Legendary 1990 SLU Women’s Lax Team
Jodi Canfield ’91 Relives Her Time on the NCAA Second Place Women’s Lacrosse Team
My life has revolved around sports. My mother was a Physical Education instructor before she started our family business of a sporting goods store (Axtell’s Sports), and my father was a ski coach here at St. Lawrence and a member of the St. Lawrence Hall of Fame. Some of you may have met him hanging around Coach Ethan’s and Coach Willie’s offices, aka “Ax”. He is a legend, and both of my parents were strong role models, athletically gifted, and had a prominent role in fostering my passion for all things sports. I have good genes, but I also worked hard to become a collegiate athlete. Tennis and lacrosse were my interests, but being from Canton, I did not have the opportunities in high school that a lot of my teammates had in their school experience. I created my opportunities.
Being a student-athlete at St. Lawrence created some of my best memories. I played tennis and lacrosse and by all accounts was a better lacrosse player. My father wanted me to ski as well, but my body and academics were not going to hold up to a three-sport endeavor. I had great coaches in terms of developing the entire student, being strong mentors, and overall, just quality individuals. Margie Strait (former athletic director) was my tennis coach and Dottie Hall was my lacrosse coach. They taught me valuable lessons about teamwork, work ethic, leadership, communication and integrity.
I was fortunate to be a member of the 1990 lacrosse team who went to the NCAA finals and that team was inducted into the St. Lawrence Hall of Fame in 2002. It was an incredible season. We finished 15-1 with our only loss being in the finals to Ursinus College by a score of 7-6. One goal…one stinking goal. But it was a great game and in that final game, along with the experience of the semi-final game, we learned lessons about sportsmanship, class and losing with integrity.
What I also value is how we worked as a team. But that was a journey. We were all so different. We were from different states, different socio-economic backgrounds, different interests and different friend groups. No, we did not all hang out together. I am going to say that some were not even the slightest of friends off the field. But, when we played, we were a team. And we challenged each other to be the best we could be.
It took our coach to bring us together. During the Hall of Fame season, we mostly had what would be considered lobsided games where we comfortably won. We had close wins against Middlebury and Hamilton, but those were such big rivalries, we were always hyped to play those. In the years prior to the Liberty League automatic qualifiers for NCAAs, we had a New York State championship format to get our NCAA bid. We beat Cortland 5-4 to win that championship, but it wasn’t pretty, and Coach Dotty let us know. She did not scream or yell. Instead, she wrote us a letter. This letter is two pages long and ANYONE who wants to read it in its entirety, please, stop by my office and I will share it with you. To this day when I read it, it takes me back some 30 years ago to my junior year self. And being a former lacrosse coach (SLU 1999-2015), this letter could apply to any sport, any time.
I am honored to be a Laurentian. I am grateful for all the experiences I had at St. Lawrence. Here is a quote from this letter. I hope you can apply it to all of your life’s passions be them sport related or not. GO SAINTS!
“….We have to pull together. We have to accept each other, appreciate each one’s individuality. We must communicate honestly and openly. We need to temper our criticism, and at the same time, accept when criticism is given. Completely understanding the situation, allowing for the emotion of the moment. (Dotty Hall, team letter, May, 1990).