After seeing plenty of lacrosse talent in these here parts, Geoff Snider hopes he can help its continued growth.

Recently acquired by his native Calgary Roughnecks, the three-time National Lacrosse League all-star is in Cranbrook this week holding his first Elev8 field lacrosse camp outside of his hometown. It wraps up today at Mount Baker field.

“As a pro athlete, if we don’t have young players looking up to us then we don’t exist,” he said. “We’re trying to do as much as we can to help grow the sport, keep kids interested and having fun.”

The 29-year-old said wasn’t sure what to expect when he got here, but commended the Cranbrook Minor Lacrosse Association and area teams for developing local talent.

“The kids are really good, they’re energetic, and a testament to them as athletes is they’re picking up everything we’re giving them very quickly,” he said. “I’d like to think we’re giving them things they haven’t seen before.”

That’s a natural, given that field lacrosse is a new game in town.

Locals Tanner Rennich, Dakota Hollister and Keiffer Hollister have all taken part in Snider’s camps in the past, and the former two joined his Elev8 squad that toured the northeastern U.S. last fall.

Snider said the improvement in Rennich’s game in particular has been exceptional.

“Tanner was by far one of the weaker players on our team when we first went down, and this year he’ll be one of the stronger players,” he said.

“When they came out there (for the first time) they were sort of unsure, they had never played field lacrosse before and didn’t know what was going on. Now after getting a bit of a taste for it, they know what they’re supposed to do. They become more confident, they’re more athletic and they’re becoming better players.

“In the surrounding areas, there’s lots of talent that just needs some catalyst or a little bit of fertilizer to blossom.”

Snider wants to make the Cranbrook camp an annual event, but would explore holding it at a different date in the hopes of getting more pee wee, bantam and midget athletes out.

“We’ve been a little bit spoiled because Calgary has a large population of lacrosse players: the first camp we ran there had about 120 kids. This camp is around 30, and I’m hoping to see it grow from there,” he said. “Hopefully these kids go back as top players on their respective teams and then we have an opportunity to come back again next year and coach 50 kids or whatever it may be.”

As for the four-hour road trip, he won’t gripe.

“I can’t complain about coming here once when the Hollisters are coming in every weekend for practice,” he laughed

Snider said Cranbrook has been very accommodating, from business-community support to yesterday’s surprise visit from mayor Scott Manjak, when the lacrosse star received a leather-bound book commemorating Cranbrook’s recent centennial.

“It was super classy, and I think very reflective of what Cranbrook is about as a community and city,” said Snider. “I’ve never had a distinguished member of council take the time to come say hello to me. I’ve always taken time out of my day to see them, so it was pretty cool. I was very flattered.”

A graduate of the University of Denver, he wants young Western Canadian athletes to have a shot at U.S. college.

After one year, Elev8 has already had four athletes commit to American universities; Snider said just one scholarship would have been a huge success.

“If the program never ran again or went bankrupt or whatever it was, I’d feel very satisfied in us doing something very positive for the lacrosse community and adding to the growth of some kids and hopefully giving them an opportunity to have a life-changing experience. Hopefully we can do that as well for some kids here.”