Born and bred in British Columbia, having lived in Prince George all of his life, Garrett Sakamoto now knows what it feels like to be a United States national champion.
The 13-year-old Sakamoto earned that accolade at the U.S. Box Lacrosse Championships two Sundays ago in San Jose., Calif., where he helped Fusion West defeat Denver Elite Silver to win the six-team Bantam A division championship.
Based in the Lower Mainland, Fusion West was the only Canadian team entered in the bantam boys division and they went undefeated at 6-0 while claiming the national crown, outscoring their opponents a combined 57-10. Sakamoto, who learned his craft playing in the Prince George Minor Lacrosse Association, was the only Fusion West player from northern B.C.
Fusion West and Denver already had clinched berths in the final wen they met in a semifinal game hours before the final and in that first game Fusion West cruised to a 20-2 victory. In the final, Fusion West had to come from behind to win 8-4.
“In the first game they weren’t trying at all,” said Sakamoto, who scored two goals in the final. “We blew them out the first game but they weren’t trying at all and that kind of sucked because then our whole team thought we would blow them out in the final, but they started winning (Denver led 3-1 after the first period).
“No one was expecting them to come out like that and everyone had to pick it up. In the second period we got a couple goals and tied it up and our team kept on scoring and we kept on burying them. It felt really good because they win it every year. Knowing that we hadn’t played for a long time and still going down there and winning, when they’ve been playing for a while now, that felt really good.”
Fusion West opened with a 12-8 win over Resolute (Cleveland, Ohio). The boys from B.C. also defeated Philadelphia-based Mid-Atlantic 10-0, CaliLax All-stars 10-2, and San Diego Seals 5-4.
Fusion West also won the girls bantam division title.
Sakamoto isn’t resting on his lacrosse laurels. This weekend in New Westminster he’ll attend the Fusion West field lacrosse team tryouts at Queen’s Park. If he makes the cut he’ll join the team later this year, with tournaments scheduled in Las Vegas, Seattle and Palm Springs.
The Prince George minor lacrosse season was scrapped because of the pandemic this year and in 2020 and Sakamoto was limited to practices only with his local Posse teammates. He also took part in regular workout sessions throughout the off-season at the Roll-A-Dome which helped sharpen his skills for his games with the Fusion.
The PGMLA was picked to host the 2020 bantam provincial championships at the Kin Centre and Sakamoto’s Posse team was considered strong enough to challenge for the B.C. A2 title when the pandemic forced cancellation of the event.
Sakamoto will celebrate his 14th birthday on Tuesday. He’ll attend Grade 9 classes this year at Prince George Secondary School.