It’s been a summer of development so far for Prince Albert’s Bauer Swystun. The Ecole St. Mary student has been suiting up as the captain for the Saskatoon Jr. “A” SWAT in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL)
So far, the RMLL schedule hasn’t been kind to Saskatoon as they sit at the bottom of the standings with a record of 0-7-1. Swystun says there have been plenty of positives to take away despite the results.
“Our first weekend, we did very well. We tied in overtime, and we lost in overtime. Those are both super good games that we felt we genuinely should have won them. But more importantly, they were competitive, and we were actually in the game, unlike a lot of last year. We kind of fell into old habits that cost us a lot of games last year. It’s tough right now, but we’re still only halfway through the season. We have quite a few games to play, and so, I don’t see any reason why the boys still won’t prevail and get a few Ws under our belts.”
Swystun currently attends Tusculum University in Greeneville, Tennessee where he is studying business marketing while suiting up for the Pioneers lacrosse team.
He says he was encouraged to play after a conversation with Tusculum’s head coach Rodney Tapp, who is a former NLL player.
“He always mentioned to me that it’s so important that playing high level competitive lacrosse in the summer has a direct impact on a lot of the players that he sees coming back for the fall. And so, I think just in every aspect, especially skill and just aggressiveness almost everything improves and you get the upper hand on a lot of those Americans who don’t really get the luxury to play lacrosse every second day like we do up here.”
Growing up in Prince Albert, Swystun always made sure he stayed on top of his academics growing up. His dad, Bryan, is an assistant coach with the Prince Albert Mintos and works as a teacher.
Swystun adds that he learned a lot from his dad growing up.
“I know that he impacted me so heavily in terms of how I come about as an athlete and in terms of what you do outside of the rink directly impacts how you perform inside, especially in terms of the classroom. My dad’s also a teacher and hockey coach and so he always made me develop that discipline aspect of everyday life and that totally contributes to my lacrosse game.”
The Jr. A Swat return to action on Saturday, Jun. 17 when they take on the Edmonton Jr. Miners at the Kinsmen Arena in Saskatoon.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
