Fiddlehead Fall Classic, the growth of senior lacrosse in New Brunswick

Members of the Fiddleheads celebrate after scoring a goal during the tournament. (Credit: Fiddleheads)

From Sept. 5 to Sept. 7, the New Brunswick Fiddleheads Senior Lacrosse Club hosted its inaugural Fiddlehead Fall Classic tournament at the York Arena in Fredericton.

The Fiddleheads placed third of five teams coming from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and Maine.

Defence Chris Burgess said the most challenging team they faced was the Nova Scotia Privateers, who won the tournament and have played internationally in the past.

“They came down and talking with everyone after they were very grateful for the event, and we'll probably be crossing paths and do some exhibition games and we’ll see if we can kind of close the gap on them next tournament,” said Burgess.

The team was established in the fall of 2024. Before that, there was no senior lacrosse team in New Brunswick for over 20 years. 

After players aged out of minor league lacrosse, they had no other options outside of playing at a university.

Burgess, who is also the technical director for Lacrosse New Brunswick and a few other players decided to pitch, forming a new seniors team. 

The team played their first tournament in Montreal last February, even though a lot of the players hadn’t touched a lacrosse stick in over 10 years.

“It's the first time in a long time that a New Brunswicker could, in theory, play lacrosse for life, you know,” he said.

“So there's an opportunity to start playing lacrosse when you're five, six years old, and if you so choose, you could keep playing until you could no longer run. So, I think it's a monumental step in the right direction for lacrosse in New Brunswick.”

Ben Teasdale, forward and team general manager, said the biggest motivator to host a tournament was to establish the Fiddleheads in the senior lacrosse world. 

Since there is no league in New Brunswick, the only way they can play is by joining tournaments in other provinces and states.

“So if we can show them that we exist, throw a good tournament, have a good level of competition here in Fredericton, then that can sort of put us on the map and bring some awareness to the game here,” he said.

When asked what the goals of the tournament were, Burgess said that the club had two main aims: to pull off the event smoothly without a deficit and to not come last in the standings.

He also said that the Fiddleheads got better as the tournament went on. 

The bottom end of the team’s roster was able to gain experience quickly, along with improving the team’s overall communication.

“I think it was an eye opener for a lot of our guys, if we want to do this, we got to get in shape, myself included. I think that's probably where we improved the most,” he said.

Burgess said that if they could’ve done anything differently, they would've gotten into tactics more. 

The team played basic zone defence to make sure everyone was on the same page. Moving forward, they plan on having a more aggressive “man-to-man” style of defending.

He also thinks they could schedule the event more to their favour, which is commonplace for teams hosting tournaments.

Teasdale said that every team that participated wants to come back next year. He added that the stands were packed with fans from across the province— they sold out on all the merchandise they had. 

“It was kind of overwhelming to see the amount of people that were there and in support of lacrosse,” he said.

Burgess believed that the tournament was successful.

“Honestly, for a first time, I think it went off without a hitch. And, you know, they say don't fix it if it ain't broke. I think it was a great first step and I don't think it could have gone any better,” he said.