2024 Season Comes to an End - Commissioner's Message
Two weeks ago, the 2024 Masters lacrosse season came to a close. What a great weekend of Masters Lacrosse! Upsets, close games, drama. It had it all. Some players from the past dropped by for a quick visit.
Due to some patterning of the regular season, a tie was had in a senior game Friday night, there can be no ties at provincials. Resolution was required, and after meeting with the team captains, a 5-minute sudden-death period at 10 am on Sunday was the solution. The winner stayed on the floor and played against Toronto, and the loser played Huntsville later in the day. Brampton scored with seconds left and faced off against Toronto. It was probably the largest crowd I have ever seen for a Masters game even though it was only 5 minutes!
In Senior, the #6 Seed, Niagara won the Championship with a win over Brampton. The #6 out of 10 teams! It shows that anyone has a chance to win it all. In both divisions the #10 seeds each won a game, every team won a game at provincials.
In the junior masters division, there was the equivalent of the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Bramalea Kings went undefeated at 21-0. The Dolphins were only 17-0.
For anyone that thinks Masters lacrosse is an old man's game, they needed to watch the final between Bramalea and Merritton. Hardly, a missed pass or dropped ball, just 45 minutes of continuous action.
Congratulations to our award winners! All were very deserving. Referee of the Year: Dave Brouwer. Randy 'Rooster' McMillen Sportsmanship Award: Warren DiMarco from the MOB. Goaltenders of the Year: Bramalea's Brent Thompson and Garrett Chisholme. Player of the Year: Matt Quinton of the Toronto Beaches. A new award was donated for 2024 by KC Patterson of Barrie, the Emotional Assist Player of the Year went to two very deserving players: Brandon McMillen of Kincardine and Jeff 'Beef' Sheppard of Niagara. Two keeper placks will be ordered for this. The Commissioner's Award winner was Jason Vehrs of the Nomads. Jason ran a team, played, was a part-time referee, a member of the Executive committee and he always had a smile on his face. Well done to all our award winners.
As with all seasons, there are some very important thank you's. Everyone sees and hears from me, but I am just a frontman for the lot that works behind the scenes. What would a Masters tournament be without a hospitality room? Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association president Simon Hames was there from start to finish seeing that everyone stayed hydrated. Vice President Dave, Adam and many others, the self-named burger-flipping-monkeys, kept everyone fed with the BBQ at the front door. Carly supplied and looked after the timekeepers, ensuring accurate scoring and keeping games on time. Thanks to all that sat in the box and kept the game sheets, ran the clock, and worked the shot clock. Very well done and appreciated!
Jamie Dawick, Nick Rose and the great staff at the TRAC. I deal with a lot of facilities. This one is always first class. What a great location to host our Championships!
The executive committee of Mike "Monty" Montgomery our RIC, senior reps Scott Spencer and KC Patterson. The junior reps, Erik Rasetta and Jason Vehrs. It's difficult to referee or play and run their teams and still have me taking up their time to deal with issues as they arise all weekend. These guys give sound advice and I rely on them.
Two very special ladies keep track of the money for the 50/50 and the prize table. Not only that, they looked after the pictures being taken during the weekend. It would not have happened without them. Elsie even tracked down our pens! Elsie Anastasakis, our Secretary also, my much better half Lynn. Thank you, for not only this weekend but a year of listening to me talk about issues in the game that were on my mind. I'm sure at times I must have sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher.
A great and welcome surprise was a visit Sunday afternoon from Darlene Adams and her daughters Kerry and Catherine and son-in-law Ross Tremaine. Darlene is Bob Adams' widow and was able to present the Bob Adams Senior Championship trophy to Niagara. A great thank you for making the drive for a short ceremony. I would also like to thank the Huntsville captain Blake Hutchinson for relating part of what Bob had meant to the game of lacrosse, the Huntsville team, and the community. Bob was truly one of the real great leaders of the sport off the floor. A real friend that is truly missed. Thanks to all who made this happen.
This year saw the best 50/50 we have ever had, a pot of $655! For those not at the ceremony on Sunday, I related a story about a man named Jake Earl. Jake bought a substantial amount of tickets Friday night. He came back Saturday and bought another significant amount. He then handed all of them back and asked if they could be distributed to kids around the arena. Lynn did this and as fate would have it a young child (Emery) of a Kincardine player won the pot. To make this even better, the Mom will be carrying this forward with a donation to charity. What a great thing to teach your children! Prepping the next generation is what Masters is all about. As I said, as grown adults we still get to play a kid's game, get little sleep, eat not the healthiest food, and drink beer for a weekend. It has to be about the game and the camaraderie.
The raffle was also a great success, with a total of $2120 raised! Even better was that all 20 teams donated. There were some great prizes available. I recruited some young ones to pull the winning tickets on Sunday morning. One little girl had her eyes closed, put her hand over them and would reach into the bowl and fish out the ticket. Very cute to see.
Every team showed up for team pictures this year! Lynn will sort them as soon as she gets time, and copies to teams will be distributed. It may take some time to pick the best picture. With what Lynn has to work with it can be a challenge! Elsie will sort through the pictures taken Sunday which will be posted to the website and distributed as well.
Once provincials come around, I usually think there can only be two winners. But, this year I was wrong, the real winner was our game!
Thank you to all. I hope everyone continues to play and we grow this great brand of our game.
Due to some patterning of the regular season, a tie was had in a senior game Friday night, there can be no ties at provincials. Resolution was required, and after meeting with the team captains, a 5-minute sudden-death period at 10 am on Sunday was the solution. The winner stayed on the floor and played against Toronto, and the loser played Huntsville later in the day. Brampton scored with seconds left and faced off against Toronto. It was probably the largest crowd I have ever seen for a Masters game even though it was only 5 minutes!
In Senior, the #6 Seed, Niagara won the Championship with a win over Brampton. The #6 out of 10 teams! It shows that anyone has a chance to win it all. In both divisions the #10 seeds each won a game, every team won a game at provincials.
In the junior masters division, there was the equivalent of the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Bramalea Kings went undefeated at 21-0. The Dolphins were only 17-0.
For anyone that thinks Masters lacrosse is an old man's game, they needed to watch the final between Bramalea and Merritton. Hardly, a missed pass or dropped ball, just 45 minutes of continuous action.
Congratulations to our award winners! All were very deserving. Referee of the Year: Dave Brouwer. Randy 'Rooster' McMillen Sportsmanship Award: Warren DiMarco from the MOB. Goaltenders of the Year: Bramalea's Brent Thompson and Garrett Chisholme. Player of the Year: Matt Quinton of the Toronto Beaches. A new award was donated for 2024 by KC Patterson of Barrie, the Emotional Assist Player of the Year went to two very deserving players: Brandon McMillen of Kincardine and Jeff 'Beef' Sheppard of Niagara. Two keeper placks will be ordered for this. The Commissioner's Award winner was Jason Vehrs of the Nomads. Jason ran a team, played, was a part-time referee, a member of the Executive committee and he always had a smile on his face. Well done to all our award winners.
As with all seasons, there are some very important thank you's. Everyone sees and hears from me, but I am just a frontman for the lot that works behind the scenes. What would a Masters tournament be without a hospitality room? Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association president Simon Hames was there from start to finish seeing that everyone stayed hydrated. Vice President Dave, Adam and many others, the self-named burger-flipping-monkeys, kept everyone fed with the BBQ at the front door. Carly supplied and looked after the timekeepers, ensuring accurate scoring and keeping games on time. Thanks to all that sat in the box and kept the game sheets, ran the clock, and worked the shot clock. Very well done and appreciated!
Jamie Dawick, Nick Rose and the great staff at the TRAC. I deal with a lot of facilities. This one is always first class. What a great location to host our Championships!
The executive committee of Mike "Monty" Montgomery our RIC, senior reps Scott Spencer and KC Patterson. The junior reps, Erik Rasetta and Jason Vehrs. It's difficult to referee or play and run their teams and still have me taking up their time to deal with issues as they arise all weekend. These guys give sound advice and I rely on them.
Two very special ladies keep track of the money for the 50/50 and the prize table. Not only that, they looked after the pictures being taken during the weekend. It would not have happened without them. Elsie even tracked down our pens! Elsie Anastasakis, our Secretary also, my much better half Lynn. Thank you, for not only this weekend but a year of listening to me talk about issues in the game that were on my mind. I'm sure at times I must have sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher.
A great and welcome surprise was a visit Sunday afternoon from Darlene Adams and her daughters Kerry and Catherine and son-in-law Ross Tremaine. Darlene is Bob Adams' widow and was able to present the Bob Adams Senior Championship trophy to Niagara. A great thank you for making the drive for a short ceremony. I would also like to thank the Huntsville captain Blake Hutchinson for relating part of what Bob had meant to the game of lacrosse, the Huntsville team, and the community. Bob was truly one of the real great leaders of the sport off the floor. A real friend that is truly missed. Thanks to all who made this happen.
This year saw the best 50/50 we have ever had, a pot of $655! For those not at the ceremony on Sunday, I related a story about a man named Jake Earl. Jake bought a substantial amount of tickets Friday night. He came back Saturday and bought another significant amount. He then handed all of them back and asked if they could be distributed to kids around the arena. Lynn did this and as fate would have it a young child (Emery) of a Kincardine player won the pot. To make this even better, the Mom will be carrying this forward with a donation to charity. What a great thing to teach your children! Prepping the next generation is what Masters is all about. As I said, as grown adults we still get to play a kid's game, get little sleep, eat not the healthiest food, and drink beer for a weekend. It has to be about the game and the camaraderie.
The raffle was also a great success, with a total of $2120 raised! Even better was that all 20 teams donated. There were some great prizes available. I recruited some young ones to pull the winning tickets on Sunday morning. One little girl had her eyes closed, put her hand over them and would reach into the bowl and fish out the ticket. Very cute to see.
Every team showed up for team pictures this year! Lynn will sort them as soon as she gets time, and copies to teams will be distributed. It may take some time to pick the best picture. With what Lynn has to work with it can be a challenge! Elsie will sort through the pictures taken Sunday which will be posted to the website and distributed as well.
Once provincials come around, I usually think there can only be two winners. But, this year I was wrong, the real winner was our game!
Thank you to all. I hope everyone continues to play and we grow this great brand of our game.