Ainslee Rushton is going places and crossing borders just because she's good at what she does.
Stopping heavy hard-rubber lacrosse balls whipped at the net at high velocity is not a job for people with low pain tolerance and the 14-year-old learned long ago she's tough enough and talented enough to keep her team in the game by making timely saves.
Fresh from backing her house league bantam team to the Prince George Lacrosse Association house league playoff championship last weekend, Rushton is off to Calgary this weekend with the Prince George Posse bantam rep team vying for Canada Day tournament title.
She'll barely have time to catch her breath and she'll be back on the lacrosse floor in Richmond playing with the boys on the Posse in the A2 bantam provincial championship. That tournament starts Thursday.
Rushton was forced to miss provincials last year because she had another call of duty playing for Team B.C. in the bantam female national championship in Halifax.
This year the dates don't clash.
The national tournament returns to Halifax, July 21-25.
"It was pretty sad I had to miss that last year, it was hard," she said. "This is going to be an extra-long season."
In August, Rushton will be flying to Anaheim, Calif. to play for a club team in a tournament. The national championship tournament attracts NCAA college scouts team looking for talent and potential scholarship players to fill their field lacrosse team rosters and that's likely where the California team scouted Rushton. The tournament runs from Aug. 4-7.
Last year at nationals, B.C. got to the final but lost to Ontario and had to settle for silver. Rushton alternated games in the tournament with the other B.C. goalie and played the first period of the final. That experience of trying to be the best in Canada should serve her well when she returns to Halifax for her second attempt at national glory. She's the only girl on Team B.C. from the northern part of the province and because there are no female teams in the region Rushton plays with the boys, who run faster and shoot harder. It's been that way ever since she started playing lacrosse seven years ago and she says gives her a bit of an advantage in female tournaments.
"I like playing boys," said Rushton, who shares the Posse netminding duties with Spencer Rogers.
Coached by Ken Barwise, the Posse plays at the A2 bantam level and they started with a fourth-place finish at a tournament in Kamloops and were third a few weeks ago in Penticton.
Last year the Posse was fifth in the Canada Day tournament but Rushton figures they will push for the title this time in Calgary.
"We've got more speed and strength now and we've been practicing lots," said Rushton.
Following the provincial tournament, Rushton will stay with a billet family in the Lower Mainland and will begin practicing with the young provincial team. She's one of only three second-year bantams on the team. The team is guaranteed six games in Halifax, seven if they make it to the final.
"The coach told me that since I'm experienced and was part of the team that won silver we have to share it and prep the other girls for it," she said.
Rushton has switched to a traditional wooden stick instead of the more common molded plastic-basket sticks most goalies use.
"I like their weight and also like that you can really whip the ball when you learn how to," she said. "You can have someone in the far corner and whip it right to their stick on a breakaway. I like the looks of them, they're sick."
Rushton's brother Lucas played junior for the Coquitlam Adanacs last year as a goalie. Her father George is a former hockey goaltender, but he never played lacrosse.
"We just like that she works hard at it and has fun," said George.
"If you're young you might as well enjoy yourself."
George says he's looking forward to the fact the national championships for girls will be held in the Lower Mainland the next two years so he and his wife Colleen can watch their daughter play without have to cough up the cost of a coast-to-coast flight.
