Ruby Czajkowski, a 2023 graduate of West Hartford’s Conard High School, recently returned from an international lacrosse experience.

By Paul Palmer

It was quite the debut on the international stage for West Hartford’s Ruby Czajkowski.

Less than a month after graduating from Conard High School, the teen and her family were jetting off to Prague, Czechia (Czech Republic) for the European Lacrosse Federation Under 21 Championship. “I had so much fun, I cried on the way back to the airport,” she said of her experience playing as a member of the first-ever Team Sweden Under 21 Squad.

Czajkowski’ s paternal grandmother is Swedish, allowing her to join the first ever Under 21 Lacrosse Team for the Scandinavian nation. A work colleague of her father, Jamie, had a daughter that was on the team. He said she told him that they needed more players.

Ruby went to Stockholm in January for training camp, that was held outdoors, where she got to meet some of her future teammates. In early July, Ruby, her parents – Candace and Jamie – and her two older sisters all headed to Prague.

“The most special part was having my wife and three daughters representing Sweden for my 95-year-old mother,” Jamie said. “It was great to see her sisters 100% engaged in this with Ruby and her team,” he said of what he called the ultimate family vacation.

The year 2023 marked just the second time the ELF has held a Women’s Championship and Sweden was seeded in the last bracket and not expected to compete for a medal. Despite having met only some of her teammates at training in January, Ruby said they all came together as a team and a family very quickly.

“It was so comfortable, so fast” she said of playing on the squad and hanging out with her teammates. “It was a great team, and to play overseas was great.”

A captain for the Conard girls team this past season, Ruby is a center and midfielder who is heading to Division III University of Redlands in California to continue her education and lacrosse in the fall.

Things got off to a less than ideal start when the Czajkowki’s flight to Prague was delayed and the airline lost one of their bags – the one with Ruby’s lacrosse sticks in it. She borrowed sticks from her teammates for practice and hers arrived before the start of the tournament.

The Swedes had a pre-tournament scrimmage with Scotland and beat the team that many thought would contend for a gold medal. Jamie said that game opened a lot of people’s eyes to just how good Sweden’s entry was.

“A lot of the girls felt that it was a history making event to be in the tournament,” said Ruby. With the confidence builder under their belts, Sweden was ready to open divisional play against Italy, Spain, and Poland. In those three games, Sweden scored 51 goals – the most of any of the 11 teams in the tourney. They allowed just 13 – second least of all squads – going 3-0. Ruby scored three goals in each of the divisional games along with picking up several assists.

Next up was the playoffs and a date with an Ireland squad that featured several players who are members of NCAA Division 1 programs in the U.S.

“At the team dinner the night before we said that Ireland was no better or worse than us,” Ruby said. It was a back-and-forth game with Ireland going out to a 10-7 lead before Sweden called timeout. “We knew this game was going to be hard. In that timeout we said it is not gonna end like this,” recalled Ruby.

The Swedes came out and outscored the Irish 10-7 the rest of the way, with Czajkowski  picking up 6 points (3-3) and Sweden moving on. “I think the energy of the crowd brought us up,” Ruby said.

Up next was a 19-7 win over Italy that moved the Swedes into a semifinal showdown with tournament favorite England just a few hours later. After going down 3-0 in the opening 5:05, Sweden rebounded with a pair of its own tallies. The English then reeled off the game’s next six scores and never looked back in a convincing 17-5 win.

“Even when we were losing, every parent was cheering for us, chanting, and calling us by name for good plays,” Ruby recalled. “A local restaurant came by and invited us all to come by for a meal,” said Candace. “Players from some of the teams that had been eliminated came to that semifinal to cheer for Sweden.”

Ruby and her teammates were not about to let their dream tournament end with a loss. In the bronze medal game, Sweden went on a 6-0 run in the third quarter to turn a 6-4 deficit into a 10-9 lead and held on for the 11-9 win and a third-place finish in Sweden’s first appearance in the ELF Under 21 Championship.

The West Hartford native finished with 11 goals and a team-high seven assists, and 18 points were good enough for 13th highest total by any player in the tournament.

Her dad was keeping folks posted on his Facebook page and said that a Conard wrestling coach whose daughter played lacrosse messaged him during the Prague tournament to tell him it was the first time he had gotten up that early for a lacrosse game (with the time change.) He also talked about the brother of one of Ruby’s Swedish teammates. He lived in London and sent them video of a watch party he hosted at his place of work when the team made it into the playoffs.

In addition to the lifelong memories made on the field, both Ruby and her parents said the friendships and experiences they all had are hard to put a value on. For Ruby it was the time spent with her teammates away from the game that will stay with her as much as the great times during the games. “We always had lunch and dinner together and would go on walks, plus hanging out in the hotel and talking.”

One of the parents gave each team member a journal to write down their thoughts and the players shared them with each other at the end of the tournament.

Ruby has been playing since she was 5 years old and her dad is a long-time lacrosse coach and official. In addition to learning Swedish and the words to the anthem, Ruby said she learned a great lesson about herself and her game. “No matter the skill level, if I play with confidence, I will always love this game. I was not only a better player, but a better person for playing. The team showed me another side of the game,” Ruby proudly said.

For Mom and Dad, there is pride in having their daughter selected for the team and for Ruby having a great tournament. But they are proudest of something else, something that they both said describes their daughter.

“It takes a lot of confidence at her age to go to a foreign land and play with a team you never met,” said Jamie. “It’s also how she got other players involved on and off the field. She found that player who was not maybe 100% ‘in’ and made her feel a part of it all.”

For her mother, Candace, it was seeing Ruby continue to grow as a person and show her personal leadership and her maturity. “She is an inclusive leader who wants everyone to succeed. It’s a continuation of her captaincy at Conard with how she includes everyone on the team. She has created incredible relationships. You want her to have this level of maturity and confidence.”

Next up could be playing for Team Sweden two years from now in Portugal in the European Championships.

What is Ruby’s advice to anyone that has an opportunity like she had in Prague? “I’d say take it, with no reservations. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it. I was nervous going in, but then I loved it.”

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