Ultimately, the European adaptation of lacrosse led to many of the leagues and teams we see today. However, teams like the Haudenosaunee Nationals – stemming from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois to the French) – aim to continue incorporating the proud tradition of lacrosse into their culture on a larger scale. While they are the sole Indigenous lacrosse team in the world at the moment, the Haudenosaunee are also globally ranked third at the sport. Currently, the team is fighting for a place in the Olympics under their own flag and name. I was grateful to be introduced to this team and their history by a close friend, and am equally grateful to pass on the knowledge of their mission to reclaim lacrosse.

In another vein worth mentioning, I want to address the friction between men’s and women’s sports at the college level – and the fact that it is, slowly and steadily, changing for the better. In fact, and in spite of the existing funding gaps I address in Cross My Heart, many schools’ women’s teams outperform men’s teams at that particular sport, in their respective leagues (I’ve had the privilege of watching the Caitlin Clark era at the University of Iowa unfold first-hand!). As such, rather than focusing on the divide between the genders in this novel, I found it interesting to concentrate on the rise of the women’s team, a phenomenon we’ve had no shortage of in the past couple of years. At Iowa, women’s basketball shot to popularity to such an extent that ticket prices went from initially free for students, to over $400 (exceeding even student football ticket prices) to watch the game at which Clark’s jersey will be retired and hung in Carver. In lacrosse, particularly, teams like Northwestern University have laid a precedent for struggle that produces incredible success stories, and the door, I’m excited to say, is ultimately wide open for more such stories.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this novel, and I hope you are able to appreciate the beautiful sport of lacrosse for all its nuances and rich history in the real world as well!

Acknowledgements

For this one, I’d like to start on a special note. Thank you to the three out of the Core Four, my sanity and the inspiration behind May’s OKC Riders: Ilaria, Isabelle, Ria. Could you tell?

As usual, I’m so grateful to my family for always encouraging me to make time to write, and for always being the first ones to send photos of books out in the wild. To my mom for being my sounding board, and my dad for being my cheerleader. To Aashna, for laughing with me when it’s time to get over it, and to Aakash, for the underpinnings of NFL knowledge that played deeply into this book. To my beautiful grandparents.