Josh Byrne (born April 15, 1994) is a Canadian professional

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 for 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 ...

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 ...

and

Chaos Lacrosse Club The Chaos Lacrosse Club is a professional men's field lacrosse team in Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). The Chaos are one of the six founding members of the PLL for the 2019 Premier Lacrosse League season, 2019 season. Notable players include Blaz ...

of the

Premier Lacrosse League Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is an American professional field lacrosse league, composed of 8 teams. The league's inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major-market cities. The le ...

Early life

Born in

New Westminster, British Columbia New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

to an Irish father and Trinidadian mother, Byrne attended

New Westminster Secondary School New Westminster Secondary School is a secondary school in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the largest high schools in British Columbia. Enrollment of students is open to those within grades 9 through 12. The school is home ...

and played junior lacrosse for his hometown

New Westminster Salmonbellies The New Westminster Salmonbellies are a Men's Senior 'A' lacrosse team located in New Westminster, BC. Their home arena is Queen's Park Arena. They compete as part of the Western Lacrosse Association and have won the Mann Cup 24 times, most re ...

of the

BC Junior A Lacrosse League The British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League is a junior box lacrosse league based in British Columbia, Canada. The BCJALL is one of three leagues that constitute as Junior A within the Canadian Lacrosse Association as the highest level of junior ...

. Byrne played collegiately at

ASA College ASA College is a private for-profit college in New York City and Hialeah, Florida. The college has three campuses: Midtown Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn in New York, and Hialeah in Florida. It offers bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and ...

and

Nassau Community College Nassau Community College (NCC) is a public community college in Uniondale, New York, using the Garden City, New York ZIP Code. It was founded in 1959 and is part of the State University of New York. History Nassau Community College was cre ...

. From 2016 to 2017, he played at

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

, where he scored 71 goals and tallied 111 points in 29 games.

Professional career

Byrne was taken first overall in the 2016

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 ...

draft by the Burnaby Lakers. In 16 career regular season games with Burnaby, he tallied 12 goals and 33 assists. Byrne was drafted first overall in the 2017 NLL Entry Draft by the

. With the Bandits, Byrne reached the NLL Cup Finals in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, and won the NLL Cup in

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

. In the field game, Byrne was drafted 19th overall by the

Chesapeake Bayhawks The Chesapeake Bayhawks were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Annapolis, Maryland since 2010. They played in the greater Baltimore metro area beginning with the MLL's inaugural 2001 season, as the Balti ...

in the 2017

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 ...

draft. He played for Chesapeake in 2017 and 2018. Upon the foundation of the

in 2019, Byrne joined

, where he helped his team to PLL Championship game appearances in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

and

, and the league championship in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Personal life

Byrne hosts a podcast, ''The Dhane and Josh Show'', with Bandits and Chaos teammate

Dhane Smith Dhane Smith (born January 22, 1992) is a professional lacrosse player for the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League and Chaos Lacrosse Club in the Premier Lacrosse League. Smith began his career in 2009 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Brav ...

. Both Byrne and Smith, who are

Black Canadians Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though ...

, have supported the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

movement.

Statistics

NLL

MLL

PLL

References

External links

NLL stats at nllstats.comNLL and PLL stats at statscrew.com
1996 births Living people Lacrosse people from British Columbia Sportspeople from New Westminster Buffalo Bandits players Chesapeake Bayhawks players Premier Lacrosse League players Hofstra Pride men's lacrosse players Black Canadian sportspeople {{Canada-lacrosse-bio-stub