Wray eyes spot with Canadian National Team
10/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh men’s lacrosse assistant coach Taylor Wray traveled to Toronto during the weekend of October 9-12 as he began his journey towards earning a spot on the Canadian men’s national lacrosse team which will travel to Manchester, England during the summer of 2010. Wray was joined by nearly 60 other players as they competed in five games in just three days in a tough, competitive tryout.
“The group of players invited to the tryouts was a good mix of former national team members along with current collegiate players,” Wray explained. “We played two games on Saturday at St. Michael’s College and then on Sunday we drove to Buffalo to scrimmage against Notre Dame for two games.” He continued, “The tryout group played very well and competed in two close games versus Notre Dame. Following those games we drove back to Toronto where we had an intersquad scrimmage on Sunday evening and one final game on Monday morning before heading home.”
Wray then commented on the level of competition at the tryouts. “The talent was very good,” he explained. “It’s probably as strong if not stronger than it’s ever been. It’s great to see how far field lacrosse has come in Canada. Back in 1978 when Canada won its first world championship there was only a handful of guys on the team that were playing collegiate lacrosse. Fast-forward to 2006 when Canada won another title, and the majority of guys were playing collegiately. The same held true at these tryouts with a large number of guys being current collegiate players which raised the competition level.”
From here the coaching staff and select administrators will choose a team of 23 players along with several alternates that will comprise the Canadian national team. “I don’t envy the coaching staff,” Wray said. “They have a very tough job ahead of them in selecting this team.”
Wray has previous international experience having been a member of the Under-19 Field Lacrosse World Championship silver medal winning squad in 1999, as well as the gold medal winning Canadian national team in 2006. In addition to his international experience Wray has been a mainstay on the professional circuit as well. He was a member of the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse League where he earned the 2004 Rookie of the Year award, while recently he has played for the Philadelphia Wings.
“From a fitness perspective it helps to be playing lacrosse year-round,” Wray says. “A lot of guys trying out for the national team are playing year-round now and it showed.” He added, “This was more competitive than any national team tryout I’ve been to. Previously there were several top-notch guys along with some unproven players, but this year there were lots of new faces and loads of talent.”
Announcement of the 2010 Canadian National Team will take place later this week.
