When friends become enemies
Published on February 8, 2007 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Calgary Roughnecks News Release
Calgary, AB - Lacrosse standouts Taylor Wray and Geoff Snider are close pals. In fact, Snider will be in the wedding party when Wray gets married later this year.
But that friendship will count for nothing when the Calgary Roughnecks (4-1) entertain the Philadelphia Wings (3-2) Saturday night.
"If he (Geoff) is in my way, I'll run right over him like I would anyone else," said Wray, the Riggers assistant captain.
"I say that knowing full well he won't hold back if he gets the chance to level me."
Snider was born, bred and educated in Calgary and he and Wray, who hails from Edmonton, met while representing their respective cities in junior lacrosse.
"To tell you truth I didn't like him very much," said Wray. "My first impressions of him were not good. He was annoying to be around."
He added, "If you told me back then that one day he'd be in my wedding party, I'd have called you an idiot."
But when Wray and Snider became team-mates in the late 1990s with the star-studded Burnaby Lakers Jr. A squad, with whom they won multiple Minto Cups, the friendship gradually grew.
They later went off to university on different sides of the continent - Wray to Duke and Snider to the University of Denver - but continued to keep in touch and continue to meet over the various holidays.
Snider is regarded as one of the most feared fighters in the NLL, so what happens if he challenges his buddy to drop his gloves Saturday night?
"Geoff is an intense a competitor as there is in the league, but above all else he is a loyal friend and we will never come to blows," said Wray.
That does not preclude a barrage of trash talk between the two.
"He's a real agitator," said Wray, "and if you let him, he can really get under your skin.
"He's on of those guys you hate to play against, yet you'd really like to have him on your team."
Snider, 25, is one of Philadelphia's two face off exponents and in an ironic twist of fate he will spend much of Saturday's game drawing against Taylor's elder brother, Devan, who, incidentally, is also a pal.
Snider, who was a student at Sir Winston Churchill High, before going to college in Denver, was named the NLL's Rookie of the Month for this past January.
In five games for the Wings, he collected 13 points (6g, 7a), 13 penalty minutes and 53 loose balls. He also won 53 of 79 face offs.
National Lacrosse League Stories from February 8, 2007
- Sting Looking For Fifth Straight Win in Edmonton This Weekend - Arizona Sting
- When friends become enemies - Calgary Roughnecks
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