Opportunity Knocks,and Kyle Jackson Opens the Door

By Mitch Courtney

Sarnia, Ontario native Kyle Jackson has long aspired to be in the position that he is in now. His upbringing has instilled in him a set of values that has allowed him to chase his lacrosse dreams effectively. A first-round pick in the 2016 NLL Entry Draft, and the first ever selection from the University of Michigan, Jackson is attempting to soak up as much knowledge as pos-sible.

“I never want to think that I know ev-erything about the sport,” Jackson said.

He is well aware that the NLL has top-notch resources that will allow him to continue to grow as a person, and as a player. It starts with the Knighthawks ownership and management, and it trickles down to coaches and veteran players just the same.

“I am a coachable individual who is always ready and willing to learn about anything,” he added.

The Knighthawks are famous for as-sembling a group of supremely tal-ented players who compete at the absolute highest level and push one another. This year, Jackson noticed that right off the bat.

“I knew it would be a tough transition and a tough squad to crack, however, I have never played with guys of this caliber before,” Jackson proclaimed with enthusiasm and excitement.

The element of the Knighthawks fam-ily has been and will continue to be emphasized; as it is tremendously ap-parent in each and every member of the organization. It is more than just a saying; in Rochester, it has become a way of life.

“My experience has been incredible so far. All of the veterans on the team have been welcoming to all of us new-comers,” said Jackson.

Although he has now had the oppor-tunity to experience the Knighthawks organization first hand, he was not en-tirely sure what to expect at first.

“I did not know how it was going to go with this being my first NLL expe-rience,” Jackson stated with a tone of relief in his voice.

He knows that he wound up in a la-crosse city that does not take the game for granted.

“I could not have asked for a better group of guys or a better team,” stat-ed Jackson.

Although he was uncertain in his own mind, Jackson certainly did not show his inner feelings on the field. On Dec.

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10, he jumped out to an incredible start, posting six points in his presea-son debut. His performance had a sim-ple reason for success, receptiveness.

“I went in with open eyes,” said Jack-son. “All I was out there to do was to play lacrosse; to play my game.”

Roster spots in the NLL are incredibly difficult to earn and Jackson under-stands how fortunate he was to have impressed the staff early in presea-son. Conversely, he knows that his early performances will not carry him through the entire season.

“It gave me a better starting point with the team, but I do not feel like my work here is done,” he said.

Jackson has always held a “team first”

attitude on and off of the field. He un-derstands that personal successes will not always translate into team success-es.

“If I score, I score. Either way, it is okay as long as the team result is there,” he said.

Although he seems to be one of those athletes who always knew what he wanted to do and where he wanted to be, Jackson had a rather interesting start in lacrosse.

“A family friend told my parents that they should sign me up for lacrosse. At the time, I wanted to play ice hockey, but I was not able to register because of my age,” Jackson asserted.

Now that he has had the opportunity

to show Knighthawk fans and man-agement what he has to offer, he of-fered an explanation on why he works as hard as he does.

“If they were going to select me as high as they did, I was going to prove to them that I was worthy of the selec-tion,” Jackson decreed.

The NLL has proven time and time again that it will chew up and spit out any individual who does not come ready to work their absolute hardest on and off of the field. On the con-trary, Kyle Jackson has shown that he knows what it takes to get to where he wants to be, and that he desires to do so in the teal and purple.

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30 Doug Jamieson G 6-3 245 Ohsweken, ON35 Evan Kirk G 5-11 185 Orangeville, ON

2 Ryan Hotaling T 6-2 220 Syracuse, NY6 Scott Self D 6-2 212 Peterborough, ON7 Derek Suddons D 6-1 222 Whitby, ON9 Reilly O’Connor F 6-1 175 Whitby, ON12 Seth Oakes F 5-11 190 Akwesasne13 Brett Manney D 6-3 220 Newtown, PA14 Pat Saunders F 6-1 190 Arthur, ON15 Shawn Evans F 5-8 175 Peterborough, ON17 Zac Reid D 6-1 195 St. Catharines, ON19 Chad Culp F 5-9 179 Fergus, ON21 Kevin Crowley F 6-4 200 New Westminster, BC 26 Brett Bucktooth F 6-1 200 Onondaga Nation27 Kevin Buchanan F 5-10 158 Cockeysville, MD45 Matt Spanger D 6-4 200 Toronto, ON 71 Sheldon Burns D 6-1 185 Whitby, ON75 Jay Thorimbert T 6-0 199 Whitby, ON91 Kyle Buchanan F 5-8 165 Nepean, ON96 Bill O’Brien D 6-4 235 Syracuse, NY

48 Matt Vinc G 6-1 212 6/9/82 Vineland, Ontario St. Catharines, Ont Canisius College55 Angus Goodleaf G 6-2 274 3/6/87 Kahnawake Kahnawake Rochester (NLL)

2 Paul Dawson D 6-5 230 9/16/85 Oakville, Ontario Oakville, Ontario University of Windsor4 Graeme Hossack D 6-2 228 7/22/92 Guelph, Ontario Port Perry, Ontario Lindenwood6 Dan Dawson F 6-5 210 12/11/81 Oakville, Ontario Oakville, Ontario Sheridan College 10 Brad Gillies D/T 6-1 200 6/14/91 Mississauga, Ontario Oakville, Ontario RIT 11 John Rae D 6-1 220 4/10/89 Barrie, Ontario Barrie, Ontario Six Nations (Sr. B)15 Joe Resetarits F 5-11 188 8/22/89 Hamburg, NY Hamburg, NY Albany16 Dylan Evans D 5-11 198 1/17/88 Brampton, Ontario Brampton, Ontario Dowling17 Tyler Ferreira D/T 6-1 176 6/25/93 Brampton, Ontario Brampton, Ontario Dowling18 Torrey VanEvery F 6-3 225 10/17/90 Six Nations Six Nations Ohsweken (Clax)20 Andrew Suitor T 5-11 202 4/26/89 Orangeville, Ontario Orangeville, Ontario Adrian College/RIT23 Cory Vitarelli F 5-11 235 6/30/85 Peterborough, Ont Peterborough, Ontario Prince Edward Island27 Josh Currier F 5-11 164 5/15/93 Peterborough, Ont Peterborough, Ontario Virginia Wesleyan 28 Stephen Keogh F 5-10 199 2/16/87 Toronto, Ont Toronto, Ont Syracuse29 Ian Llord D 6-2 198 6/9/85 St. Catharines, Ont St. Catharines, Ont Rochester (NLL)37 Scott Campbell D 6-0 215 10/23/81 Ajax, Ontario Markham, Ont Elmira College42 Jarrett Davis F/T 6-1 170 8/8/87 Vancouver, BC Port Moody, BC Bellarmine 45 Luc Magnan D 6-0 225 5/30/92 Pine Falls, Manitoba Pine Falls, Manitoba Robert Morris47 Kyle Jackson F 5-9 166 8/22/93 Sarnia, Ontario Sarnia, Ontario Michigan 51 Adam Bomberry D/T 6-1 215 2/18/94 Six Nations Six Nations Onondaga CC 61 Dan Lomas F 5-11 190 6/6/93 Burlington, Ontario Burlington, Ontario High Point73 Luke Laszkiewicz F 6-0 191 6/29/92 Oshawa, Ontario Oshawa, Ontario Robert Morris77 Quinn Powless F 6-1 224 2/28/93 Brantford, Ontario Six Nations Onondaga CC 79 Sid Smith D 6-0 223 7/24/86 Six Nations Six Nations Syracuse/Onondaga CC 82 Wayne Van Every F 6-1 228 4/6/89 Six Nations Six Nations Six Nations (Sr. B)88 Cody Jamieson F 5-9 216 7/17/87 Six Nations Six Nations Syracuse91 Joel Matthews F 6-3 227 2/28/91 St. Catharines, Ont St. Catharines, Ont Detroit Mercy

GOODLEAF WAS BORN TO PLAY GOALBy Andrea Chevalier

Fast-paced, agile, strong and enter-taining are all words used to describe the game of lacrosse. But the meaning goes much deeper for Knighthawks goaltender Angus Goodleaf, who grew up in Kahnawake, a Mohawk Territory in Canada.

With a lacrosse field right across the street from his house and two old-er brothers who were avid lacrosse players, he was destined to grow up playing the Creator’s Game. He remembers going to the field by his house with his older brothers, Joe and Charlie, and being thrown between the pipes. The experience helped mold him into the player he is today. Lacrosse was definitely instilled in him at a very young age.

“My dad and broth-ers gave me the in-spiration to keep playing lacrosse,” said Angus. “My two older broth-ers would always

throw me in the net. I didn’t always have the best equipment, but they’d throw me in there anyway. I owe a lot to them because that’s how I learned to play goalie.”

Goodleaf will be the first to say that a player from Kahnawake making it in the National Lacrosse League is a rarity, but not impossible.

“There’s not a lot of guys from Kahn-awake in the league. You’ve to ven-ture out of Kahnawake to be seen,” Goodleaf said. “But I’ve got to give credit to a lot of people from Kahn-awake who helped me get to where I am today.”

“Gussy”, as his teammates call him, was picked up by the Knighthawks for the 2013 season after being released by Buffalo. He was surprised and re-

lived when he received a call from Curt Styres, who was the general

manager of the then defending cham-pion Knighthawks.

“I was wondering where I would go or if I would

go anywhere when I got cut from Buffa-

lo, so I was really happy when I got the call from Curt that day,” said Goodleaf.

Goodleaf has made a name for himself in the Flow-er City. In

four seasons with the team, he has ap-peared in 66 games and made 261 saves. He also compiled a 6-3 record, an 8.81 goals-against average and an impressive .806 save percentage.

“He’s always prepared and ready to play,” said Knighthawks defender Ian Llord. “He and ‘Vno’ (Matt Vinc) do a great job talking and communicat-ing, and he’s always ready to go and that’s key, obviously.”

In his first year with the Knighthawks, Goodleaf helped the team win the second of three-straight Champion’s Cups. The following season, he was with Rochester as it won the historic third consecutive cup, something that Goodleaf will always remember as one of his fondest moments. In the fi-nals, Rochester rallied to win Game Two to even the series and then scored three goals in the final two minutes to defeat the Calgary Roughnecks 3-2 in the tiebreaker game.

“I couldn’t really believe it (when we won the Champion’s Cup). It was a good feeling,” he said. “That’s why we play the game – to win. The 2014 Cup was at home and I had a lot of family members there. Just how the game went and how everything went down it was just that much more ex-citing.”

The winning did not stop for the then 27-year-old star. In 2015, he back-stopped the Iroquois Nationals to a second place finish at the FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. Being named the starting goalie for the Iro-quois was an honor for Goodleaf and something that he will always cherish.

“It’s nice getting the recogni-tion,” he said. “I just want-ed to go in there and do

my job.”

Llord speaks for the team when he says that Goodleaf is in top

form and someone they can always

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count on to be a team player.

“He’s just happy to be at the rink everyday, taking shots,” said Llord. “He’s just a solid person all around.”

Head coach Mike Hasen backed up Llord’s statement about Goodleaf, who prides himself on his consistency and reliability.

“He’s always willing to accept the roll we put him in and he’s a true team guy for us,” said Hasen. “We can al-ways count on him to step in and play well for us back there.”

The 2017 season is surely starting off on the right note as Goodleaf used the offseason to get in the best shape

of his Knighthawks career. He has worked hard to come into the new sea-son ready to fight to be on top again.

“Last season, I missed most of training camp but this season I just wanted to come in healthy, have a full training camp, drop some pounds and I’m happy where I’m at,” said Goodleaf.

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Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino has North America’s first Pulse Arena where entertainment and gaming are taken to a whole new level with low limit electronic table games, a blackjack party pit, and live DJ. After your Pulse is racing head over to one of our 3,000 slots or 80 table games to further your winning streak. For the kind of dining taste buds were invented for nothing beats our newly reinvented Western Door Steakhouse, our authentic Italian meals at La Cascata, or our Asian delicacies at Koi & the Noodle Bar. Bring your appetite we’re saving a table. This is just the beginning-so go explore, and live it up.