Kent students play for National Lacrosse team in International Tournament

Two students from the University of Kent represented the English Universities National Lacrosse team at the Nick Kehoe International Lacrosse tournament on the 5^th and 6^th May 2018.

Kieran Garvey and Tom Roper – Kent Stag’s 1^st team captains – were scouted for the national English Universities lacrosse team and invited to play in the international tournament.

The Nick Kehoe Internationals, played at the Wilmslow Lacrosse Club in Cheshire, put twelve men’s teams against each other in knock-out tournaments over two days.

Lacrosse teams from all over the world come together to play in the high-level competition, representing regional teams such as North-West England and Yorkshire, and national teams like Belgium and Spain.

Given only two-weeks’ notice to play as a team, England Universities placed in fourth and set a record ranking for the squad.

Previously, the English Universities team have never made it to the top division, but over the weekend the team performed in the semi-finals just losing against Switzerland who came third.

The English Universities team consists of the best Lacrosse players in universities from all over the country. The 2018 team alongside Garvey and Roper included students from universities such as Bristol, Nottingham and Leeds.

Over a period of months, the two Kent students have gone through a series of trials to make their way to the English Universities national team.

The pair trialled individually alongside 80 other players back in December to make it to the regionals team for a tournament during April.

They were then invited to represent the South-East region in the regionals tournament against the South-West and Midlands teams. Coaches for the English Universities squad took notes on the pair’s performance to evaluate their readiness for the national-level team.

Performing well in the tournament, they were both scouted to represent the 2018 English Universities as a long-stick midfielder (Garvey) and short-stick midfielder (Roper) at the Nick Kehoe Internationals.

InQuire sat down with Kieran and Tom, where Kieran told us: “It’s really eye-opening. Playing the in south is all I know. Playing internationally taught me a lot, how to improve and I just want to do it again.”

Tom continued, “All the other players and how good I could possibly get really motivated me to actually improve in my training. I wanted to be as good as them.”

Garvey, fourth-year student and 1^st Team Captain of the Kent Stags has also previously been the President and Social Secretary of the Kent Lacrosse team. Roper is a second-year student who started Lacrosse in first-year and was made Vice-Captain of the 1^st team last year. Neither of the Captains played Lacrosse before they began university.

As well as playing for the University of Kent Stags team, Garvey and Roper also play for the local Canterbury City Lacrosse club.