When asked to explain why he’s been able to translate his native box goalie success — Ward won two Minto Cups and was MVP when the Orangeville Northmen won the 2012 Canadian indoor junior title — to field — he
posted an NCAA Division I-best 66.2 save percentage at Bellarmine in Kentucky in 2013 — and vice versa, Ward doesn’t sound like a player with a mind clouded with technical thoughts. “In the end, you’re trying to do the same thing, stop the ball,” Ward said after mentioning some technicalities like shot angles and line- of-sight backgrounds.
“Not too much rattles him,” said Merrill, named an
All-World defenseman for the third time in Denver. “You don’t see some of those typical goalie tendencies. There’s not a lot of nerves. Playing in front of him, he gives you a sense of calm.” Ward was the third overall pick of the NLL’s Colorado Mammoth in 2013 and was a Rookie of the Year candidate this season. He refined his outdoor game with the Edge Lacrosse club program and became the first-ever starting goalie at The Hill Academy in Ontario, the private school run by the Merrill family with a lacrosse program directed by Brodie. It has produced many of the Canadian names you’ve grown to know throughout college springs of recent years. Ward was contacted by Bellarmine late in the recruiting process, and he ended up playing all four years, earning third- team All-American as a senior. Merrill gave Ward the jersey number 37 upon arrival at Hill because it was Miller’s number with that same Orangeville Northmen team. At a team meeting the night before Canada’s highly-anticipated opening night tilt with the U.S., Merrill got caught up in the moment and gave Ward another item. Sanderson’s widow, Brogann, had two years earlier sent Merrill several mementos of a man eulogized by Sanderson’s brother, Mark, as having been defined by toughness, courage, humor, purpose and love. Those were the building blocks for a legacy that included that of a family-man, All-World goalie and a trailblazer for Canadian lacrosse, his brother said at the funeral.
One of the symbols representative of this man was a blue denim jean jacket — yes, part of the stereotypical “Canadian tuxedo,” — that Sanderson often wore to The Tragically Hip concerts with Miller and group of friends, another very-Canadian thing to do. Merrill went once and knew all about it, and, being familiar with other talismans passed around in team sports, thought it would be an appropriate bonding item for the 2014 games, when those came around.
42 LACROSSE MAGAZINE September 2014>> A Publication of US Lacrosse
Ward’s slender frame, black sweats, long sleeves and unorthodox style came to define him on the field.
©TREVOR BROWN (DW)
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