My town is a hotbed of our national sport

So, what's the big deal? Nothing, really. Except that what few people may know is that hockey is not Canada's national sport. At least not our national summer sport. Heck, it wasn't even our national winter sport until sometime in the 90's when somebody decided it should be. What has always been our national sport until it was relegated to our national summer sport to make room for hockey is that oh-so-popular sport you see being played by Canadian youngsters in the streets and every vacant lot available was, of course, lacrosse.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, the game is sort of like hockey, but instead of using a puck and hockey stick, you use a very, very hard ball and a lacrosse stick. The ball is carried in webbing on the stick and tossed among players until a shot on goal is feasible. The only other major difference is that players use much less equipment. This is because there isn't much body checking in lacrosse--they just whack you in your bare arms and legs until you scream "uncle" and relinquish the ball.

The goalie is an exception in terms of the amount of equipment he wears. Remember the very hard ball? He's allowed to wear the padding of three full-sized sofas so as not to deter his attention from keeping the ball out of his net--a net that is much narrower than a hockey net. He also gets a special stick with a much larger "pocket" than a player's stick. The amazing thing about this game is that anyone ever scores at all. The goalies look like grizzly bears who accidentally wandered into the arena and took up positions at either end as if they were playing for The Salmon Cup.

Below we see a women's lacrosse match--a much milder version of the game. Here, the girl on the right is executing a "just-letting-you-know-I'm-here" tactic, where she extends her arm completely resulting in simultaneous blows to her opponent's arm and head, almost dislodging her mouth guard.

The team-mate of the girl under attack is wistfully wishing she were a majorette and is just dying to twirl her "baton".

Below is the aforementioned grizzly bear, always ready to scoop up a passing salmon with his fish net.

Oh--I almost forgot. My town is on the verge of a lacrosse championship.