Cold Laker to play for Team Canada at World Junior Lacrosse Championship

A lacrosse player hailing from Cold Lake is set to be part of Team Canada and seen on the international stage.

Bennett Frey has been selected to represent Canada at the World Junior Lacrosse Championship from Aug. 7-12 in Saskatoon.

Much to his own surprise, he got the nod.

“I ended up getting an email last week about it, which was pretty awesome,” Frey told Lakeland Connect. 

“I was for sure excited. I was very surprised.” 

Frey is playing with the St. Albert Crude in Tier I Junior B in the province. Despite the Crude having their struggles this season, Frey potted a total of seven goals and 19 assists, a year after being the league’s first overall pick in the Jr. B draft.

However, the Cold Lake product also got the opportunity to play a couple of Junior A games with the Miners in St. Albert.

In late winter this year, a combine was held to look at the potential prospects for this edition of Team Canada. Frey said he didn’t expect anything to come out of it.

Fast forward to today, where he prepares to go to Saskatoon and prepare for the upcoming tournament, which will be seen by a national audience on TSN.

Comprised of kids from Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, the team hopes to repeat as gold medalists.

“I played kids from the states in field lacrosse before, that was two years ago. So I’ve never played international box lacrosse so we’ll see how that goes,” said Frey.  

“Just meeting new guys and learning new things from other guys around the country, the coaching will be amazing to learn from too as well. But coming out on top with a gold medal would be super amazing.” 

The International Indoor Junior Lacrosse was founded in 2016 and is the only international junior tournament for 20 and unders in box lacrosse.

Team Canada will practice this weekend before kicking of its first game on Monday. In group play, they will play Poland on Monday and Australia on Wednesday.

Depending on where they finish, they’ll play in quarterfinals and semifinals.

The opposite group is comprised of Israel, Scotland, and the United States.

Medal games are scheduled for Saturday.

Frey will be cheered on by his family and friends who are making a journey down to Saskatoon to watch his games.

He thanked his coaches, family, and friends for supporting him.

“My brother’s a huge supporter which is awesome. He gave me a pep talk a few nights ago about where I should be mentally headed into this tournament. And it kind of fired me up and got me excited.”