Lacrosse in Finland

Lacrosse is played in Finland?... Yes it is! Since its establishment in 2000, the Finnish Lacrosse Association has boosted player numbers to some 100 in just a few short years. The Finnish Canadian Society examines the history and activities of lacrosse in Finland. Many thanks go out to Helsinki Lacrosse Club and Finnish national team member Jaakko “Jaska” Savolahti for his feedback and comments on the development of the sport in Finland. Thanks also to Mika Wickström and Antti Salomaa for their comments and contributions as well.

Getting started

The game of lacrosse came to Finland in the summer of 2000. Founders Antti Salomaa and Karo Nikkilä first saw the game in the movie American Pie; and thought that it looked like fun and that it should be played in Finland as well. They saw their first game in Stockholm and made their decision. Salomaa and Nikkilä contacted the International Lacrosse Federation and received free sticks and balls to get started.

Thus far the Finnish Lacrosse Association can give credit to Sweden (and the Finnish national team coach) for the development of the game in Finland. The Helsinki Lacrosse Club has taken part in the Swedish league and placed fourth in the 2003 season. The Finnish team has been a regular at the Swedish “FallBall” tournament. In spite of an intense rivalry between Sweden and Finland, Swedish lacrosse players have been a great source of help for the guys here in Finland.

Finland’s big break onto the international scene came in September 2003 when the Finnish team took part in the Newcomer’s European Champions in Salzburg, Austria. Finland won the final in a huge upset against Denmark 8-4.

July 2004 saw the Finnish men’s team participate in the European championships in Prague. On the men’s side there were 12 men’s teams and eight women’s teams. England was the winner of the men’s tournament followed by Germany and Scotland. Wales took gold in the women’s tournament followed by Scotland and England. Finland was victorious against Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Latvia in the B-division and lost hard fought matches against Ireland, whom they played the round-robin and then again for the play off for 7th place. Finland finished 8th in the European championships.

In 2005 the guys from the Helsinki Lacrosse Club have played in two international tournaments in Germany and Denmark. From July 8-10, they took on other teams in the Berlin Open club tournament played at Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnsportpark. They finished in the middle of the pack, 8th out of 16 teams. The tournament also featured a 10-team draw on the women’s side. Team member Jaska Savolahti commented enthusiastically that the 8th place finish in Berlin was a very good result for the team.

The national team also played in the Scandinavian Challenge tournament in Copenhagen on August 7-8 and played three games. They were narrowly defeated 5-4 by Sweden; thumped Norway 11-1; and topped Denmark 5-4. Jaska said the Denmark game was a thriller, “we came behind from 4-2 to tie the game with maybe 10 minutes to go, and then Petja Kärki scored the winning goal during second sudden death overtime!” Fortunately the Finnish team was reinforced with its national team players that are based in the States.

Development of the sport in Finland is on-going and the Helsinki Lacrosse Club actively promotes lacrosse every spring in high schools and universities, for example at Vierumäki both this year and last year. Awareness of lacrosse is increasing and becoming more popular.

Where does Finland fit in the current picture in Europe and beyond?

When I brought up the issue of competitiveness in European lacrosse circles, Finnish national team member Mika Wickström said that there are other countries that are “way ahead” and they include England, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Currently the Finnish Lacrosse Association is in the process of planning an international tournament to be held next spring. In addition, Finland was awarded the 2008 European Championships, which will be played in Lahti. (Look for more on this in Vaahteranlehti in future issues.)

Finnish players are also plying their skills at the university level in the United States where the sport has a massive following. (Many Canadian players also play at the university level in the States because the opportunities do not exist in Canada.) A notable Finnish name in university lacrosse is Pentti Pekkonen who currently plays at New York’s Institute of Technology on scholarship. Another Finnish player who will be playing abroad in England is national team member Tuomas Oksanen. He will be in England completing his studies. He says the chance to be in England is great because the sport is “huge”, with outreach programs in schools all over the country.

The first national championships in Finland in 2005

The inaugural Finnish Lacrosse Championships were held on the first weekend of September and consisted of a lacrosse “clinic” and the championship tournament held over two days.

Saturday the 3rd featured a lacrosse clinic for men and women in which veteran players drilled newcomers on the rules of the game and then they tried out the equipment and even play a few scrub games. Some 30 men and women took part in the clinic.

The 2005 Finnish Championships held on September 4 featured four teams in the men's division: Gepardit (Helsinki), the Helsinki Lacrosse Club, Reima Lacrosse (Helsinki) and the Turku Titans. In the final the Helsinki Lacrosse Club defeated the Turku Titans 2-0.

I also met up with a few of the Titans players: Matti Tähkäpää, Jukka Vesala and Erik Jokisalo. The guys told me that many of the Titans players are former hockey players, so the sport of lacrosse is familiar to them in many ways. The Titans got their start by hearing about lacrosse in the news and like the crew in Helsinki; they thought it might be fun to try. The Helsinki Lacrosse Club gave the Titans free balls and sticks to get started. They praised the Finnish Championships as a learning opportunity and said that they got to see the game played on the whole field. As it stands right now, the Titans have so few players that they only have the chance to practice defence or offence. The guys joked that this year they were in Helsinki “for fun… until next year.”

Where does it go from here?

Finland’s national team will be taking part in next year’s World Championships in Canada. The 2006 World championships will be held in London, Ontario, from July 13-22. See more at http://www.2006worldlacrosse.com/. Look for more on this in the Finnish-Canadian Society’s web log in the coming months at http://spaces.msn.com/members/finnishcanadiansociety/.

When I asked Jaska, “Does the success of this inaugural season mean that we will see an SM-liiga for lacrosse (a national league) in the future?” He said hopes that there will be an SM-liiga next year because there are enough teams to form one. At the time of writing this article, there were on-going developments in Turku, Lahti, Jyväskylä and Hyvinkää.

Currently the Finnish Lacrosse Association does not qualify for funding from SLU (www.slu.fi) because they need to have 400 members. Associate members of the Helsinki Lacrosse Club pay €5, members of the Finnish Lacrosse Association pay €20 and players pay €50. So far the men and women playing the sport have had fundraisers to help pay for trips and tournaments. For the most part, however, they pay out of their own pockets.

In many cases the players have substituted hockey equipment for proper lacrosse equipment. Equipment is easy to get, many of the players told me. They get lacrosse equipment, for example, from the States, but it is often expensive because of postage and customs fees. When players travel to the States (or other places where they can get lacrosse equipment), they bring back what they can.
 
As far as lacrosse coaching and officiating expertise in Finland goes, it does not exist. The men’s national team is currently coached by Briton Jason Perrin. When asked how Coach Perrin came on board, Jaska said, “He found us.” Perrin gives a lot to the team, though he cannot be here in Finland to coach and train them, he does dedicate several weeks a year to the Finnish team (out of his own pocket) by holding clinics and travelling with them to tournaments. Jaska said that the Finnish-American players on the national team are also a great source of help and inspiration. They too cannot be here all the time, but they are dedicated to playing for Finland. So far Finland has no trained lacrosse officials, but this is a project that is in the works. I suspect that we will see many player-officials for the next few years.

The sport of lacrosse in Finland is young and has a small, but dedicated following. As far as I can see it can only go up. With the right exposure and networking, Finnish lacrosse can strive for new heights.

For more information on lacrosse in Finland see it on the web at http://www.lacrosse.fi (Finnish Lacrosse Association). To find out more about playing in your area, see below. If you are interested in starting a team in your area, contact Antti Salomaa.

For all of Finland: Antti Salomaa, antti.saloma@lacrosse.fi
Helsinki Lacrosse: Antti Salomaa, antti.salomaa@lacrosse.fi, www.helsinkilacrosse.tk
Reima Lacrosse (Helsinki): Jukka Peitsala, jukka.peitsala@raja.fi
Turku Titans: Matti Tähkäpää, matti.tahkapaa@auriamail.net, www.turkutitans.tk or turkulax@hotmail.com
Turku University Lacrosse: Timo Kilpiäinen, tpkilp@utu.fi
In Jyväskylä: Suzie Mills, mills@cc.jyu.fi
In Lahti: Mika Elomaa, mika.elomaa@lakes.fi
In Hyvinkää: Henri Poikolainen, henripoikolainen@yahoo.com

Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho