COMMERCE CITY — Between the auxiliary fields and the stadium at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, massive tents house convention-type booths at the World Lacrosse Championship. Everything about the game is supplied, sold or sponsored. It’s a smorgasbord of lacrosse.
What’s missing is a lesson on the birth of the game — and the value of single-piece wooden lacrosse sticks produced by its founding people. These sticks, made of shagbark hickory, and cowhide and leather tongs from the Onondaga Nation of New York, are deemed legal by the Federation of International Lacrosse but seemingly frowned upon by its referees.
“They are a red flag,” said Alf Jacques, an Onondaga stick maker who produces 160-180 per year. “We’ve seen it: (An Iroquois) guy is defending, the referee is looking right at him and is throwing the flag before he hits the guy. He’s calling a slashing penalty because he’s got a wood stick.”
Jacques’ pole sticks used by defensemen weigh 3.25 to 4 pounds. A same-size, mass-produced composite stick (shaft and head) is approximately half a pound. The heavier, solid-wood stick causes pain that the hollow, composite stick does not — even though the action (slash) is the same.
Iroquois defenseman Kevin Bucktooth switched to the composite stick after taking three penalties in Sunday’s 9-8 loss to Canada. The Iroquois committed 13 penalties, the Canadians eight. Iroquois will get a rematch against Canada in Thursday night’s semifinals after beating Scotland 10-8 on Wednesday.
Bucktooth said his coach, Steve Beville, asked for him to go with the lighter stick and avoid what has been a lightning rod of attention. Teammates Travis Hill and Adam Bomberry also have Jacques-made sticks but aren’t using them.
“I don’t think I would get much playing time if I used it, but I feel I’m more of a threat with a wooden stick. You can just see it in the other team,” Bucktooth said. “When the ball swings around to your man, they never come in one-on-one. They’ll swing around the other way. No one wants to get hit, especially by one like this.”
Putting the wood sticks away didn’t result in fewer penalties Tuesday in a 18-5 loss to the United States. Iroquois committed three times as many penalties (nine) as the Americans. The loss dropped Iroquois to 3-2 and the No. 3 playoff seed at the time in the six-team Blue Division.
“They’re calling everything we do, with or without the woodies,” a frustrated Bucktooth said after the loss to the U.S. “After the first couple games, it seems like the refs called everything, anything — every little thing. I guess there is controversy over the wooden stick. They don’t want it, and that speaks for itself. And then we go and get calls when we aren’t playing with them.”
U.S. attackman Rob Pannell said he was thankful the Iroquois didn’t use the heavy artillery that is outlawed by the NCAA and most high school and club organizations. The former Cornell star scored seven goals.
“I wasn’t looking forward to getting whacked by them, but it’s part of the game,” Pannell said. “It’s their tradition, and they’ve been using them for world games in the past, and for years, so I was indifferent about whether they would use them. “If you’re out getting hit by them, it’s a lot different than people on the outside saying that they should be able to use them. It’s very painful.
“Even one of their defenseman told me, it’s a lot easier, a lot lighter playing with one of these (composites), because it’s about 10 times lighter. But you have to respect their tradition, respect them as a team. I was ready to play whether they we’re going to bring them out or not. I’m lucky they didn’t.”
Jerome Thompson Sr. is an Iroquois assistant coach who has four sons playing on the team. Miles and Lyle Thompson of the University at Albany shared the Tewaaraton Award as college lacrosse’s player of the year in May, and Jeremy and Jerome Jr. are their older brothers.
The boys received wooden sticks as babies.
“The relationship between the tree and the earth is part of our significance,” Thompson Sr. said. “When my boys could pick up a ball, I didn’t give them a choice. It made it easier — maybe five times easier — when they first picked up a (composite) stick. I wanted to keep (the wooden stick) alive as long as possible.”
Paul Schlange of New Hampshire-based Bar Down Lacrosse has a booth at the world tournament and sells a handful of different wooden shafts. They are much lighter than Jacques’ sticks and require a lightweight plastic head.
The average weight of one of Schlange’s wooden short-stick shafts is 8.5 ounces, compared with 5 ounces for a composite.
“Wood sticks have picked up in sales over the last couple years, probably because of the Thompson brothers,” Schlange said. “And wood is more of a challenge and brings out individual style. Composite is so run-of-the-mill.”
Jacques, who has been making sticks for Iroquois Nation for 52 years, said he does not want anyone to mass produce his sticks, because “in two years there would be no hickory trees, with all the players now.”
“For a good hickory log, it would probably be about 130-140 years to get a tree that big,” he added. “You can’t plant them and grow them that fast.”
Jacques’ sticks have their place. But Colorado doesn’t appear to be one of them.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikechambers
Stick figures
ALF JACQUES AUTHENTIC AMERICAN INDIAN LACROSSE STICKS
Price for Native Americans: $325 (short-stick) $350 (pole)
Regular price: “Add $50”
Weight (shaft and head): 2.5 to 3 pounds (short) and 3.25 to 4 pounds (pole)
Availability: Wait of at least eight months
More information: Onondaganation.org
MASS-PRODUCED COMPOSITE LACROSSE STICKS
Price: $29.99 and up
Weight: 5-9 ounces
Availability: Immediate
Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
