A change in attitude has a new hawk flying east with plenty of confidence.
Okotoks Junior A Raider Ethan Landymore has committed to the University of Hartford Hawks field lacrosse team in 2020.
The 19-year-old Landymore, from Okotoks, has always achieved well with a lacrosse stick in his hand, now he’s making the grade when grasping a textbook at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire.
“When I went to New Hampshire my school improved a lot,” Landymore said from his Okotoks home. “When I was here, I was at home with my friends and I didn’t have any good habits.
“When I went to a new school, I wanted to try and make it so I wouldn’t fail academically.
“I did really well at school and I want to keep it up.”
Landymore was looked at by a number of schools while at Brewster, but the campus in Hartford caught his fancy.
“When I got there it just felt like a school where I wanted to go,” he said.
Landymore is in his second-year with the Raiders — a team he grew up watching in Okotoks before the squad moved to Calgary.
“I used to ride my bike to the Centennial Arena and watched almost every game,” Landymore said. “It was a dream of mine to get drafted by them, and now I am actually playing for them.”
Landymore was the captain of Team Alberta and the tournament MVP when it won the Midget national championship (box lacrosse) in 2017 — the first time ever for the Wild Rose province (DeWinton's Matt Flammenspeck, now with the Calgary Jr. A Mountaineers, was also on that championship team).
Landymore was drafted in the second round by the Raiders in 2018. However, his dream rookie year got cut short when he injured a shoulder as a transitional player.
However, things have turned around this season for the now healthy Okotokian.
He was second on the team in scoring during the regular season with 19 goals in 14 games. He has contributed one goal in the playoffs as the Raiders lead the Saskatoon SWAT 2-0 in the best of five Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League series.
He’s on the offensive side of the ball this year.
“I just like playing lacrosse, but I do enjoy playing offence more,” he said.
Landymore is as comfortable out in the field with Brewster Academy as playing in the box with the Raiders.
Although Okotoks is box-lacrosse mad, enthusiasts in the community had the forethought to start a field lacrosse program in town, the Mavericks, to provide young players greater opportunity for university scholarships.
It was while with the Mustangs were at a tournament in Las Vegas, that Landymore caught the eye of the boarding school in New Hampshire.
He estimates he has played field and box since he was 11 years old.
One of his first coach’s with the Mustangs was Jesse Fehr — the current head coach of the Okotoks Raiders.
“I have known him for quite some time and now he is my box coach — he has given me the success I needed for Brewster and Hartford,” Landymore said
Fehr, who played field lacrosse at Duke, said Landymore has the talent to have an impact with the Div. I Hartford Hawks.
“I have known Ethan since when I started coaching the Mustangs, he was part of that first group I ever coached in about 2011,” Fehr said. “He will be an offensive player (at Hartford). He’s excellent and catching and finishing the ball and has a great game sense.
“A great athlete — with the ball in his stick he can attack one people one-on-one, make moves and score goals,” Fehr said.
Landymore will have one more year at Brewster, but he has some unfinished business with the Raiders and box lacrosse before going back to school to the Granite State.
The Raiders, who also have Holy Trinity Academy grad Luke Welton on the roster, play Games 3 and 4 against the SWAT on July 19 and 20 in Saskatoon.
If a Game 5 is needed, the geographically-strange Okotoks Raiders are back at the Max Bell Arena in Calgary on July 21 at 6 p.m.
For more information go to rockymountainlax.com
