SUBMITTED PHOTO Logan Sundholm poses with the Founder's Cup after his Calgary Shamrocks won the national junior B lacrosse championship Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019 in Winnipeg.
He’s made the drive from Calgary to Medicine Hat more times than he can count, but Wednesday’s trip had a different feel to it for Logan Sundholm.
The 20-year-old came home unsure of what lies ahead, but content he made the most of his time in lacrosse over the past five years.
Finishing with a national championship will do that.
Sundholm was part of the Calgary Shamrocks team that won the Founders Cup Sunday in Winnipeg, beating the Six Nations Rebels 16-15. They’re only the fourth Alberta team to ever win the Cup, which began as a junior C trophy in 1972 and is now presented to the top junior B lacrosse team in the country.
“When I was leaving Calgary… it hit me a little too hard,” said Sundholm, who started making the trek west to play at a higher level when he was only 16. “I never thought leaving Calgary would be hard but it makes you proud to be there when you do it so long.”
A captain with local Sun Devils teams growing up, Logan had seen his older brother Tyson move to Calgary and do well in junior A. A bigger physical presence – he’s now 5-foot-10 and 280 pounds – Logan wasn’t intimidated when playing with older age groups and wanted to test himself, to see how far he could go in the sport.
“I’d played a little bit of junior in Medicine Hat when I was younger, just getting called up,” he said. “It wasn’t the same level but it was same age, bigger guys who were trying to get rid of me.
“It definitely helped me adjust for sure.”
The Shamrocks were a team on the upswing. They went 19-1 in his second year, even as he went to school in Medicine Hat and drove out for games and practices on weekends.
But they couldn’t crack the provincial nut, so to speak, and that’s where they started to find the extra drive to succeed.
A provincial championship last year got them to the Founders Cup tournament, but they couldn’t get to a medal game.
Another 19-1 regular season this summer, then another provincial title, and they were ready to finish the job.
“We faced all our adversity in the earlier years, trying to build where we got, so we already had that experience,” said Logan. “That’s where we learned our lessons.”
The only blemish on their 5-1 round robin record at this year’s Founders Cup was a final-day 19-3 loss to the Rebels. But they rested some of their top players, and if anything entered the championship game with too much of a knowing grin on their faces.
“Didn’t want to get them hurt either, show them what we had,” said the Hat forward. “I think we might’ve been a little overconfident coming in to that one as well.”
In Sunday’s final, the Shamrocks led by as many as five goals but that whittled away in the final minutes. Veterans Colby Fraser, Cordell Hastings and Dylan Ferrier each had four goals and they held on for the trophy.
“I’ve really tried to think about it and I still can’t quite put it into words,” said Logan, who had six points during his team’s seven games at nationals. “It’s starting to set in more and more, that it’s a major championship in the lacrosse world, it’s a big deal.
“I know the work we’ve put in, the coaches have put in. It really makes you proud considering where we started, the way we were able to finish it.”
And now, just like that, the five-year journey is over. Logan Sundholm got into his old Sierra half-ton and got to thinking about what’s next.
Maybe it’s coaching his little brother Kaden, now a Sun Devil himself. Maybe school, maybe work. Or even the senior B league teams in Calgary or Edmonton.
For now, he’s got a couple weeks to relax and reflect, and smile.
