Nation’s Capital Welcomes Home Pro Lacrosse and Rock Defender
Ottawa, ON – The City of Ottawa is known for many attractions: Parliament Hill, the Byward Market, the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa Senators, and now the city’s newest professional sports franchise, the Ottawa Black Bears. From 2001-2003, the Ottawa Rebel were a part of the local indoor sports scene, now it’s the Black Bears’ turn, and tonight the captial region will welcome home Tyler Hendrycks, albeit in the opposing team’s colours.
Hendrycks hails from Stittsville, ON, about 8 kilometres south of Kanata where the Rock and Black Bears will go head-to-head. It’s also where he picked up the game at around 10-years-old with the Nepean Knights Minor Lacrosse Association and instantly enjoyed the sport, largely due to the coaches he learned from.
“A couple of names like Kirk Kealy and Jamie Forster come to mind,” said the Rock defender who’s looking forward to playing in his hometown. “They really did a good job teaching us the real fundamental roots of the game and that it’s important to give back”.
Once he graduated from the local minor lacrosse system and entered the junior ranks, Hendrycks had to travel out of town to play at the highest level. Without a local Jr. A squad, sometimes it can be a tough decision to leave the comfortable setting of a strong Jr. B team like the Nepean Knights. Hendrycks was fortunate enough to follow in his brother Jordan’s footsteps and get in some action as an affiliate player (AP), or call-up, with the Peterborough Jr. A Lakers organization.
“He was in his last year of junior, so we got to play together. It was pretty cool for me to get that experience in Jr. A and also with my brother who’s one of my role models,” Hendrycks said reminiscing about his junior days. “He was one of the veteran guys I leaned on for Jr. B and he was able to come in with me for Jr. A, and that definitely eased the transition for me.”
The COVID-19 pandemic took away one year of playing eligibility from Tyler, which was very tough on a lot of players. However, when the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League (OJLL) announced that they would hold a summer tournament in 2021 at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Hendrycks was grateful that Peterborough added him to their roster to participate in the event.
After Hendrycks completed his education at Trent University and was subsequently drafted by the Rock in the 2022 NLL Draft, he was ready to make the jump but ran into a roadblock. In his final year of Jr. A lacrosse, he suffered a foot injury and reaggravated it during the CUFLA university field lacrosse season, leading him to spend the 2022-23 season on the Rock’s Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) List. He had a healthy start to the 2023-24 season, only to be diagnosed with an appendicitis in February, which caused him to miss almost the entirety of the remainder of the season but did return for the Rock’s final playoff game against Buffalo.
With all of that in the rearview mirror, Hendrycks is prepared and focused on starting the season off right, especially in his old stomping grounds.
“I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t feel pretty cool or pretty special,” said Hendrycks. “I have a good amount of my friends from high school coming, and a lot of those guys actually bought season tickets because they were just excited to have some lacrosse around them. I know a lot of my family, and, most importantly, my grandparents are all going to be coming.”
Hendrycks grew up attending Ottawa Senators games at Canadian Tire Centre and was always impressed and intrigued with the talent out on the ice, and now he’s looking forward to seeing pro lacrosse played within those same arena boards.
The 6’3” defender also talked about how lacrosse in Ottawa has expanded and become rabid enough to earn another shot at an NLL franchise.
“Lacrosse is getting bigger and bigger, and I think with the Jr. A league not being able to find a team in Ottawa, it’ll be really cool for them to have an NLL team to kind of make up for that.”
Hendrycks and the Rock kickoff their season on tonight at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa at 7pm ET. Fans can watch the game on TSN and TSN+.
