It has been said that the best journey always takes you home.
At 25 years old, Ottawa, Ontario native Nathan Grenon, the 11th overall selection in the 2021 National Lacrosse League Entry Draft (by the now defunct Panther City Lacrosse Club), has had quite the nomadic NLL experience.
After being selected by PCLC in 2021, there was never a day where he wasn’t fighting for his spot. Even as a first-round pick, he understood that he was going to need to give it his all every game and every practice to earn a spot on the floor – he’s earned the reputation of being a scrappy pitbull with a never-draining battery. He lived in market, but it wasn’t home.
By September 2023, Grenon had played well enough to earn himself a new deal with Panther City. However, only two months later, the club released him.
It didn’t take long for Grenon to find a new home. In fact, within 48 hours of being released, he was signed to the Albany FireWolves. It was just in time, too. Grenon was signed a week before the FireWolves first game of the 2023-24 season.
True to form, Grenon was fearless on the floor with the FireWolves. He provided a spark for his team and stepped up in notable ways throughout the season, including contributing to pivotal moments during the team’s improbable postseason run. But, his time with the FireWolves, as memorable and as impactful as it was, was short-lived. Less than a month after the FireWolves magical run at the NLL Cup, Grenon was traded to the Ottawa Black Bears.
The NLL Cup loss was heartbreaking for Grenon, but nothing has come easy for the 5’10”, 175 lbs. lefty forward. He has faced challenges throughout his lacrosse journey but has found ways to cope. It can be especially difficult to overcome an NLL finals loss, but Grenon has implemented strategies to battle through the tough times.
“Don’t stay too long in those moments,” Grenon said. “Take them for what they are. But, if you just keep your mind in them or keep thinking of what you could have done better in the past or what you should have done differently or you’re overthinking, all you’re going to do is keep living in that same time.”
After being part of a team that defied expectations and made it to the finals, Grenon is now joining the brand-new Black Bears for their inaugural session. It is happening at a pivotal time in his young career and will connect him with the roots of his lacrosse origin story – when he was young, Grenon was a member of the Nepean Knights minor program, one of the premier youth lacrosse programs in the city.
Now, if we’re being technical, Grenon was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then spent eight years with his family in Comox, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, before moving back across the country to Ottawa.
Not only has Grenon moved back to his hometown and living in the market, his new place is so close to the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the Ottawa Black Bears and the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators, he can see the arena through his kitchen window. Interestingly, as long as he’s been in Ottawa, he’s always been a preverbal stone’s throw from the arena. His childhood was very close to the Sensplex, the Black Bears, and the Senator’s training facility.
“Honestly, it’s like 5-10 minutes away,” Grenon said. “It doesn’t take very long to get there. We could see the practice facility [Sensplex]. We would park at the Sensplex, and they all walk over to the arena because it’s cheaper parking, or you don’t have to pay for parking. I definitely lived in the heart of town, so I’m very familiar with where we’re going to be.”
Being so close to the arena and so close to family, commuting is going to be a thing of the past. Grenon joked that one of the biggest challenges during his time in Ottawa is not going to relate to his performance on the floor but how often he goes to his parents for those home-cooked meals.
“My mom is always going, ‘Oh, are you going to come over?’” Grenon joked. “As much as I would love a free home-cooked meal from mom, you know, you gotta be the guy, but I love the comfortability of it.”
However, Grenon often does end up going to his parents’ house for those meals; the way things are panning out for him seems very comfortable. Having previously lived in market in Fort Worth, Texas for Panther City, Grenon got a taste of what it’s like to be a professional athlete living in market. Now that he’s in Ottawa, he’s back to feeling all the benefits of being where the team is.
Across the NLL, there are handfuls of players living in the market. Grenon, being one of them, again says he would recommend it to any player if they have the option.
“It gives you that mental thought, or even appreciation, that they’re a professional athlete,” Grenon said. “You can be in the city that you’re playing for, so you can establish yourself as an athlete. You can work out every day, find a trainer from that area, shoot on the turf that you play on, or you know, you can get familiar with all that area. It just feels like it builds a whole new level of confidence.”
“It’s exciting, being there, moving away, telling people, ‘Yeah, I’m moving away for lacrosse.’ I think it just elevates play. It gives guys that comfort in getting familiar with the environment where you are and having some mojo going into a game.”
Being supported by an NHL team like the Senators, makes feeling like a top-tier professional athlete even more real. It’s not just Grenon who feels that way, either. Similar sentiments have been shared by numerous other players who have played for teams that have ties to NHL teams.
“The teams that have that NHL backing, like Vancouver, Calgary, and others, they have a good fan base – they know how to run a good show,” Grenon said. “The fans are into it, and I just think, I’m grateful for the connection and the partnership we’ve been able to have, which is on every account. You have these levels of expertise coming from the music they play to the tempo of the announcer to get people and the fans involved. That’s all the way from the head office staff to the workers inside and the people that maybe we don’t see on a day-to-day basis. So it’s, it’s a whole team effort.”
“They know what they’re doing, and it’s just so nice. It’s refreshing to have that level of kind of professionalism come in and be like, ‘We’re going to work just as hard with you as we’d work the Senators.’”
Grenon recently had the unique experience of being invited to talk about the Black Bears and the NLL on TSN during the intermission of a recent Senators game. As for what Grenon says you can expect from him and the Black Bears on the floor this season, he’s going to show the world what it means to play ‘Ottawa lacrosse’.
“It’s going to be a group effort,” Grenon said. “I’m always going to bring what I can to help my team win, but we’re going to show fans what it’s really like to play Ottawa lacrosse. A lot of my teammates haven’t been to Ottawa much (this is their first experience). I can just tell from seeing them that we’re going to be a great show.”
Ottawa fans are going to hear a lot of ‘Advance-Ottawa-En Avant’ inside the Canadian Tire Centre this winter and spring. Grenon will be one of the loudest and proudest to do so.
By Adam Levi
