Lacrosse is all in the family for Wadatawi Bomberry

At 11 years old, when Wadatawi Bomberry had just started to play lacrosse, she had already had started telling people that one day she was going to play for Syracuse University.

Growing up on the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, Wadatawi watched her aunts play lacrosse and often cheered them on from the sidelines. Her grandmother, a respected Mohawk elder in their community, also used to play. Wadatawi waited until she got her grandmother's blessing before she picked up her stick.

Wadatawi's great-grandmother used to tell her: "when you say you're going to do something, you do it and you work your hardest at it."

She took those teachings to heart and decided to dedicate her life to lacrosse, even though the sport wasn't traditionally played by women in Haudenosaunee culture. Wadatawi's mother told New Fire that female players still have to fight for recognition in their community.

"What is hard in this community is that the women aren't actually acknowledged as much as males in the game of lacrosse. That's something that I'm determined to try and change because I think that our women are at the same level," said Christina Bomberry, Wadatawi's mom.

In Wadatawi's senior year, she and her mother made the trek to Florida to play in one of the largest recruiting tournaments in North America. Two days later, she received 40 expressions of interest from coaches who were eager to have her on their teams.

Shortly after, Wadatawi committed to playing for Syracuse. Not only did she get to fulfil her childhood dream, but she also got to honour her great-grandmother's teaching of doing what you say you're going to do — and working hard to make it happen.

Now, at 19, Wadatawi has completed her first year at Syracuse University and she's about to play with the Haudenosaunee Nation in the Women's Lacrosse World Cup in England. If only her grandmothers could see her now.