Six Nations Arrows "Together" // Ep. 3 // Video Series Finale
With the Ontario provincial title clinched, the Arrows culminate their season at what some call "the pinnacle" of lacrosse competition: The Minto Cup.
We had the pleasure of joining and capturing the Arrow's throughout their 2017 campaign and it is difficult to imagine a better run organization. From the broader community inward to the players themselves, it is clear that Six Nations lives and breathes lacrosse and that translates into the success of this team. As the Arrow's president, Lewis Staats, mentioned in episode one of "Together", there's a lot of people working behind the scenes and that success even trickles in from the feats of their youth feeder programs.
The Arrows are a masterfully built machine and it is no surprise that their coaching staff was awarded the Jim Bishop "Coaching Staff of the Year" award.
On the floor, the Arrows were an unstoppable force. The perennial power really had no weak links. Built on the foundation of Doug Jamieson (who went an astounding 32-0 this season), the Arrows D were impenetrable and the O matched their fire-power with a mesmerizing flare.
It's not difficult to recognize many of the star players in their line-up — and if you're unfamiliar now, you will certainly be familiar in the coming years because a lot of big names will be coming out of this team. With that said, their success came from those players as much as it did everybody in between. As Coach Merrill says in Ep.3 of "Together", this is where team success comes from — "one family working together towards a common goal".
We were absolutely honoured to be the official Arrows game-sock for the 2017 season.
We wanted to ensure that the socks that were provided had captured the essence of what it meant to be an Arrow. To us, that meant family, community, and ultimately unity.
The artwork was inspired largely from Iroquoian Wampum belts. The Orange band at the top resembles the Tuscarora Alliance Belt, where each band represents one of the six Iroquois nations.
The human figures wrapping the black band are inspired by the imagery of several belts, said to represent friendship and unity. They hold lacrosse sticks to symbolize the power of the sport in uniting players .
Lastly, on the back of the sock, bellow the numbers is the Hiawatha belt's symbol. It symbolizes the 5 original parties to the Iroquois confederacy. With our sock we use it to pay homage to lacrosse's roots with the Iroquois people and its deep connection to the Arrows organization, which resides on one of the largest Iroquois reserves.
