​The last 20 minutes of the Archers Lacrosse Club’s final practice of its 2019 season looked different from a typical professional practice.Players took off their pads, helmets, shirts, cleats and socks. They pushed the two goals into the far corners of the field. Short-sticks picked up long poles; defenders grabbed shorties. Head coach Chris Bates and assistants Tony Resch and Brian Kavanagh grabbed their sticks from the sideline.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat’s because, since he became a college head coach, Bates has reserved the last practice of every season to play a game of Baggataway – one of the original Indigenous forms of the game, played without boundaries or lines, for the purpose of honoring the Creator.“It’s always resonated with me, honoring the game, understanding where the game comes from, how the game is viewed from a Native American perspective,” Bates said.The inaugural season for the Archers Lacrosse Club ended unceremoniously. The club was one of four teams to make the playoffs, but it lost in the first round to the Redwoods (and lost Tom Schreiber to a shoulder injury in the process).AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBecause of the league’s alternative postseason format at the time, which included a consolation bracket played for the No. 1 pick in the 2020 College Draft, the Archers’ season wasn’t over when they were eliminated from the playoffs.Following that loss to the Woods, the energy around the team was defeated. The Archers’ best player was out for the season. They’d lost their shot at winning the first PLL championship and they still had games to play. The pressure cooker of the season had left the team exhausted, physically and emotionally.Bates knew it. So, he saw an opportunity to lighten their spirits. That pickup game of Baggataway helped the team rediscover its joy for the game.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I thought it was a perfect moment for Bates to do it,” legendary former Archers long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff said. “It’s one of my favorite memories of playing lacrosse, honestly.”“We just had so much fun,” Ryan Ambler said.That was hardly Ambler’s first game of Baggataway. Having played for Bates for 11 seasons across his college and professional careers, Ambler’s accustomed to his coach’s end-of-season tradition. The first time Ambler played Baggataway, in his freshman year at Princeton, the team’s starting goalie was beaned in the face by a shot and suffered a bloody nose before a crucial game the next day.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe injury risks aside, Ambler doesn’t remember ever losing a game after playing Baggataway in practice. He’s come to cherish the tradition every year.“I always have a smile on my face, and I’m just constantly running up and down the field like a crazy person, either trying to score or get the net to save the ball,” Ambler said. “It just makes you feel like a kid again. It’s