Mohawk Medicine Men Lax Team Announced

No more speculation and no more guessing, the wait is finally over as the newest member of the FNJBLL (First Nations Jr. "B" Lacrosse League) has announced its team name and logo this past Monday. The team will be known as the "Mohawk Medicine Men" officially announced by Manager and Head Coach Kariwate Mitchell as he also announced the teams colors as grey, black and orange.

"He's a serious individual, he means business and he shows power and strength, he is wearing a Kastowa (headdress) decorated with a hawk tail spread open at the front and large deer antlers" said Mitchell when asked to describe the team's logo.

"I'm not going to lie, a big part of the name and logo is marketing" Mitchell said. He said that he was getting calls from everywhere with suggestions on a team name, "Thunder and Lightning kept coming up" as both were former names associated with Akwesasne lacrosse teams. There were also many who suggested that the junior "B" team be named after its senior affiliate, the Snake Island Muskies. Naming a team can be quite the task and there's no denying that a team is nothing without a name. After the name was selected, there was yet another task of creating a logo which also had many ideas.

"We finally decided that we would use a Chief as our logo and that was acceptable to me because a Chief in our culture can also be one who is gifted with the knowledge of medicines". Kariwate Mitchell

If you are looking for a logo that you can market, you probably would have Akwesasne Artist John Thomas at the top of the list and that is who Kariwate went to see. "I have always respected and appreciated his work, his paintings are not only a display of his talent but they also show his knowledge of our culture" he said. Mitchell explained his ideas of the team's logo and colors and according to Mitchell it was evident that John already had an idea in his head, "he was scratching ideas on a small notepad...I remember telling him that I wanted a logo that kids could be proud of".

The Medicine Men have also announced to the league that they will be playing at the Massena Arena, at the Harte Haven Plaza for their inaugural season which not only makes it easier for the visiting teams who won't have to deal with any border crossings. "The fact that teams all come from the southern jurisdictions was part of the reasoning but we also want to avoid conflicts with the Akwesasne Indians, Mitchell said about playing in Massena rather than Cornwall Island. Both the Akwesasne Indians and Mohawk Medicine Men will be playing weekend games and one arena would not be able to allow for it.

Are there any plans for any preseason games? Mitchell said that they were invited to one preseason tournament and are waiting for the official details. The team opens up their season on the road at the Onondaga Nation Territory before they play their home opener on May 27th as they welcome last year's champions, the Seneca War Chiefs.

As for try outs and preseason workouts, Mitchell said that the team will not be running any conditioning camps and will not have any scheduled floor times anytime soon. "We can probably start comfortably around April and still have over a month of practices as our league starts a bit later".

Players interested in playing for the Mohawk Medicine Men must be classified as free agent status.