TREENA MIELKE/Rimbey Review
For Reid Swier, 2011 has been a good year both academically and on the sports field.
The 17-year-old received top marks in English 30-1 and Math 30 Pure at West Country Outreach School at the school’s graduation and awards ceremony last month.
Most recently, Swier was presented with the Jim Lovgren Award as top scorer for the Junior B Tier 2 South Division of the Rocky Mountain House Lacrosse League.
Swier, who plays for the junior B Innisfail Yetti, scored 41 goals and 29 assists in 14 games for a total of 70 points.
Pat Hanson, assistant coach and team manager, said Swier was most deserving of the award.
“He is an awesome player, a team player and a great benefit to our team. On and off the floor he is a great young man, very gifted, very talented.”
Swier credits his success on the lacrosse field, at least in part, to playing for the Elev8 Elite team in Calgary last fall. The team practiced Saturdays and Sundays throughout October and November and finished off the season with exhibition games in Philadelphia.
He said the training he received from coaches Geoff Snider (Calgary Roughnecks player) and his brother, Bobby Snider, was excellent.
“It was very intense and competitive and it was my first field experience,” he said.
Lacrosse has been Swier’s sport of choice since he was 11 years old and a friend told him he should give it a try.
He began playing for the Lacoka Lacrosse team and discovered he really liked the game.
“I just like it, the running, the contact. The first time I played it, I discovered I had a passion for it,” he said.
Since taking up lacrosse, Swier has never looked back and his skills on the field have continued to improve.
In his last year of midget he was called up to play the Canada Day tourney in Calgary with the Innisfail Phantoms.
He enjoyed the experience and when coach Kevin Graham telephoned him with an invitation to try out for the junior B Yetti team, he decided to go for it.
It proved to be a good move and he joined the team for the 2010 season.
In the 2011 season the Phantoms were moved up from tier 3 to tier 2.
This year the team finished league play in fifth spot, one rung short of making provincials.
Swier will attend lacrosse scouting camp in Port Couquitlam, B.C. this summer, hoping to catch the eye of a scout from one of the universities and colleges in the United States.
In the fall he plans to go back to play for the Elev8 Elite team in Calgary and is hoping to play tier 1 lacrosse for Red Deer next season. He also plans to play basketball for Rimbey Junior/Senior High School.