Swift Current's Shane Friesen is still riding high after leading the Minneapolis Senior A Wheat Kings to a NABLL championship in the US.
The lacrosse goaltender was named MVP of the national championship tournament.
"It was exhilarating," Friesen said. "I haven't been to a national championship in a while. It was a lot of fun to be competing in lacrosse again. The boys really showed up and played. They did awesome. It was just a really fun experience.
"I was very privileged and honored to be named MVP of the tournament. It was a really good experience. I'm just really happy that they chose me. I'm glad that I was able to show up for the team."
Friesen had moved to Minnesota to pursue training for his career when a new playing opportunity came to light.
"I first moved down for chiropractic school to Minneapolis," Friesen said. "I still wanted to keep playing lacrosse. I found the Wheat Kings and the St. Paul team, the Blue Shirts. It looked like they were doing a quick tournament in the winter, just like an off-season tournament. I joined that. The coach of the Wheat Kings saw me and said, oh, you should play this year."
His first tournament with his new team saw Friesen head to Prague.
League play started in June, and the team immediately had success.
"Had one loss during the regular season, and then dominated, won our region, went on to nationals," Friesen said. "We bonded really well. Everyone kind of had that same mentality of what we wanted and how to get it done."
For a player who had previously represented his country, this achievement was still a career highlight.
"This is top three," Friesen said. "This is phenomenal. I've played in World Juniors for a few years. I've played at the National Championships in Canada when I was quite a few years younger. Those have all been great, but I'd mark this up right with playing with Team Canada. This is a phenomenal achievement. I'm very happy that I was able to find the Wheat Kings this year and that we were able to go out and win a national championship."
The season in Minneapolis kind of re-ignited Friesen's desire to play high-level lacrosse after the blow of not getting picked in the NLL draft.
"I'm definitely going to continue playing with the Wheat Kings down here," he noted. "I'm still loving lacrosse. Lacrosse has been what I've grown up on for many, many years. I was really focused on maybe pushing to the next level last year when I entered the draft. I had no luck with that... my aspirations kind of died there a little bit.
"But this has kind of reignited the flame and does make me want to push further for the next level someday in the near future."