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Saskatoon Rush vs. Georgia Swarm Saturday, March 12 7:30 p.m. Sasktel Centre

A five-year-old boy, and an 80-year-old man, toted lacrosse sticks on a field at the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse last spring.

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Jeremy Thompson was there, too. He had a stick, and he chased a leather-clad ball, just like the child and the old man, and everybody else on that field.

When Thompson was a baby, they placed a wood lacrosse stick in his cradleboard. He’s intertwined his life with the game. He’s one of the world’s best players, and he sees his gift as a responsibility.

Sometimes, his life has been hard. There’s that long spell when he was lost in alcohol and drugs, but even then, lacrosse was a constant.

And when spring comes, there’s this celebration of the game-as-culture, and a giving of thanks. Thompson makes sure he’s there with the young, and the old, and the strong-legged men enjoying their peak years. They play with wood sticks and a leather ball, because it’s a return to the earth, and to them lacrosse is so much more than a game.