Competing as members of Team Ireland, the duo of University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's lacrosse brothers Ryan and Daniel Clarke helped Ireland claim gold at the 2026 European Box Lacrosse Championships in Prague, Czechia earlier this month.

"We both became involved with the [Ireland] national team through a mutual connection from our hometown of Huntsville [Ontario] and the head coach of the Ireland program," detailed Ryan. "We had made a few appearances with Ireland's development team within the past year but our first appearance with the true national team was this European Championship. It was a surreal experience getting to bring 'small town' Huntsville lacrosse to a global stage. And despite not having played with all the teammates before, we immediately took off and had a successful tournament."

Reaching the gold medal match, Ireland secured a 9-6 win over Finland to claim the European title, avenging an opening day loss during the group stage of the championship. Ireland finished with a 5-1 record overall. Following the Day 1 loss to silver medalist Finland, Ireland bounced back defeating the Netherlands and England in the group stage. They would then go on to earn a dominant quarter-final win over Italy and an overtime semifinal victory versus Germany to claim their place in the championship final.

"The opportunity to represent our Irish heritage is an incredible blessing and we are looking forward to more competitions representing Ireland," said Ryan. "And perhaps reaching the Olympic stage as lacrosse will be added in 2028," 

A Mechanical Engineering graduate, Ryan has competed across five seasons with the Varsity Blues, first stepping on the turf at Varsity Stadium in 2021. His younger brother Daniel, a Kinesiology student, joined the U of T squad in 2023 having now completed three seasons wearing the T-Leaf this past fall.