FERGUS – Bringing house the Nationwide Lacrosse League (NLL) trophy was a “very surreal second” for 23-year-old Carter McKenzie.
He just lately completed his first 12 months enjoying for the Buffalo Bandits, who gained the championship on June 3.
Now, it’s his flip with the cup, and he gathered with household and buddies on Aug. 5 to have a good time with a golf event and barbecue in his hometown of Fergus.
The celebration was a possibility for him to share a second with a lot of the essential folks in his life who’ve supported his journey, performed lacrosse with him or watched him play, McKenzie mentioned.
He famous his sister Lauren organized the celebration and has at all times been his greatest supporter.
“She has been a rock by me and my brother’s lacrosse profession,” he mentioned in a telephone interview with the Advertiser.
Lauren typically drives three to 4 hours to observe her brother’s video games and cheer him on.
“I actually wouldn’t be the place I’m now with out her,” McKenzie mentioned. “I’m very, very fortunate for that. My mother, dad, brother and sister are my greatest followers.”
McKenzie with childhood greatest buddies Curtis Corridor, left, and Owen Ristov, proper.
McKenzie mentioned there’s additionally a way of household inside the Buffalo Bandits workforce, with the gamers growing a robust bond.
Although McKenzie was on the workforce’s observe roster, he performed 13 of 18 video games this season. He mentioned he feels good about what he added to the workforce, noting he wasn’t “simply there for the journey, [but] truly capable of contribute to the common season.”
He will likely be enjoying for the Buffalo Bandits once more subsequent 12 months after resigning with them on Aug. 3.
McKenzie was born and raised in Fergus and performed all his minor sports activities right here.
“It’s good to have a good time with the group. I really feel like I owe loads to minor sports activities and everybody that helped me alongside the way in which,” McKenzie mentioned.
He attended highschool and college elsewhere, however McKenzie mentioned he returned to Fergus each summer time.
“It’s my house right here,” he mentioned, and it’s “been an incredible house for me.”
McKenzie has at all times been obsessed with sports activities, together with baseball and hockey, and he mentioned he fell in love with lacrosse when he was about seven.
He mentioned due to the game he was capable of attend a great college in Kingston. The game has additionally given him sturdy connections to the opposite athletes on his groups.
He mentioned rising up enjoying lacrosse was like “rising up with 20 different brothers,” whose bond strengthened with each win and each loss.
Taking part in lacrosse provides an “escape from actuality,” McKenzie mentioned, as within the midst of the sport “nothing else issues – what’s happening at house, what’s happening at college simply disappears and I can overlook about life for an hour, hour and a half and simply benefit from the sport.”
McKenzie’s targets are easy: to enhance each season.
“If I see enhancements yearly, that’s what’s going to make me comfortable,” he mentioned.
In the end, McKenzie mentioned it could be “fairly superior” to win the cup once more, however he doesn’t wish to get too far forward of himself.