With every passing year, the growth of lacrosse in Greater Sudbury becomes more evident. And with every passing year, the reputation of fourteen year-old talent Jordyn Lacastro within the sport grows as well.

A Grade 8 student at Algonquin Public School, Lacastro originally alternated between hockey, basketball and soccer seasons in his youth – that was until lacrosse was re-launched locally a few years back.

“I just like the intensity of it – running down the floor, trying to shoot the ball with a stick that you really don’t know how to work that well”, explained Lacastro. Perhaps when he first started, the equipment posed a challenge. Now, it’s the skill with which he handles the stick that makes defending Lacastro a huge challenge for opponents.

Always a fan of athletic involvement, the younger of two children in the family (he has an older sister, Marissa) found that he drew heavily on his basketball experience when he first took to the new sport in town.

“The hand/eye coordination that is needed is very similar”, he notes. And the offensive formations, the concept of running a pick and roll, had all been introduced to the talented teen on the hardcourt.

So what, then, sets him apart from most of his peers? “My game is down low, near the crease area, unless our team is on a power play, then I’m up at the top of the crease because I have one of the better shots.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt one bit that Lacastro possesses a clear passion for the game, one which leads him to seek ever-increasing challenges.

Just last summer, he attended an all-American lacrosse camp at Colgate University in Hamilton (New York), partially on the recommendation from current lacrosse pro John Grant Jr, who attended the camp when he was a kid.

“I was the only Canadian there”, said Lacastro. “Boy, did I have trouble keeping up.” Mind you, there was a large adjustment required for the Northern Ontario lad as the camp was in field lacrosse, a similar but vastly different game from the box lacrosse version that can be found at several arenas in Sudbury.

A pretty intimidating experience, all in all, being alone in camp some 12 hours or so from home. Not so, suggests the talkative youngster. “I’m used to going away to camp, spending a week without my parents. You really don’t get a chance to think about them (parents – Dominick and Bev) much because you’re busy having too much fun”, Lacastro concludes with his ever-present smile.