Lacrosse is more medicine than game for these high school students

On Tuesdays and Thursdays each week, Michael Thompson becomes the favourite sight of a few dozen students at Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School.

The former professional lacrosse player helped launch an after-school program at the Cornwall, Ont., high school where students play and learn about lacrosse to earn school credits.

"The last couple years with COVID, a lot of kids lost credits being at home … not being able to finish up some of their work," said Thompson, who works as a cultural adviser at the school's Native Resource Centre.

While credits have brought some students to the school gymnasium or field to practise passing, restring sticks and burn some energy, that's not why many come back.

"It's more of a medicine than it is a game to us," said Grade 12 student Ronwaiewate Lazore, who's been a part of the program since it began in December. 

"This whole course I've never thought about the credit."

The students don't just play the game, they learn about its history as a sport and its cultural significance to many Indigenous people.

Thompson was born in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne next to Cornwall and grew up playing lacrosse, but he was raised Catholic.

He said that's partly why he didn't learn about the spiritual aspect of the game until he became an adult.

"In a traditional Haudenosaunee longhouse, lacrosse is actually part of the religion," he said. Longhouses can refer both to the traditional Mohawk style of housing and a traditional governing body.

"Every spring and fall we actually have a game to renew our medicines."

Lazore, who is from Akwesasne and grew up with lacrosse, said the program helped him reconnect with the sport and its higher meaning, crediting it with motivating him to attend