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Amber Hill

Amber Hill

Upper Cayuga

Induction Category:

Year Inducted

Athlete

2023

Amber Hill is a member of the Cayuga Nation, Turtle Clan, raised on the Tuscarora Reservation. Amber has played at all levels of lacrosse for women’s field including NCAA D1, professionally, and internationally, while also playing competitive women’s box lacrosse and winning gold medals in that discipline as well.

Amber was selected to play on the First Nations Lacrosse that played in the 2005 International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations Cup of Nations Festival that was held in conjunction with the World Championship in Annapolis, Maryland. This experience fed into the first U-19 Haudenosaunee Nationals women’s team that would be allowed to compete on the international stage in 2007 in Peterborough, Ontario.

In 2005, Amber walked on to the Syracuse University women’s team. In the Syracuse record books, Amber currently holds the second place for Most Season Saves at 193 and third place in Career Save Percentage at .511. She also led her team to the 2007 NCAA Quarterfinals, becoming the first indigenous woman to play in the NCAA tournament. In 2007, she led the Big East in saves with 10.16/game. She was named the 2007 Most Outstanding Player of the Big East Championship. She held the Big East Defensive Player of the Week, Athletic Directors Honor Roll, Big East Academic All-Star, and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll accolades. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in Political Science minoring in Legal Studies and Native Studies.

Amber was honored to serve as Captain for the Haudenosaunee Nationals in the 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2017 World Lacrosse World Championships, and most recently in 2019 for the Pan-American Lacrosse Association World Championship qualifier where the team went 4-0 and won a gold medal. In 2018, Amber became one of the first Haudenosaunee women, alongside her cousin Awehiyo Thomas, to compete professionally in the United Women’s Lacrosse League (UWLX) with the Long Island Sound. In 2021, Amber became the first indigenous woman to compete in the inaugural professional season of Athletes Unlimited. She placed fourth out of eight goalkeepers, and 26th out of 59 players with 1,145 points. She holds fifth place in the Athletes Unlimited record book for Most Saves in a game at 10. Amber has continued her career with Athletes Unlimited into 2022 as a Facilitator/Coach and accrued a 12-0 record in her first season.

In box lacrosse, Amber won 3 gold medals as a Captain with the Six Nations Snipers in the Arena Lacrosse League in 2017, 2018, and 2022. She also won two gold medals in the Women’s Major Series Lacrosse League in 2015 with the Niagara Turtle Islanders, and again in 2016 with the Grand River Attack.

Amber is currently a women’s collegiate field lacrosse official. She was appointed by World Lacrosse President Sue Redfern to sit on the World Lacrosse Women’s Box Lacrosse Working Group, charged with growing women’s box lacrosse on the international stage. Amber was recently appointed to the Africa Sticks Advisory Board through the Ouallo Kouya Foundation serving and empowering Africas youth through lacrosse.

Amber is the Founder of Vicious Lacrosse, training goalkeepers while addressing the mental-health challenges surrounding the position.

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