About Us

Founded in 2002, the West Island Lacrosse Association (WILA), a member of the Federation Crosse Quebec (FCQ) and Lacrosse Canada and promotes the sport of Box Lacrosse for players between the ages 6 and 21 years old. Vikings teams play clubs from across the greater Montreal and broader Quebec region in a variety of regular season games, jamborees, and provincial tournaments.

Focused on developing a strong community-based and grass roots program, WILA is equally committed to the development of scholar-athletes and to providing access to education through lacrosse excellence.

Grateful to the indigenous peoples for the game of lacrosse developed in the early 17th century, WILA is committed to upholding the traditional knowledge of the medicine game through friendship and collaboration. WILA is proud to partner with first class organizations such as the Kahnawake Mohawks and Kanesatake Warriors to promote the growth of lacrosse across the Quebec region.

WILA Alumni

In WILA’s brief history, players have gone on to play at leading prep schools, Canadian and American universities, the highest levels of junior and senior, and most recently to the National Lacrosse League. Club ambassador and WILA’s homegrown pride, Stephane Charbonneau has gone on to lead a successful professional lacrosse career with the Philadelphia Wings and now Vancouver Warriors.

WILA Governance

Underpinning the club’s commitment is a team of volunteers and board members dedicated to providing players and families with a high-quality user experience, upholding high ethical standards, and operating with strong governance. The WILA board is composed of members

with a diverse set of experiences and backgrounds who join to serve its stakeholders with transparency, and in a manner that fosters trust and open communication.

BRIEF HISTORY OF LACROSSE

Played for centuries by North American First Nations, known as the Medicine Game, modern lacrosse enjoys growing popularity on both sides of the border. Lacrosse demands speed, endurance, toughness, and skill, a challenging feat for most athletes. Box lacrosse, also known as box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada in the 1930s and is the national Summer sport.

Practicing good life skills that parallel the lacrosse teachings on the floor, we hope to give every young player a solid foundation to move forward on, both in sports and beyond.

We provide the opportunity for youth players to develop their technical skills while promoting sportsmanship, character, resilience, and player discipline.

With the addition of lacrosse into the 2028 Olympics, the Canada games, and the rapidly growing numbers at the professional and grass roots level, the future of Canada’s summer national sport is brighter than ever!

LACROSSE AS A COMPLIMENT TO HOCKEY

Playing lacrosse as a multi-sport strategy has enabled children to develop skills that are highly complementary to hockey such as, heightened reflexes, improved hand-eye coordination, refined tactical development, greater speed and acceleration, and precision shooting to name a few. Lacrosse enables hockey players to take a break from long winter hockey seasons to discover a new sport and develop new skills and abilities, while making new and diverse friendships.

“One of the worst things to happen to the game, in my opinion, has been year-round hockey and, in particular, summer hockey. All it does for kids, as far as I can tell, is keep them out of sports they should be doing in the warmer weather. I could hardly wait to get my lacrosse stick out and start throwing the ball against the walls and working on our moves as we played the lacrosse equivalent to road hockey. All the good hockey players seemed to play lacrosse in those days and everyone of them learned something from the game to carry over to the other - things athletes can only learn by mixing up the games they play when they are young.” — Wayne Gretzky