One player jokes that he emerged from the womb with a stick in his hands, while another didn’t play organized lacrosse until he was 13.
A third is currently in his seventh season with the same professional team although no Jr. A team expressed interest in him. And yet another turned down the opportunity to play Jr. A and is now with his ninth professional team in eight years.
But all four men shared the floor on Jan. 28 for a National Lacrosse League (NLL) game at the Saddledome in Calgary – more than 2,500 kilometres from where their junior lacrosse careers began with the Elora Mohawks.
Dane Dobbie, of the Calgary Roughnecks, and Kasey Beirnes, Rob Marshall and Jamie Rooney, of the Toronto Rock, ultimately took different paths to box lacrosse’s pre-eminent stage, but all four speak fondly of their roots in Wellington County.
“It’s just a great place to play. I miss it a lot, actually,” Dobbie said specifically of Elora.
Now one of Calgary’s top offensive threats – he tied for the team lead with 75 points last year and had 14 through four games this season – Dobbie played two years for the Jr. B Mohawks in Elora before heading west in 2005 to play with the Jr. A Burnaby Lakers in British Columbia.
He made the move in part because he admired Curt Malawsky, Burnaby’s coach at the time and now assistant general manager and assistant coach for the Roughnecks. Being accompanied by close friend and Mohawk teammate Jamie Lincoln helped make the decision easier.
Dobbie, 25, certainly doesn’t regret moving out west. After all, he won the Minto Cup national championship in his first year with Burnaby, was drafted fourth overall by the Roughnecks in 2007 and won the NLL championship there two years later.
And though he now calls Coquitlam, BC, home, he hasn’t ruled out an eventual move back to Ontario.
For now, Dobbie enjoys squaring off on the lacrosse floor against guys like Beirnes, Marshall and Rooney, who still reside in Wellington County.
“We’re all pretty tight … it’s good to see four of us in the NLL who came out of the Elora Jr. B system,” Dobbie said. “Those guys are great guys and I always like to see them doing well.”
Like Dobbie, Beirnes is a forward who was born in Fergus and raised in Elora. But Beirnes, 31, picked up the sport relatively late, at age 13, whereas Dobbie has played the game for as long as he can remember.
“I was pretty much born with a lacrosse stick in my hands,” Dobbie jokes.
His family ties to the sport – his father, Larry, has been a fixture in the minor and junior lacrosse systems in Centre Wellington for decades, and his grandfather, Bob, is a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame – left him little choice when it came to summer Sports.
Beirnes, who registered 40 points last year with the Rock and was third on the team with 11 points through four games this season, said his family was also heavily involved with lacrosse, but for some reason he played baseball as a young boy.
That is until Gerald Benham, who would go on to serve as president for the Fergus Thistles Jr. C team, convinced him to attend a local lacrosse camp.
“At that point I think I had my fill of baseball and I was kind of bored with it,” Beirnes said. “I don’t think I’ve played another game of ball since.”
Like most lacrosse players, Beirnes was drawn to the sport’s similarities with hockey, as well as the excitement and physical nature of Canada’s official summer sport.
He played five seasons with the Elora Mohawks, despite being drafted by the Jr. A Orangeville Northmen.
“I never thought of anything coming out of lacrosse, so I turned down the Orangeville gig,” Beirnes said. “I didn’t expect my career to continue, that’s for sure.”
But he was drafted in the third round (28th overall) of the 2001 NLL draft by the now defunct Columbus Landsharks. He also spent time playing for Arizona and Minnesota before being traded to the Toronto Rock in 2007. He and Marshall were part of the NLL championship team in Toronto last season.
In addition to their recent success with the Rock, playing close to home also makes life a lot easier, Beirnes explained.
“This is definitely prolonging my career, playing in Toronto,” he said with a laugh.
Shorter travel time for home games means less time away from his family in Fergus – he and his wife have a 2-year-old son and are expecting their second child in June – as well as his job as a booking coordinator for Centre Wellington facilities.
“It’s a big commitment from them,” Beirnes said, giving “full props” to his wife and employer for understanding the time commitment required to play professional lacrosse.
NLL salaries are much lower than those in other professional Sports, ranging from about $7,000 to upwards of $25,000. Thus most players in the league also have full-time jobs – Dobbie, for example, is currently completing an apprenticeship as an electrician – and all NLL games are played on weekends.
For Beirnes, Marshall and Rooney, another perk of playing for the Rock is being able to car pool to home games at the Air Canada Centre (ACC).
“It’s pretty amazing, actually,” Marshall said of both travelling an playing with Beirnes and Rooney.
“It helps your confidence playing with friends. It kind of makes you feel at home.”
Marshall, 27, lives in Fergus with his girlfriend and has worked in construction for a number of years.
Rooney, his cousin, is the same age and lives in Arthur, where he works as a salesman at Arthur Chrysler.
Both were born in Mount Forest and grew up and played minor lacrosse in Arthur before spending their entire junior careers in Elora.
“I always wanted to be a Mohawk,” Marshall said, echoing the sentiments of countless boys who grow up in Wellington County.
Though renowned for his aggressive defensive play, Marshall said no Jr. A team ever expressed interest in him. He was later passed over again, going undrafted by NLL teams.
But in 2005 he was invited by former Mohawk coach and current Toronto Rock assistant coach John Lovell for a “walk-on” tryout with the Rock.
“I went in with the attitude that I had nothing to lose,” Marshall recalled. “I just took the ball into my own hands and did what I had to do.”
He signed with the team shortly thereafter and to this day, says it is surreal playing in Toronto.
“It’s a great atmosphere [at the ACC],” Marshall said. “It’s a real eye-opener seeing that many fans just for warm-up.”
Much like Beirnes, Marshall said his family and girlfriend are his “number one fans,” adding they have been supportive from the outset.
Rooney, who Marshall says was always the best offensive player on their teams growing up, also took a unique path to joining the Rock this season.
He, too, played his entire junior career in Elora. He was drafted into the Jr. A league by Mississauga and traded to Orangeville, but chose instead to play with his friends on the Mohawks.
“We had unfinished business in Elora,” Rooney said, alluding to the team’s loss in the 2004 Founder’s Cup national final. The team would go on to win that cup in 2005.
Drafted in 2004 by the Buffalo Bandits, Rooney spent time with eight NLL clubs before signing as a free agent with the Rock in December. As of Feb. 3, he had played two games with the team, scoring what Marshall called two “very big” goals.
“It’s amazing right now … It’s really unbelievable,” Rooney said of his opportunity to play for Lovell in Toronto alongside Beirnes and Marshall.
“The product from Elora is spanning out, that’s for sure. It’s great to see.”
Not surprisingly, all four players have different responses when quizzed about lacrosse players they have emulated.
A few names come up several times, including members of their respective families, as well as familiar individuals from the not-so-distant NLL past like Paul and Gary Gait. Current players such as Colorado Mammoth great John Grant Jr. (the current NLL scoring leader) and Toronto Rock veteran Colin Doyle also come up often.
Dobbie specifically credits Malawsky and Rock forward Josh Sanderson, of Orangeville (a perennial top scorer in the NLL and Dobbie’s former roommate in Calgary), with his own development as a player.
“I learned a lot from him,” Dobbie said of Sanderson, who he said had the highest lacrosse acumen of anyone he’s seen in the game, except perhaps Malawsky.
Marshall said he has been motivated over the years by the successes of his friends, particularly Beirnes and Rooney.
But all four – Marshall, Dobbie, Beirnes and Rooney – hint their background also played a large role in their success.
They are part of an impressive contingent of NLL players with roots in Wellington County.
Others include Buffalo Bandits forward and Arthur native Chad Culp and Toronto Rock practice player and Rockwood native Jesse Gamble. Both played Jr. A for Orangeville and Gamble also played NCAA field lacrosse for Cornell University.
It’s difficult to explain the area’s consistent production of skilled lacrosse players, but Rooney thinks it starts with great coaching.
“I think having a Jr. B team (Mohawks) that has been so successful for so long also helps,” he said, adding local kids witness that success and want to be a part of it.
Dobbie noted Centre Wellington has long been renowned for its strong minor hockey and lacrosse systems. The rich lacrosse heritage in the area adds to that, he explained.
“Generations pass down their commitment to the game,” Dobbie said.
Whatever the reasons, and regardless of their different paths, Dobbie, Beirnes, Marshall and Rooney seem to be relishing every moment of their shared NLL experience.
All conveyed sentiments similar to those expressed succinctly by Dobbie.
“It’s awesome; it’s definitely a lot of fun,” he said.
For more information visit www.nll.com.
