By Canadian Press

Geoff Snider says goodbye to playing competitive lacrosse – again – after worlds

Aug 5, 2018 | 1:56 PM

Geoff Snider was done playing lacrosse. He’d retired from the Calgary Roughnecks ahead of the 2016 National Lacrosse League season and had been happy running ELEV8 Lacrosse, his playing academy.

But coaching legend Dave Huntley convinced Snider last November to play one last time in the 2018 world field lacrosse championship in Netanya, Israel. Huntley died less than a month after that conversation after suffering a heart attack while watching box lacrosse in Florida. Huntley, who was just 61 when he passed, inspired Snider for his final run as a player.

“I just wasn’t sure if my body was going to hold up, but the comment was ‘if you can play, great, if you can’t, come coach,’” said Snider. “Dave passed away in December of last year and the decision was more to honour him and respect that.”

Getting back into game shape was Snider’s first big hurdle.

Although Snider was named an NLL all-star five times over nine seasons and had won two world field championships, it had been more than a year since he last played. Furthermore, he’d ruptured an Achilles tendon twice in 2016, once in February and again in June.

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“Oh man, it was just a lot of hard work,” said Snider, who dropped 20 pounds in the process. “I was training with a personal trainer, I had adjusted my diet, I changed things around pretty heavily. I had a short period of time to get ready.”

At the same time, Snider was putting in work outside of the gym by advocating for players’ rights off the field of play.

Canada’s players had refused to play in international tournaments until the Canadian Lacrosse Association could provide them with better health insurance and take steps to re-establish its status as a charity with the Canadian Revenue Agency.

A tentative agreement between the two sides was reached June 8 with the help of the Federation of International Lacrosse to allow Canada to defend its 2014 title at this year’s world championship on July 12.

“We were fighting for the men, the women, the U19 and the senior teams. It was important to recognize that this was more about the sport and the program as a whole rather than just making sure that we had what we needed for Israel,” said Snider. “I’m super proud of the group for coming together and scrapping for that.

“For me, I know it was something that Dave Huntley had worked really hard for. It was important that we dug our heels in and made sure that we were fighting for the group collectively.”

Although Canada ultimately lost to the United States in a controversial 9-8 gold-medal game, Snider feels it was a proper finale to his playing career.

“Their sendoff was in the effort that we put out on the field,” said Snider. “I couldn’t have been more honoured to compete with a group of guys like that.

“The collective buy-in from everybody from the coaching staff all the way down to the rookies on the team, all of the staff included, everyone bought in. That’s all the sendoff I need.”

Snider has now re-retired and is focusing on his Calgary-based lacrosse school and will continue to be a part of Canada’s national team program off the field.

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John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press