Born and raised in Surrey, British Columbia, Jacob Dunbar has been playing lacrosse for almost as long as he’s been walking. It was a family affair, with Dunbar’s older brother and father both lacrosse players themselves. It seemed only fitting for him to follow in their footsteps. “It was a next man up type of thing,” recalls Dunbar. “I had a stick my whole life and sure enough I just fell in love with it.”
Dunbar’s love for lacrosse came naturally. His father and brother never pushed him into playing. It was something that quickly became his favourite pastime. “I’d come home after school and play lacrosse until nighttime. All I’d want to do is play lacrosse.”
Having other lacrosse players around him helped to motivate Dunbar. All of his brother’s friends played as well, and the young Dunbar looked up to them. “I thought they were super cool. I thought, ‘They’re doing it, I’ve got to do it.’ I fell in love with the game, and it took me here.”
While Dunbar’s love for the game came naturally, his talent didn’t. At least, not right away. He spent his days playing with his older brother and his friends, and being three years younger often put him at a disadvantage size and experience wise. “I hated losing,” Dunbar admits. “I’d always lose, I would. I’d lose the shootouts, I’d lose the one-on-ones, stuff like that.”
Rather than letting the losing discourage him, Dunbar took it in stride. Playing against kids who were bigger, stronger, and faster than him in turn made him bigger, stronger, and faster.
“I started working harder than them. I think it was great; it pushed me, it made me tougher. I had an advantage on kids my age. I was used to a game that was a lot faster, my brother would beat up on me, so I think I was a pretty tough kid for my age. I thought it made me tougher and a better player for sure.”
As Dunbar got older and trained harder, he began to see results. Following a successful tournament with an older team he’d been called up to, Dunbar began to realize his true potential. “I played pretty well against kids three, four years older than me. I stuck on the team after that, they didn’t want me to go back down, and ever since that I played up and I thought I could hang with those guys.”
It would have been easy for Dunbar to stay at the level he was and dominate, but that isn’t the kind of player he is. Standing out and being the star isn’t what motivates him. Being surrounded by the best and facing a challenge is where he thrives. “I always liked playing against the older guys because playing against the best means you’ve got to be pretty close to being there,” he recalls. “I like the tougher opponents, that’s for sure.”
It was around this time that Dunbar made the leap to go all-in on lacrosse. Until age 15 or 16, he split his years into two seasons: lacrosse in the summer and hockey in the winter. After another successful lacrosse tournament, Dunbar knew it was the path he wanted to take.
“I remember looking at my mom and saying, ‘I think I just want to do lacrosse now.’ I had tryouts coming up for hockey and I just pulled the plug right there on the drive home,” he recalls. “I knew lacrosse was the one I wanted to continue doing. And now here we are.”
Prior to focusing solely on lacrosse, Dunbar enjoyed the balance between two sports. “I never got sick of it. I was always excited for lacrosse season coming up or hockey season coming up. It wasn’t just lacrosse-lacrosse or hockey-hockey. I really liked the mix.”
Today, Dunbar has a different mix in his life. When it comes to lacrosse, Dunbar doesn’t just play. On his days off, he visits schools and teaches kids how to play lacrosse as well as the history of the sport.
It isn’t all lacrosse all the time for Dunbar, though. Away from the game, he keeps a healthy balance by working as a deckhand on tugboats along the Fraser River back in British Columbia. He moves log booms and tows barges, but while the work remains the same, the hours do not. “It’s tidal work,” Dunbar explains. “Whenever it’s high-tide, low-tide, we have to plan that out and that’s when we start our shifts. Sometimes you’ll start at 3am, sometimes you’ll start at 4pm.”
While the shift times may vary, the hours don’t. Each shift is 12 hours long, meaning Dunbar could find himself working anywhere from 3am until 3pm or 7pm to 7am. Much like when he was younger and facing off against players years older than him, the odd hours don’t phase him. “I don’t mind waking up early to make some money and do something to better myself,” he says with a grin.
Dunbar’s next challenge comes on November 29 in the Black Bears’ inaugural home opener as they take on the Toronto Rock in the first game in franchise history. Tickets to the game can be found HERE.
