Sonny’s star on the rise with Irish lacrosse side

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

It may have been the 1999 cult comedy American Pie that first brought lacrosse to the attention of a certain generation this side of the Atlantic Ocean, but for one Galway man the sport – which, believe it or not, was played in Ireland as far back as the 1870s – has opened up a whole new world to him.

Recently selected for the Ireland team, Knocknacarra man Sonny Campbell will now compete at the 2014 World Lacrosse Championships in Denver, USA in July. It’s a huge opportunity for the 23-years-old, who only took up the sport when it was knitted into the sporting fabric of NUI Galway life in 2008.

That said, Campbell made an instant impact by being voted the 2008 Rookie of the Year, with the highlight of the season scoring the winning goal for a combined colleges outfit of NUIG, Trinity and Queens (Belfast) against Dublin Lacrosse in sudden death overtime in a tournament in Galway.

Leeds-born Campbell – his father Andrew hails from the Yorkshire city while his mother Bernadette Finn is from Aughrim – moved to Galway when he was just two. He subsequently attended Galway School Project (now Galway Educate Together NS) and St Enda’s before studying applied maths at NUIG.

His entry into the university coincided with the birth of lacrosse in Galway. A former player from New York, Ryan Doran, was anxious to introduce the sport to the West of Ireland and through NUIG’s Sports Day managed to sell the idea to a handful of students. A handful proved enough.

“Lacrosse is 10-a-side so if we were short guys when we went playing tournaments we would grab a few extras from the other teams we were playing. We had a really good start to NUIG Lacrosse though because the nine or 10 guys we did have were really into it and really dedicated,” explains Campbell.

At that time, there were only a few teams in the country, most notably Dublin Lacrosse and UCD. However, Queens and Trinity College did combine to form another outfit in 2008 and, over the ensuing years, they turned out to be NUIG’s main rivals.

According to Campbell, the NUIG team was really a mixed bunch. He played basketball and soccer during his childhood and teenage years while some of the other players hailed from GAA backgrounds, particularly hurling.

“They come to try it out because it is very similar. It is actually funny because the first ever Lacrosse team in Ireland was founded in 1872 in Newtownards in County Down. They had a team there for a good few years and it started to spread around Northern Ireland.

“Eventually though the game was killed-off because it was taking guys away from hurling. The GAA kind of put a stop to it. Anyway, teams from the United States used to tour Ireland [in the late 1800s] and there are still records of it around. It’s crazy that it has taken such a long time for it to come back again.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.