If you have been watching our twitter feed and our instagram posts, you have seen some posts about Coach Hopper, Israel box lacrosse and Prague. It doesn’t seem like it would all fit together aka why is there box lacrosse in Prague so let me fill you in on what’s been going on over here.

The Best Kept Secret in Lacrosse - The Ales Hrebesky Memorial Tournament



A Box Lacrosse Tournament in The Czech Republic?

I’m not sure why or how exactly it happened but box lacrosse is extremely popular in the Czech Republic. It could be a similar story like Canada, that once the hockey rinks melted they picked up lacrosse. Anyways, every year they have a box lacrosse tournament called the Ales Hrebesky Memorial. It is, in my opinion, the best-kept secret of the lacrosse world. Throughout my lacrosse career I have been lucky enough to have played in The Vail Shootout, Lake Placid, War at the Shore and they don’t even compare to the Hrebesky. It’s an entirely different animal. I have this week circled on my calendar every year.

For 5 days, box lacrosse teams from all over the world come to compete in a sleepy suburb 10 minutes outside of Prague called Radotin . It would be similar to putting up a box lacrosse rink in Moorestown, NJ or Rumson, NJ. It’s still blows my mind every time we show up to the field that this place exists!

The Czech’s take great pride in running this tournament and everything about it is done very high quality. They live stream every single game (archive the old ones), have professional photographers walking around, and even put up a jumbotron at one end of the rink. For opening ceremonies they have a skydiver land in the center of the rink! Thousands of Czechs will fill the stands all day and all night to watch the tournament and cheer on their local teams competing in the tournament. They absolutely love box lacrosse here and while they root for their hometown teams, they just love being there and watching lacrosse period. The atmosphere is impossible to replicate anywhere else and is one of the more intense and intimate settings to play lacrosse in. When there are five thousand Czechs chanting in unison around a hockey rink while you are battling it out on the floor it only adds to the adrenaline rush. It’s awesome, exhilarating, and fun all at the same time.

There are several teams from Canada that usually feature retired and semi-pros, including Coach Brad MacArthur and Coach Collins’ Green Gaels team. There was a team from the Iroquois Nation three years ago that won the tournament. The Canadian teams and the Iroquois teams have won the majority of the championships in recent memory with the Czechs sprinkled in there a few times. Aside from them, there are teams from Ireland, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, England, Boston USA, Turkey, Switzerland, Israel, Poland and Germany…it’s absolutely mind blowing that lacrosse is played in some of these places - let alone they travel and spend their own money to get here! It’s very cool to see the sport spreading. For the full list of teams click here.