Geoff Snider (born 2 April 1981) is a retired

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player from

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Amateur career

Growing up, Snider played for the Calgary Hornets in the Calgary District Lacrosse Association. His junior lacrosse career began with the Burnaby Lakers of the British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League. In 1998, 2000 and 2002, he helped the Lakers win the

Minto Cup The Minto Cup is awarded annually to the champion junior men's box lacrosse team of Canada. It was donated in 1901 by the Governor-General, Lord Minto. Originally restricted to amateurs, within three years the first under-the-table professional ...

as Canada's champion junior men's lacrosse team. He continued to play with the Senior "A"

Coquitlam Adanacs The Coquitlam Adanacs are a Canadian box lacrosse team based in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The Adanacs play in B.C.'s seven team Western Lacrosse Association (WLA), whose champion competes against Ontario's Major Series Lacrosse champion for the ...

in the

Western Lacrosse Association The Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) is a men's Senior A box lacrosse sanctioned by the Canadian Lacrosse Association. It consists of seven teams, based in cities throughout southwestern British Columbia. Each year, the playoff teams battle for ...

, leading them to win the 2007 WLA championship. Snider honed his physical game in the summer box lacrosse seasons and in junior hockey. With the

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

Calgary Canucks The Calgary Canucks are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the Ken Bracko Arena. They have won the AJHL championship nine times and one national champ ...

, of the

Alberta Junior Hockey League The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. There are currently 16 teams in the league. The reg ...

, Snider racked up 415 penalty minutes during the 2001–02 season. In lacrosse he has developed a reputation as being one of lacrosse's top fighters.

Collegiate career

Snider attended the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

. In 2006, with the Pioneers he was named a third-team All-American. His 194 recorded groundballs as a senior holds the record for a single season groundballs in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

lacrosse. In addition he holds the standard for highest average groundballs per game in a season with 11.41.

Professional career

NLL career

Snider was drafted by the Philadelphia Wings of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

in the first round (fourth overall) of the 2006 NLL Entry Draft. Snider made an immediate impact on the league and was named the NLL's January Rookie of the Month. Snider scored 13 points (6G, 7A), collected 53 loose balls and won 53 of 79 face-off attempts in five games during his first month of action in the league. He was also the only rookie voted onto the 2007 All-Star team, and won the Accuracy challenge in the All-Star game Skills Competition. After the season, Snider was named to the 2007 All-Rookie team. On 26 January 2008, Snider put his name in the record books again when he won the opening face-off in a game against the

Buffalo Bandits The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse team in the East Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). They play at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The Bandits played in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League from 1992 to 1997, t ...

and scored :05 seconds into the game. This goal is the league record for fastest goal to start a game. In the 2008 season, Snider was named to the All-Star team, and was named game MVP after scoring three goals, recording 28 loose balls, and winning 31 out of 38 face-offs. He set league records in loose balls (244), faceoffs won (318), and penalty minutes (103), and fell just short of tying his own faceoff winning percentage record of 75%, winning 73.8% of his faceoffs. During the

2009 NLL season The 2009 National Lacrosse League season, the 23rd in the history of the NLL, began January 3, 2009 in Buffalo, Portland, and Sunrise, Florida, and concluded with the Calgary Roughnecks defeating the New York Titans 12—10 in the Champion's Cup ...

, he was named a starter to the

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

but was unable to play due to injury when he suffered a

tracheal fracture Tracheobronchial injury is damage to the tracheobronchial tree (the airway structure involving the trachea and bronchi). It can result from blunt or penetrating trauma to the neck or chest, inhalation of harmful fumes or smoke, or aspiration of ...

(

windpipe The trachea, also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all air-breathing animals with lungs. The trachea extends from the la ...

) in a game against the

Edmonton Rush The Edmonton Rush were a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) that played from 2006 NLL season to 2015. The team announced on July 20, 2015, that they would be relocating to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for the 2016 sea ...

. Snider was also named to the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

All-Star game and scored 4 goals, added 2 assists, and won 22 of 26 faceoffs. Snider was named game MVP.

MLL

Snider was drafted by the

Denver Outlaws The Denver Outlaws were a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They began playing in the MLL in 2006 as an expansion team. Since joining the league, the Outlaws have played in the ...

Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff f ...

in the second round of the MLL Collegiate Draft. During the

2007 MLL season The 2007 Major League Lacrosse season was the seventh season of the league. The season began on May 12 and concluded with the championship game on August 26, 2007. General information In November 2006, the Baltimore Bayhawks relocated to Washin ...

, Snider played in the MLL All-Star Game representing the Western Conference. Snider has participated in two MLL championships. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

with the

, and in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

with the champion Toronto Nationals. In 2012 he was traded to the

Charlotte Hounds The Charlotte Hounds were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) field lacrosse franchise that began play in the 2012 MLL season and ceased operations after the 2018 season. The team played their home games at American Legion Memorial Stadium. Franchise ...

where he helped lead the team to its first playoff and championship appearance. In December 2014 he was traded by the

to the

for midfielder Terry Kimener.

MSL

On 30 June 2009 the Peterborough Lakers of

Major Series Lacrosse Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) is a Senior A box lacrosse league based in Ontario, Canada sanctioned by the Ontario Lacrosse Association. Most of the star players in the league play or have played in the National Lacrosse League. Each year, the play ...

announced they signed Snider. He played his first game as a Laker on 1 July and made his Peterborough debut on 2 July.

International career

In international competition, Snider won the tournament MVP award at the

2006 World Lacrosse Championship 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, where he dominated face-offs helping the Canadian National Men's Lacrosse team win their first World Championship win since 1978.

Statistics

NLL

Reference:

MLL

NCAA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snider, Geoff 1981 births Canadian lacrosse players Denver Pioneers men's lacrosse Living people Major League Lacrosse players National Lacrosse League All-Stars Philadelphia Wings players Sportspeople from Calgary Hamilton Nationals players