FIL World Championship
championship since 1978, coming in for Sanderson in the waning moments. But eight years after beating cancer the first time, it returned. Miller died in June 2013, almost exactly a year after Sanderson passed away in June 2012. In the wake of tragedy and leaving young families behind, it all seemed symbolic, and would certainly be emotional, leading into the summer of 2014 and the world games. The timeline wasn’t the only
thing worth noting. The first goalie camp Ward ever attended was one run by Sanderson in Ontario. A 9-year-old Ward, the son of Kent, a reverend, and Tricia, a lawyer, arrived wearing all box lacrosse gear — the bulky upper- and lower- body pads that create Incredible Hulk-type frames in the indoor game. Sanderson had to tell the young Ward that this was field lacrosse, buddy. Ward, who carries a humble
venture to play at Virginia. The access to American colleges was an eye-opener. In 2008, Sanderson was given
nine to 12 months to live, but fought and played in the 2010 world games in England. This was the type of person he was: During an initial surgery at Duke in 2008, Sanderson had what’s called an awake craniotomy, where a patient is woken up mid-procedure and asked to recite objects on flash cards. Sanderson repeated them back fine until they got to a picture of a duck, which he mistakenly called a goose. The doctor took it as a sign of caution and was going to wrap up the surgery when Sanderson corrected him and told him to “keep going.” “Take more, I’m fine, it’s a duck. I know it’s a duck, I just called it a goose.” Surgery continued. Miller was diagnosed with
cancer during his junior year at Cornell, and fought off the disease to play in 2006, making the final save in Canada’s first world
A Publication of US Lacrosse
Ward, with 28 saves in two games against the U.S., kept Canada’s
tradition of all- world goalies, following the late Sanderson.
sense of humor (he re-tweeted many barbs from American fans on Twitter after the gold medal game), makes no bones about sharing the story. Once he got the equipment figured out, the lasting lessons left on Ward by Sanderson over the next four years of camps resonated. “He was more of a
general coach,” Ward said, mentioning traits like patience and having a short memory as the things he remembered most about Sanderson.
Grant’s Painful Decision
Canada won gold despite the absence of 39-year-old John Grant Jr.
In a decision he said felt like getting stabbed in the stomach, Grant withdrew from Canada’s roster after finding out a week before opening ceremonies that the FIL denied his appeal for a therapeutic use exemption for prescription medication, including testosterone, that he started taking four years ago — about two years after a life-threatening infection attacked his surgically repaired knee in 2008. Testosterone is on the World Anti-Doping
Agency’s banned substances list, but Grant said he never considered playing without treatment. It helped bring him out of a depression, he said, that lasted from 2008 to 2010, after a staph infection led to an ACL replacement. Low testosterone levels sapped him of energy and led to mood swings and anger issues. He wasn’t ready to go back there, not with a 4-year-old daughter.
“I’m beyond devastated I can’t play, but I have a quality of life that I never had for those couple of years,” Grant said. “People can think what they want. It saved my life. I almost died for this game before, and I wasn’t willing to do that this time.”
Grant said he understood the discussion around his situation. “The T-word [testosterone] is a firestorm,” he said. “What I said was, ‘Why don’t you come test me now and test me next week?’ The people that cheat, their levels skyrocket. I’m still not even to the level of a 40-year-old. I just want to try to get to that. I don’t want to be 20, 25, I want to be 40.”
The day after the gold medal game, Grant suited back up for the MLL’s Denver Outlaws and scored four goals. He then posted 17 points in the next two games, taking over the MLL’s all-time career goals lead with 480. — C.M.
MOST-READ ON
LAXMAGAZINE.COM Record numbers followed the world championships at our online home and through LM on
Twitter and Facebook. In addition to up-to-the second scores and recaps on our scoreboard pages, here are the most-read stories from two weeks of #WorldLax.
1. Onen Scores One for Uganda, Makes History Again 2. Uganda Earns First Win in Dramatic Fashion 3. In-Game/Recap: U.S. Run to Win Over Canada in FIL Opener 4. Thompsons Lead Iroquois Road Show Into Denver 5. Grant Jr. Out for World Championship 6. USA Tops Australia in 16-Penalty Slugfest 7. Day 3: Blue Division Updates 8. In-Game/Recap: Crowley, Ball-Control Give Canada FIL Gold 9. DU Coach Tierney Flashes Skills at World Lacrosse Festival 10. In-Game/Recap: Iroquois Weather Storm, Pull Away from Australia
Find these stories and more at
LaxMagazine.com/ WorldLax.
September 2014 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 41
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