Hometown Hero
Photo by Tania Garshowitz. Calgary born Kaleb Toth has played with the Calgary Roughnecks lacrosse team for the past eight seasons.
It’s been a great year so far for Calgary sports. The Stampeders brought home the Grey Cup in November, the Flames are sitting atop the Northwest Division with playoffs coming up and the Calgary Roughnecks are sitting at the top of the West Division in the National Lacrosse League standings.
Kaleb Toth is a forward with the Roughnecks and has been helping the team build its impressive 6-2 record. The Calgary native is fourth in team scoring with 38 points in eight games. When asked about lacrosse Toth holds nothing back.
“I love everything about (lacrosse), the fact that you’re given a stick and told to go hit somebody with it and it’s legal,” he said laughing. Toth added that he loves the fact lacrosse is a game where you can be down by five goals and within a minute be up by two.
“It’s the best game in the world and I love it.”
Toth began his career with the National Lacrosse League when he was drafted second overall by the Toronto Rock in 1999. He was traded to the Roughnecks after the 2001 season for Blaine Manning.
Being a Calgary boy playing in front of his hometown crowd, Toth said that in the beginning there was a lot of pressure on him to perform but that it was a “huge thrill” playing in front of family and friends.
Now in his eighth season with the team, Toth said he’s calmed down and now just takes it one game at a time.
As for the team’s winning record Toth gave, “a lot of credit to the coaching staff.” He said they are good at getting the team prepared and “demand such intensity and good work ethic from us players, when we bring it, (the opposition) can’t match our intensity.”
He added that the reason for the team’s two losses was little mistakes. “We can’t afford to lose too many more games, the league is so tight.”
Off the field, Toth works for Prism Distribution, distributing Red Bull. When not playing lacrosse he likes to golf, camp, fish and spend time with his family. He and his wife have a six-month-old and Toth says spending every second he can with his young son is great.
When asked who he looks up to, Toth immediately says his father. “He’s always been a great inspiration to me, one of my best friends as well as my father.” As for on the field, Toth mentioned Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky, saying he is a natural-born leader who brings inspiration to the team.
One could consider Toth himself an inspiration to the team as well; he recently tied Lewis Ratcliffe with a record 63 power-play goals, the most in Roughnecks history. Ratcliffe was traded to the Toronto Rock in 2008 for Josh Sanderson.
The record was news to Toth.
“It’s good, Lewis is a great ball player. I’m going to eventually break every record if I haven’t already. I’m just going to keep playing and playing, it’s an honour being from Calgary playing for a Calgary team.”
The Roughnecks next face off against the Colorado Mammoth Mar. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
