YORKTON - It has been a big couple of months for Canadian box lacrosse player Shonly Wallace.
It started with the Mission, BC native being part of Team Canada at the first-ever women’s box championship.
And after returning from the Championships in Utica, NY. where Canada finished with silver medals after a 10-7 loss to the United States in the gold medal final Wallace was hired by the NLL’s Albany FireWolves where she will serve as the first female scout in the history of the league.
Wallace told Yorkton This Week she is looking forward to the opportunity to show a female can contribute to the game at the pro box level.
“I think females are capable of doing this just as well. That’s what I’m excited to show – to show the world of lacrosse in general,” she said.
“Shonly has a unique passion for lacrosse as well as high end experience in the indoor and outdoor game,” said Glenn Clark, General Manager and Head Coach of the Albany FireWolves in a team release. “Her recent participation in the World Indoor Championships has her well positioned to support our staff as our NCAA Scout.”
“I’ve always known deep down that I wanted to work in the NLL and so the fact that this day has come is quite an amazing thing,” said Wallace in the team release. “The FireWolves are leading the way with promoting this growth and supporting women’s box lacrosse. Boy or girl there’s no limit to how much passion you can have for the sport you love.”
Being part of the male lacrosse world is not exactly new for Wallace, nor is forging a path for women.
“Growing up it was playing on the first girls’ box lacrosse team in my town that my dad and other families had started,” she said.
Now being involved with the NLL it’s one of those dream come true situations for Wallace, who noted the sport has long been one of her biggest passions.
“I grew up with the WLA and NLL game,” she said, adding watching the top level of box lacrosse inspired her.
Along the way Wallace said she has played “every discipline” of lacrosse from field to box to the new Olympics-bound 6v6. That broad experience is an asset for the new scout.
“I’ve played every type of lacrosse and been involved at every level,” she said, adding she believes the FireWolves simply saw her as the right person for the job. “. . . They recognized that I know my stuff.”
She grew up playing box lacrosse in Canada before making the jump to college lacrosse in the United States. In Wallace’s college career at Stony Brook, Oregon, and Albany, Wallace accumulated 117 goals and 21 assists in 60 games played.
Now it’s just getting to work for Wallace, currently an assistant coach for the women’s lacrosse team at Central Michigan University. She said as a scout it will be time watching film and seeing games in-person, using both as a way to determine who has the skills to be a good NLL player.
As for the world championship experience Wallace said while the final loss was disappointing she recognizes that the event itself was bigger than the results as the first time women’s box lacrosse was put on such an international stage.
Wallace said just being selected to be part of Team Canada for the inaugural championship “was incredible,” and she felt “very honoured” by the opportunity “to play for my country. . . Especially Canada as it’s our national sport. It was too good to be true honestly.”
As for the result, Wallace said looking back “we had an incredible tournament,” although they did come up a bit short at the end. She added it was certainly the team focus going in to win it all.
Even with a finals’ loss Wallace said she is “proud of what was accomplished. . . (But), it was not the end obviously we were looking for.”
