THOMPSONS READY TO LIFT THE IROQUOIS TO A WORLD TITLE The tale will continue July 10-19 at the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship, presented by Trusted Choice, in Commerce City, Colo. Five Thompsons — Lyle and Miles, along with their older brothers Jerome and Jeremy, and cousin Ty — are in the running to make the final 23-man Iroquois Nationals roster. That would be 21.7 percent Thompson. It will be the first time in eight years an Iroquois team competes in the world championships, and it just could be their best group yet. The Nationals have never finished better than fourth in a men’s world championship, but this year’s edition could give a serious challenge to the two favorites, the United States and Canada, the only two nations to win the gold since a title was first contested in 1967. Four years ago the Nationals didn’t participate in the games in England due to a passport controversy. Two years ago in Finland, the Iroquois under-19 bunch became the first from its program to beat a United States team in international field competition. “This is the best team that weve ever put together,” the goalie, Warren Hill, said then after the round-robin play win. Lyle Thompson was on that team, as was budding Syracuse star Randy Staats, then at Onondaga Community College, and Denver’s talented rising sophomore Zach Miller. Among those also in the mix are Cody Jamieson and Johnny Powless of the now three-time defending National Lacrosse League champion Rochester Knighthawks and Jeff Shattler of the Calgary Roughnecks. Jeremy Thompson, the first of the brothers to play Division I lacrosse, at Syracuse, played for NLL West Division finalist Edmonton this year. Zed Williams, a rising sophomore at Virginia who broke Casey Powell’s all-time points record as a high schooler in New York with 554, is also on the training roster, as is the Syracuse-bound Hill. “The team that they look like they’re picking this year is younger guys,” Miles Thompson said. “That’s something different than the past years. That’s going to be an advantage. There are guys that are in college now, or just got out of college. It’s a young team.” Should all four Thompson brothers make it, it won’t be the first time the quartet played together in a competitive setting. They were on the same indoor team last summer with the Caughnawaga Indians, which won the Iroquois Lacrosse Association’s championship — Lyle led the league in scoring — and played in the Senior B President’s Cup last August in Quebec. But to be united in a world championship setting, wearing the Iroquois uniform, will be something special for all of them. “This is something that we always wanted to do, play together,” Miles Thompson said. “This is one of the first times to do it. It’s exciting for us.”
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 16:02:42 +0000
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