Peterborough Timbermen defenseman and assistant captain Doug Utting had himself quite the summer. After a season with the MSL’s Cobourg Kodiaks, he went on to represent Israel at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.
During his third season in Cobourg, Utting played 15 games and scored three goals and five assists while playing top minutes. The Kodiaks also featured a number of other Timbermen including Mark Vradenburg, Colton Armstrong and Cameron Simpson.
After Cobourg’s season concluded, Utting had a few weeks to prepare for the WILC, a quadrennial event featuring 20 countries competing for box lacrosse dominance. Israel entered the tournament in the blue group (the top group) with Canada, the USA, the Iroquois Nationals and England. Canada won the tournament, defeating the Iroquois Nationals, who featured Brier Jonathan and Ty Logan who saw time with the Timbermen in 2019.
Israel went 1-3 in the tournament, beating England in the preliminary round in a thrilling overtime game. They then lost to England in the playoff round but went on to beat the Netherlands and Finland by big scores to claim fifth place and remain in the world’s top pool.
We caught up with Utting to ask him about his experiences at the 2019 WILC. Read on!
What was your most memorable moment of the tournament?
Definitely the overtime game against England. We got off to a great start, up 5-1 early and England continued to chip away at the lead the entire game. I think we really showed our mental toughness to get the job done in overtime after they had tied it up late in regulation. It was a great challenge playing against all of the teams in the blue group and it was important to our program that we finished within the top five, to secure that spot once again.
World championships are much more than just the games. What was the best off-floor part of the tournament?
Spending time with my teammates that I only get to see once or twice a year was definitely the best off-floor experience for me. Just hanging out, preparing for games with a little country music hour and catching up on what is going on in everyone’s lives is always my favourite part of the off-floor experience. Seeing the comradery and sportsmanship post-game between competing nations was also a unique experience to these world tournaments.
How do you feel now that the tournament has concluded?
I am always so grateful when I get the opportunity to wear the blue and white, representing not only the country of Israel, but the Jewish people. I feel more connected to my culture than ever before and my experiences playing with my Israeli teammates are to thank for that.
