A Swift Current lacrosse player made the most of a last-minute offer to represent his country last week down under.

Hudson Haydon helped the Canadian Lacross League capture a gold medal at the 2024 International Indoor Junior Lacrosse Commonwealth Cup in Melbourne, Australia from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20.

Canada went a perfect 4-0 in the tournament in four days of auction defeating Australia's all-star team in the finals 15-6 with Haydon finding the back of the net once and adding two assists.

"Once we won that game, it was a great feeling," he said. "Then you know you've really done something good for whoever you're representing back home and for the flag of Canada. It was an awesome feeling when we won."

The Canadians ran over Melbourne 24-7, Adelaide 18-7, and Perth 22-8 in round-robin action before the trio of teams combined their best players to form Australia's team.

"It's more of a development kind of tournament for the Australians," he said "Every year they invite a Canadian team down there, filled with Canadian players from all over, and we love it." 

The 16-year-old jumped at the opportunity to be the youngest player on the team in January when Chris Fox, Canada's general manager, reached out and offered him a spot on the roster.

"It's a totally different world [there]," he said. "It's warm and it's humid but it was awesome. Probably the best experience of my life so far."

Haydon has spent his entire childhood playing for the Swift Current Rampage Lacrosse since he was five years old. The shift from box lacrosse to the field was seamless for the forward at Melbourne's Altona Lacrosse Club.

"The setup they had was just incredible," he said. "It made it easy to transition into. It was a beautiful outdoor turf arena, brand new, built in 2021... It was good solid turf, the same turf the pros play on. They had big lights set up on the outside of the arena to shine in so they can play games when the sun goes down."