indigenous peoples.”

Pickman notes that lacrosse, a game invented 1,000 years ago by indigenous peoples, became an assimilation tool used in residential schools, “which is extraordinary,” said Allan Downey, associate professor at McMaster University of Hamilton and author of The creator’s game, which analyzes the formation of indigenous identities with regard to sport..

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“They (used) an indigenous element – an indigenous game that has deep connections to the epistemologies of indigenous peoples – and they (used) it to assimilate indigenous youth,” Downey told Pickman.

Murdoch said his personal goal at McGill was to build a lacrosse team that was about one-third Indian, one-third English, and one-third French.

Now, Murdoch is concerned about the survival of McGill’s team.

“Lacrosse is much more than a sport, especially for our indigenous players,” he said. “It is the national sport of Canada, along with hockey.”

Cree is majoring in international development at McGill and has one more year of college left after this.

“Hopefully I have a full season playing lacrosse at McGill,” he said.

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