Issue 146

AU Player's Locker

09th October 2006

Who are you?

I'm Emily Jordan, I'm currently in my third year Law degree and play midfield attack for both mixed and women's Lacrosse teams.

Where are you from originally?

Bewdley in Worcestershire, but I went to an all-girls school in Worcester.

Any interesting facts about you?

I used to be really into Skiing, I went with my family a lot when I was little, but obviously with other sports I haven't had a chance to join the Snowriders since I've been here. I also played netball at school, but had to choose which I wanted to take onto county level.

What's your team nickname and why?

Umm... I'm not sure I can say. Some of the girls will kill me!

Oh go on…it cant be that bad. *She answers* Yeah you are right, we can't print that!! Moving swiftly on...

How did you get involved in the sport?

I played at school from about year 7, not too many schools play Lacrosse really, but we did it instead of Hockey, and then it just seemed natural to carry on when I got to university.

What is the basic idea of lacrosse for people that don't know... including me?

*Laughs* now that's a question! It is 11-a-side plus the goalie with a similar pitch arrangement to hockey and football, with a defence, midfield and attack. The aim of the game is to pass the ball, which is a bit like a hockey ball, from stick to stick and score goals.

What is your proudest sporting moment?

When I played at school we played in a national tournament, which was quite an achievement, as you had to go through several qualifying rounds to get there, and we played in the tournament for several years in a row while I was there. I also played for the County and Midlands while I was at school, which was quite an honour.

Since I've been here in Swansea I have played for the Welsh Universities in a tournament in Manchester against other university sides from Scotland, North England, Central England and South England, and we came third, which was pretty special. I have also played in the last two Varsity fixtures in mixed Lacrosse, last year we played really well but lost by a goal, which was disappointing but we hope to get our revenge this year. As the Ladies Lacrosse team is still fairly new we don't play a varsity fixture yet because the Cardiff women are in the top BUSA league and it wouldn't really be worth it, but hopefully it will start happening soon.

Do you get involved in the social side of the team?

Yeah, we only started the women's team last year so we spent that time setting it all up really. This year we are a lot more established and organised, we have a new kit sponsored by Que Pasa which is really nice and gives us somewhere to go for socials and the initiations.

What have you got planned for this year's Freshers?

Well... we are going to do it as a squad, so the men's and women's together. We figured it was more embarrassing for them all to do it in front of each other, ha ha!

Is the social side of the team just a Wednesday night or do you do more?

It's basically just a Wednesday, but we do go for the odd drink after training and stuff, and we have a big Christmas meal with the whole squad and an AGM and other things, but mainly it's just the Wednesday nights.

What is the team set up here at Swansea?

We have a men's team, a mixed team and the fairly new women's team. We had a women's team last year but there were only a couple of us who had played women's before and the others had been playing mixed for a year and a couple of Americans as it's a fairly big sport over there. We still managed to do quite well in the league though, considering it was our first year, we finished mid table – 5th out of 8 and all the other Universities have fairly well established teams.

We really hope to do better this season, but we are not sure we'll get promoted, as the league above is of a lot higher standard. We think we should do better than 5th though, as we have a group of girls all with a years experience and a lot more players than we have had before. We have had so many so many new members this year, we had our first training session the other day and it was manic, people everywhere. We are also struggling a bit with kit, as all the older members have their own stuff but as we are a fairly new club our AU funding is still quite small, and haven't really got enough spare sticks for all the people that just want to have a go and see if they like it.

Anything else?

Yeah! This year we have a proper coach, he's an American who has recently taken a women's coaching course, so I no longer have to help do all the coaching. We also help him introduce the game into local schools which has been really good fun, and it's really taking off, so much so than he has been relocated from Cardiff to Swansea. We all had to take coaching qualifications, which should be really helpful in the future.

What does this involve then?

Well we have been going in to primary schools where we teach Pop Lacrosse, which is nearly the same, but with plastic sticks. We also teach in secondary schools where we teach the full game. The kids have taken it on really well and there is now another local side that play in the Welsh league, the newly formed Sketty Scorpions.

So your fixtures start next week?

Yeah I think we are at home to UWIC, which is a huge game for us for the first game of the season.

Where do you play in Swansea?

Well that's a key issue at the moment, as we don't really have a set pitch. There is one marked out on Fairwood, but its across the two rugby pitches that are there, so if there is one rugby team that has a home game we can't really play. We didn't manage to have one home game last season because of this, but we are hoping to get this sorted this year. We found an area on Sketty, but its owned by the council, so we are trying to get permission to play on there at the moment.

How can people get involved with the team?

If you want to get involved with any of the Lacrosse teams email 344389@swan.ac.uk and they can help you get involved.

Matt Cannon