(Edinburgh, Scotland) On Saturday, August 1st, during the Closing Ceremonies of the 2015 FIL Rathbones U19 Women’s World Lacrosse Championship, the Federation of International Lacrosse presented the 2015 FIL Development Award to Teckla Jackson.
Congratulations to Teckla!
Shelley Maher, FIL’s Director of Women’s Lacrosse made the award presentation:
Teckla Jackson
2015 FIL Development Award Recipient
On behalf of Tom Hayes, FIL Director of Development, and Bob DeMarco, Chair of Development Committee, I would like to award the 2015 FIL Development award to Teckla Jackson from Sweden.
After spending a year at high school in the United States from 1986 to 1987, Teckla’s life was about to change forever. Yes, that is because she started to play lacrosse. After getting hooked, like all of us, she bought back two sticks and happened to see an article in a morning paper about an American starting lacrosse in Stockholm. From this contact, women’s lacrosse in Sweden was started.
It began with only one women’s team, comprising friends of Teckla’s and some other girls we picked up along the way. Teckla and her friends had some good contacts in England and ended up playing with Beckenham Lacrosse in the south-east of London. This team played in various tournaments and also played intercrosse around Europe.
After the men’s championship in 1994 in Manchester, Teckla went to stay with Jan Guilbride and played for her club Banbury ladies! Then, continuing to be on the move, in 1995 she headed down under on a sports visa to play for Caulfield Lacrosse Club in Melbourne. She had only intended to be away from Sweden for one season. Seven years later, Teckla experienced quite the lacrosse immersion in Melbourne. She won several state league premierships with Caulfield, represented Victoria, represented Australia on a tour to the United Kingdom in 1999 and was an alternate for the World Cup in 2001, as well as a 2005 squad member. Also during this time, Teckla met the love of her life, an Aussie named Mark Jackson, whose life was also dominated with lacrosse.
During her time in Australia, Teckla was also travelling back to Stockholm from time to time. In 1997, the European Championship (EC) was held in Stockholm and the core of the lacrosse community in Stockholm made it happen! Only six teams participated. Many of us might not know that Sweden is one of six nations that started the European Lacrosse Federation (ELF).
Teckla Jackson played for Sweden at the 2013 FIL Women’s World Cup in Oshawa, Ontario
Teckla has been on the Swedish Lacrosse board as long as she has played to organise the women’s sector and to make things happen for women’s lacrosse in Sweden. In addition to her role in leading the sport in governance, Teckla has remained a player and organized the first Swedish World Cup team to participate in 2013 at the Women’s World Cup in Oshawa. She has also played for Sweden in the ECs in 1997, 1999, 2008, 2012. In a few days, she will be on her way to 2015 ELF Women’s Lacrosse European Championship in Nymburg, Czech Republic.
On a local level in Sweden, Teckla plays for Farsta where she also coaches. Right now, there are four women’s teams playing in Sweden with more to come! There are more people wanting to get involved in spreading the sport and this will have the share the workload. Teckla is a great example of just where lacrosse can take you, in many different ways.This autumn, Teckla will be involved in spreading the sport into the English schools around Stockholm and hopefully around Sweden. She will be working with an American player who is currently living in Sweden for a couple of years.
The ultimate aim will be to have a team in the next U19 Women’s World Championship.
