Two lacrosse players from Airdrie will be representing their home city – and playing for the pride of western Canada – at the 2021 World Junior Lacrosse Championships, held in Winnipeg, Man. From Aug. 12 to 14.
The International Indoor Junior Lacrosse (IIJL) puts on the annual tournament, which was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, due to continued international border restrictions, the tourney has been modified to feature two select teams from the eastern and western halves of Canada, who will compete against each other in a three-game series.
From Airdrie, 19-year-olds Nolan Oakey and Sean Kriwokon will don the Canada West journey next week, alongside some of western Canada’s top junior box lacrosse players. Their team, representing the four westernmost provinces, will play three games against Canada East.
“I’ve gone a whole year without playing lacrosse, so anything right now [is great],” Kriwokon said. “To be able to go do something like this is a pretty big honour. It will be nice to be out there with guys I grew up with and guys I haven’t met before, to build that network.”
Kriwokon is a 2019 graduate of St. Martin de Porres High School and a member of the Okotoks Raiders, who compete in the junior A division of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL).
The 19-year-old was originally slated to compete for Team Canada at the inaugural IIJL Commonwealth Cup in March 2020, but the tournament was cancelled shortly beforehand due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that COVID-19 restrictions have finally lifted, Kriwokon said he is eager for the opportunity to don the Maple Leaf once again.
“I want to represent my club team – the Okotoks Raiders – to the best of my ability and show what Alberta lacrosse can do,” he said. “We’ve always been thought of as a little ‘less’ than Ontario or B.C., so I want to go out there and represent well, to show we’re catching up and that there’s talent across Canada.”
Shortly after he returns home from Manitoba, Kriwokon said he will be joining the Simon Fraser University field lacrosse team in Burnaby, B.C. this September, where he will hone his skills in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association – an organization comprised of non-NCAA-affiliated men’s college lacrosse programs, with teams from the U.S. and Canada.
Airdrie’s other representative on the Canada West team is also excited for the impending trip to Manitoba.
“I don’t have an objective [other than] just wanting to win,” said Oakey, a 2019 graduate of W.H. Croxford High School. “But from a personal point, I just want to get out there and play my game. Obviously it’ll be a ton of fun out there and will be an amazing experience, so I want to take it all in.”
Oakey has been a mainstay for the Rockyview Silvertips since joining the Cochrane-based junior B box lacrosse team in 2018.
In 2019, as a 17-year-old, he found the back of the net 32 times – while also recording 60 assists – to be the ‘Tips’ top scorer. His pedigree earned Oakey the opportunity to try out for Canada's U20 box lacrosse team that year.
While the 2020 box lacrosse season was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakey returned this summer as Rockyview’s official captain for a shortened season, which saw the team square up against the RMLL’s other junior B sides from southern Alberta and Calgary in a series of exhibition games.
“It was amazing to see the guys again in the dressing room, and to get back at it,” Oakey said, adding it was an honour to be the team’s captain this year.
“It was a big step for me and I enjoyed embracing that leadership role this year. It was very short because of COVID, but nonetheless, but to be out there again with the guys was awesome.”
When he’s not suiting up for the Silvertips in the summers, Oakey plays field lacrosse for the Lander University Bearcats, a Division 2 NCAA team in South Carolina. In his freshman year for the Bearcats last year, he appeared in 10 games and made seven starts, recording 12 goals and six assists.
“It was a different atmosphere that I’d never had before,” he said. “Every day, you go to school, then you hang out with your teammates every day and go [to practice] for two hours, six days a week. You’re always on the field and it feels like there’s no break, but it keeps you out of trouble, for sure, and it’s an amazing experience.”
