Forty-six countries, nine days of action and half a world away, Cole Paciejewski is about to experience a sporting event like no other Prince George lacrosse player has ever been through.
The 24-year-old has been asked to suit up for Scotland in the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) world championship in Netanya, Israel, July 12-20.
The Prince George-born Paciejewski qualified to play for Scotland because his father Richard was born in Glasgow. Cole holds a British passport and he played for Scotland two years ago at the European field lacrosse championships in Budapest, Hungary.
"They just released the roster not too long ago and I'd hoped I'd be on the roster - I've been putting in lots of work the past two years and to have all my hard work finally pay off and be able to put on the uniform again is going to be an unbelievable experience," said Paciejewski.
"It's going to be real exciting to play against guys I've always looked up to who are considered the best players in the world and to even be on the same field as them is going to be a big honour."
Compared to the Scottish team that finished 4-4 at the European championship in 2016, he says this year's team has a lot more players who grew up playing the game.
"I'd say half the team is North American," said Paciejewski.
"I didn't know what to expect going into the (European championship), it happened at the last minute and it was a cool experience. It was really neat to play on the international stage and play against different countries but this year we're going to play in the top division against Canada and the United States, so to be able to play against the best of the best is going to be pretty unbelievable."
Paciejewski played all his minor lacrosse in Prince George, then went on a four-year scholarship to play field lacrosse for NCAA Division 1 Hofstrand University in North Carolina. The Canadian team roster is studded with professionals and 16 of the 24 players were picked from National Lacrosse League rosters. All 24 played or have been recruited to play field lacrosse for NCAA college teams.
Canada will have 10 returning players from the team that beat the United States for gold at the 2014 World Championship in Denver, Colo. That list includes four-time world championship team members Geoff Snider and Brody Merrill, as well as Jason and Jeremy Noble, Wes Berg, Kevin Crowley, Curtis Dickson, Mark Matthews and goalies Dillon Ward and Brennan Donville. Berg and Paciejewski played together on Team B.C. as 15-year-olds.
"I'll definitely cross paths with some players I played against in the past and a lot of players I watch on TV playing in the NLL will be there so it will be pretty neat to play against some of my idols," he said.
"It's going to be real strange. Growing up always rooting for Canada and now having to go against them will be difficult. Being the underdogs is kind of the position I would want to be in. Having that nothing-to-lose attitude, I think we're going to work as hard as we can and hopefully do what we do best."
The speedy Paciejewski has been an absolute nightmare for his opponents in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association, playing for the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits. Although his job as a forest firefighter forced Paciejewski to miss six games he still managed to finish second in the PGSLA scoring race with 55 goals and 42 assists for 97 points in 10 games, an average of 9.7 points per game.
Field lacrosse is a contact sport that follows the same rules of box lacrosse but it's a much different game playing on a field that's 110 yards long and 60 yards wide. That means a lot more running for Paciejewski than he would get playing on an arena floor.
"I'm so used to playing box lacrosse where you go hard for a 30-second shift and you come off the floor, whereas in field you're out there for up to five minutes," he said. "The conditioning thing's huge and I've been training hard over the last couple of years to make sure my conditioning's at a level that's going to allow me to succeed over there."
To help cover the cost of his $2,000 flight and $5,000 in team fees to secure his spot on the Scotland roster, Intercoast Construction, the Shell-Glen volunteer fire department and the PGSLA agreed to sponsor Paciejewski.
Team Scotland will have five days of practice in Israel to work out the bugs before their first game on Friday, July 13 against Australia. Most of the players will be working out together this week at a training camp in London. Scotland is pooled with Canada, the U.S., Iroquois, England and Australia.
Paciejewski has never been to the Middle East region and he's hoping to do some sightseeing between games before he returns to Canada.
The Bandits (14-2) play the fourth-place Mackenzie Omineca Fabricating/Parsnip River Forestry Lumberjacks (5-11) in the opening game of their best-of-three semifinal tonight at 8 p.m. at Kin 1. Paciejewski won't be available to the Bandits again until Game 3 of the final, if the Bandits advance that far.
The FIL world championship was first held in 1967 and has been staged every four years since 1974. Canada and the U.S. are the only teams to have won the title. Canada captured the crown in 1978, 1986 and 2006. Coquitlam will host the tournament in 2022. FIL is making a push for field lacrosse to become an Olympic sport by 2014.
"Lacrosse is growing quite rapidly in Israel and there's been quite a big spike in the last few years," Paciejewski said. "A lot of the Israeli team are Americans who have gone over there and gotten their citizenship. I'm really curious to see what kind of tournament they can put on in a country like that."
