IL Indoor

B.C. Junior A, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Junior A teams gearing up for season

The Peterborough Lakers and Nanaimo Timbermen are excited for their Ontario and B.C. summer junior seasons to get started, the former because of who’s coming back and the latter because of who’s joining them. For the Lakers, almost their whole cast is back from last season, when they finished fourth in the league and at times looked like they could go toe-to-toe with the top Minto Cup contenders. Last year, they were a bit young to be consistent enough to get beyond the semi-finals, but Head Coach Mat Giles tells Peterborough This Week his team is more experienced and ready to make a serious run. The loss of Matt Crough should be offset by the maturation of players like Cam Milligan and the return from injury of Nathan White. Defender Robert Hope will be tough to replace, but the biggest challenge may be between the nets, where the team has seen Tye Belanger and Connor Danko graduate in successive years. READ MORE »

2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, B.C. Junior A, CLA, Futures Report, IL Indoor, Inside Lacrosse, International, National Lacrosse League, Off the Rug, Road to the Minto Cup, Rookie Report, The Ballers, The Buzz, The Life, Victoria Shamrocks

Did the Jr. Shamrocks just open European pipeline in signing Czech young gun Pesek?

Dominik Pesek about to, as Patrick Merrill puts it, 'Run right by me' during a friendly before the 2011 World Championships.

Quick: when I say “Czech Republic” what sport do you think of? OK, step out the lacrosse box for a minute and take an unbiased stance. Most people will automatically think hockey, soccer or even tennis as the dominant sports, producing names such as Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Peter Nedved, Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl. Well, while he may not be in the upper echelon of Czech athletes, one name lacrosse fans can start to get used to is the newest member of the Victoria Jr Shamrocks: Dominik Pesek. READ MORE »

Behind the Scenes, Futures Report, IL Indoor, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Nathan White is ready to go after recovering from concussions

Nathan White

With concussions a common topic in sports news these days, most of the news is bad. In lacrosse, we’ve seen the ends of the careers of Merrick Thomson and Ken Montour and what is looking like the end for Phil Sanderson, who was released by the Toronto Rock in January. So it’s refreshing to hear some good news on the concussion front, and here it is: 20-year-old forward Nathan White says he is ready to resume his career in box lacrosse after fully recovering from a series of concussions that have kept him out of the game for most of the past three years.

White has played 23 total games for the Peterborough Junior Lakers: 14 in 2010, 8 in 2011 and just one last summer. He was going to Onondaga Community College but was told by the school last fall, midway through his second semester, that he would not longer be able to stay because the school felt he was too big of a liability risk. The shock was all the greater, he said, because he was feeling really good and hadn’t heard a word about it from the school—they broke the news in an email to his parents. READ MORE »

Futures Report, IL Indoor, NLL Entry Draft, National Lacrosse League, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Randy Staats is going to Syracuse

Randy Staats will be heading to Syracuse University in 2014. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Young star Randy Staats, who has been rumoured to be heading to the pros in each of the past couple of National Lacrosse League entry drafts despite saying he was staying in school, has made it official. The Six Nations Arrows righty forward has committed to attend Syracuse University, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Onondaga Community College where he is currently attending. He will actually take this fall off from lacrosse while he wraps up his studies at OCC, Staats told IL Indoor, then will enrol at Syracuse next January and start playing for the Orange and studying communications. “Injuring my knee twice, I’ve learned that lacrosse may not always be there,” Staats said, referring to the two major injuries that forced him to miss the entire 2010 and 2011 Junior A seasons after putting up 95 points as a 16-year-old in 2009. “I want to have my education to fall back on.” READ MORE »

IL Indoor, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Orangeville Northmen celebrate yet another Minto Cup at annual banquet

At the recent Orangeville Northmen Jr A team’s annual banquet and awards ceremony, the team gathered to honour its members and to reflect on a remarkable run of success. At least nine players who spent all or part of their junior careers with the Northmen were selected in this year’s NLL draft, including four out of five in the 12 through 16 slots.

That list doesn’t, however, include some pretty high achievers. Dillon Ward was MVP of the Minto Cup. Jason Noble was the top defender in the OLA Jr A loop. Jason’s twin brother Jeremy Noble was MVP of the OLA playoffs. Pro personnel people will keep an eye on Ward; Jason (in 2013) and Jeremy (2014) should be first-round NLL selections after they finish school. READ MORE »

Alberta Junior A, CLA, IL Indoor, Road to the Minto Cup, The Buzz

Okotoks Raiders will remain in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse league

Below is the decision made by the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League’s Board of Directors regarding an appeal by the Okotoks Raiders Jr A club. The other three teams in the league had voted to kick the Raiders out of the league, saying that they found themselves no longer able to work with Okotoks. The document was acquired by IL Indoor from a party with knowledge of the situation.

The RMLL Board of Directors (“the Board”) has considered the motion of the Junior A division made and passed with a 3/4^th’s majority. We have reviewed the rationale for this vote as well as the counter arguments from the Raiders organization. The Board also listened to the testimony of several individuals during a phone conference call and subsequently reviewed the negotiated offers exchanged before the Junior A motion for expulsion was passed. The Board has had several conversations over the phone and via email while trying to find the best way to respond to this motion. We explicitly did not consider any letters of support or related material that was sent to the Board en masse or individually. We deemed this information irrelevant to the issue at hand and the Board is well acquainted with the best interests of the league and its participants.

READ MORE »

CLA, IL Indoor, MSL, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup, Road to the Presidents Cup, Senior A, Senior B, The Life, WLA

In 2013, fighting in Canadian lacrosse will come with stiffer punishments

New CLA rules will hopefully deter players like Andrew Suitor from dropping the gloves. (Photo Courtesy: Jessica Nyznik)

A press release from the CLA has surfaced today that will see fighting in all CLA leagues from Minor to Senior enforced with much harsher penalties. Starting in 2013, any player who engages in a fight will be given a major penalty and game misconduct. There is a major caveat to the rule: if there is a clear institgator then the non-offending player will not receive a game-misconduct penalty while the instigator will receive a second major and a second game misconduct.

NOTE: This rule does not apply to CLAX or the NLL as they do not fall under CLA jurisdiction.

NOTE 1.A: Reports have been circluating that the WLA may not abide by these rules. One Governor commented to IL Indoor, however, that will have to be decided by a board of governors meeting that will take place in the coming days. Find the full press release after the jump, then head over to the boards and have your say READ MORE »

IL Indoor, Road to the Minto Cup

Orangeville’s Brad Gillies discovers bittersweet emotions of winning Minto Cup

Brad Gillies (6) ended his Junior A career as a Minto Cup champion with Orangeville. (Photo: Tim Prothero, VintageLax)

Winning a Minto Cup puts a player on top of the Junior A lacrosse world. It also puts a lot of guys at the end of their Junior A road, which fosters a conflict of emotions. “All game, I kept thinking, ‘This is the last time we’re going to be in the huddle. This is the last time I’ll be running out with these guys,’ ” Orangeville defender Brad Gillies, 21, told InsideHalton.com. “It was a bittersweet thought, that’s for sure.” Making it even more special for Gillies and the Northmen was the chip on their shoulder, put there by a perceived lack of respect entering the tournament. The fact that defending champion Whitby also was hosting this year’s tournament gave Orangeville the idea that it was being overlooked. “We’ll always have this together,” he said. “This group was one of the closest I’ve been a part of. We were just like a family, and we’ll never forget this.”

IL Indoor, Road to the Minto Cup

ILGear.com: Minto 2012, sights and sounds

Bradley Kri's Minto Cup celebration is just one of the many images captured by ILGear.com. (Photo: Casey Vock)

There are always plenty of sights and sounds at any major lacrosse tournament. The Minto Cup in Whitby was no exception and ILGear’s Casey Vock was on hand to capture photographs and video over the weekend. Check out the sights from around Iroquois Park Sports Centre, which includes some video interviews with coach Matt Sawyer of the champion Orangeville Northmen. Jeremy Noble, Dillon Ward, Rob Hellyer and Brandon Benn also have some thoughts to share following their big win over the Coquitlam Adanacs to capture Canada’s Junior A championship. And if lax gear is your thing, Vock provides plenty of photos of the gear the Junior A champs wore en route to winning it all.

IL Indoor, Road to the Minto Cup

Minto Cup 2012: A photo gallery

Dillon Ward and his Orangeville teammates celebrate their Minto Cup win. (Photo: Tim Prothero, VintageLax)

It’s all over but the crying, and the celebrations. At least we figure that’s what’s going on in Orangeville after the Northmen clinched the 2012 Minto Cup. It’s the third Minto title in 5 seasons for the Northmen, who put on a dominant display of lacrosse en route to the championship. They clinched the Cup with Saturday’s win over the Coquitlam Adanacs, and ILIndoor was fortunate to have photographer Tim Prothero of VintageLax.com provide images from the tournament, which we proudly share with the lacrosse community. For your viewing pleasure, after the jump. READ MORE »