First Female Kenyan Lacrosse Team Debuts Trailer for New Documentary
January 22, 2021
Coming out in 2021, ‘Sleeping Warrior’ is a feature documentary about the first female Kenyan Lacrosse team. The film follows these young women from their homes in Kenya to the 2019 Canadian World Championships and shows how this opportunity transformed their lives.
The film aims to raise awareness of the plight of some of Kenya’s athletes. The title comes from a mountain the girls train under in Kenya called ‘Sleeping Warrior,’ a name that gives nod to the strength of the young women who remain strong in the face of hardship and oppression.
Following the recent release of the Sleeping Warrior trailer, we spoke to Storm Trentham about her journey with Kenya Lacrosse and her experience taking the team to the Canada games in 2019. Storm competed and coached for Wales’ lacrosse side for many years and in 2009, she notes that she helped introduce lacrosse to Kenya, in collaboration with Sporting Change International and her own company, DBA Sports.
Kenya Lacrosse’s mission is to give hope and opportunity to underprivileged young African athletes, through the power of international lacrosse, to achieve a better future for themselves and their communities.
Storm first started working for a charity in Kenya in 2007. Her career as both international player, coach and manager for Wales lacrosse for 15 years led her to want to popularise the sport among girls in Kenya in 2009 - at first purely for recreation. This ultimately spurred her desire to get the first female African lacrosse team to the Championships.
Kenya has now been recognised as the 54th lacrosse nation by the Federation of International Lacrosse and has received awards for the development of the game on the African continent. She explains that the goal behind the project was initially to create history, but soon became personal.
Kenya Lacrosse provides regular training for hundreds of young, underprivileged young people in Kenya. It also provide participants with food, water and basic necessities that are often not in reach for some of the athletes.
Storm explains that for the girls, going to Canada was a huge eye-opener as they had never been abroad or had any publicity. “Every team and supporter wanted to meet Kenya. We were all over the local media forums and in Kenya, the US and UK too,” says Storm.
With three wins at the Championships and having never played a full international game before, the Kenyan team had many highlights and success in their trip. “It speaks volumes of the raw talent.” Team Kenya achieved a first with their appearance at the 2019 U19 Women’s World Championship.
After the World Championships and when this project concludes, Storm shared that they will continue with the girl's programme in the schools. Subject to fundraising, sponsors and donors will decide on the rest of Kenya’s Lacrosse future.
Storm explains that Kenya Lacrosse must raise 100% of the costs to represent, and if you can’t afford it all you are unable to represent your country in the sport. "We didn’t receive a penny from the Kenyan Government or corporates.”
“On landing from Canada, one of the families of a Canadian national team player reached out to help the programme as they were so inspired by what they saw on and off the pitch in Canada, that they covered the school fees for all the remaining athletes still in school.”
Storm shares the plight of these female athletes and countless times of which she was inspired by their bravery and resilience. “One of our players is an orphan looking after her three siblings' solo in Nairobi. She left the program for a while, however when she returned, she made the team and it’s changed her life.”
Storm says that this whole experience has shown that sport can educate and contribute to better futures. “You will never meet more inspiring and talented individuals with the mental strength and raw talent like no other continent. Girls who have nothing yet will give everything. Sometimes when everything seems like it is falling apart, maybe in fact it’s all falling together.”
Sleeping Warrior documentary has been entered into Film Festivals and is set to come out in the next few months.