1985 - WHITBY AND BROOKLIN TRADE COACHES 


 If there is anything better than going out a winner, it's coming back a
 winner.  Just ask Peter Vipond.  The Minto Cup winning coach of the
 Whitby Warriors stepped down after winning the Canadian championship.
 This ended his brief career as a Junior coach.  The Major League was
 waiting.  Vipond jumped to Brooklin.  By the time he retired as coach
 of the Redmen(once again going out a champion) he would be the
 winningest coach in the history of Senior A lacrosse.

 Up Highway 12, there was trouble brewing in the village of Brooklin.
 Despite falling one game short against the eventual Mann Cup winners,
 the Redmen players were in revolt.  The majority of them did not want
 Neil Armstrong back as head coach.  Consequently Armstrong did not
 return, opening the door for Vipond.  Yet "Army" was also far from
 done.  He travelled down to Port Whitby and replaced Vipond as the new
 Warriors coach.  He teamed up with assistant Elmer Tran, the start of a
 successful partnership.

 Such team hopping was enough to make any fan's head spin.  When the
 dust had settled, Durham Region could boast two Canadian championships.

 OLA Jr.A lacrosse was in a transitional phase.  The total dominance of
 Peterborough, Whitby and Oshawa from 1978 on had taken its toll.
 Rexdale and Mississauga were gone.  Elora would soon follow.
 Eventually Etobicoke Eclipse would drop out of the league.
 St.Catharines A's had made a successful return, however they would need
 to endure a long apprenticeship before they could flirt with a
 championship.  The lack of competitiveness would only get worse.  Soon
 the league would dwindle to six teams.  One of those six, Peterborough
 Maulers would be untouchable.  Yet Whitby Warriors had one more great
 run in them.

 Even without their star Joe Nieuwendyk for much of the regular season,
 Whitby finished first with a 19-5 record.  Ex-Gaels Barry Kent and Ross
 Tabor pick up the scoring for the Warriors.  Kent narrowly lost the
 scoring championship to Kurt Drury.  Drury was the third successive
 Pete to lead the league - after Mark and Doug Evans.  Jamie Batley
 would win the next two titles for the Maulers.

 League playoffs were a breeze for the Minto Cupholders.  They were
 tested their first post season game by a competitive Brampton crew led
 by Jim Veltman and Troy Cordingley.  Nieuwendyk led a huge third period
 comeback as Whitby stole the win.  Seven more wins followed earning the
 Warriors the right to host the Canadian Championship.

 The '85 Minto featured three of the most talented youngsters the
 championship had ever seen.  Joe Nieuwendyk was in the twilight of his
 career.  Even though he had two more years of Junior eligibility he
 would give up lacrosse after this series in order to concentrate on
 hockey.  Along with Adam Oates, who had recently retired, he would be
 one of the biggest losses our game has ever suffered.  Nieuwendyk's
 opponents from Victoria were the Gait twins.  Gary and Paul were only
 getting started.

 The final was back to a best of seven affair for this one year.  It was
 a blessing for all fans as the matchup was a marquee one and the series
 did not disappoint.  Victoria-Esquimalt Legion won the opener 12-10 in
 overtime.  The home team came back hard the next night. They won 19-12
 as Nieuwendyk scored seven times and goaltender Ken Passfield set up
 five goals.  Whitby then squeeked out a 10-9 win.  Nuewendyk was again
 the difference with four markers.  Victoria evened the final 2-2 with
 an 11-10 victory.

 The remaining three matches would be over the Labour Day weekend.
 Three games in three nights, plus the brutal humidity from a week long
 heat wave would be too much for the BC boys.  The Warriors took Game
 Five 16-12.  Eric Perroni stepped up with a seven point game. The
 Legion came back to win the next night 11-7.  It was the third game in
 three nights which finished the visitors.  A dozen different Warriors
 scored goals as they ran Victoria off the floor in Game Seven.  Whitby
 won 16-8 and successfully defended their Canadian championship.

 Brooklin Redmen were poised to win their first Mann Cup in sixteen
 years, however their rivals from Peterborough remained the chief
 obstacle.  The Lakers were not about to go away.  They waltzed to a
 first place finish with 19 wins and 1 loss, to Brooklin.  The Redmen
 finished 16-4, three of those losses to Peterborough.  Needless to say,
 it was not a very competitive league.

 Senior A lacrosse in Ontario was in trouble.  Most of the talent in the
 province resided in either Peterborough or Durham Region.  These were
 lean years for everyone else, including Brampton.  The Major League had
 already lost Fergus, after a 0-19-1 season.  In 1985 Scarborough
 finished 1-19.  St.Catharines was marginally better with three wins.
 None of these teams had the stomach to endure years of
 Peterborough/Brooklin dominance while waiting for their own local
 talent to reemerge.  Thus they all quit the league.  Even competitive
 Owen Sound would flee to Senior B after the '85 campaign.

 Thus the Laker/Redmen Final would be the one highlight of the year.  In
 fact, Laker/Redmen Finals would be the only highlights in league play
 for the next six years!  Peterborough continued their dominance by
 winning the series opener.  Would the youthful Redmen ever be good
 enough to breakthrough?  In fact, they were on the verge of breaking
 through.  They followed the opening loss with three straight wins.
 Brooklin made one last trip north to finish the defending champs off.

 But there was trouble in Peterborough.  It was late August, which in
 Canada - and only Canada! - means hockey season.  The Lakers were
 unceremoniously booted out of the Memorial Centre in order to put ice
 in for the Peterborough Petes.  The public outcry was second to none.
 Not since the mistreatment of Bob Allan had Peterborough sports fans
 shown such passion for lacrosse.  In recent years they certainly had
 not shown much for regular season games in mostly empty arenas.
 However a playoff game against rival Redmen was completely different.
 The Memorial Centre was flooded with threats from fans vowing to cancel
 their season tickets for the Petes if the Lakers were not allowed back
 in.  With a couple of thousand Redmen fans - many of them ex-Gael fans
 finally getting a chance to see their boys win a series over hated
 Peterborough - heading up Highway 115 for the fifth game, hasty action
 had to be taken.  Boards were put over the ice.  There was no time for
 proper preparation, thus the result was a disaster.  Game Five did
 start as planned.  It did not last long.  The boards were wickedly
 slippery.  They were so bad the game had to be postponed part way into
 the first period.

 They eventually got it right and Game Five was replayed a couple of
 nights later.  Brooklin won it, ending the Lakers three year dynasty.
 The King is dead, long live the King.  The Redmen dynasty would more
 than double Peterborough's three year reign.

 First came a trip west to challenge for the Mann Cup.  The Redmen were
 the last easterners to win on the coast.  However their competition
 back then was Senior B calibre.  One needed to look all the way back to
 1953, when the Trailermen beat the best BC had in their own backyard.
 Brooklin faced the most legendary of all western clubs - the
 Salmonbellies.  That meant a series in Queen's Park Arena - more
 boards!

 The series would be a reunion or sorts.  Goaltenders Wayne Colley and
 Rod Banister would face off again.  Banister got the better of Colley
 during the Minto Cups of 1977-78.  The first meeting Banister
 especially stole the show.  He took home the McConaghy Award as series
 MVP.  Colley struggled terribly that first matchup.  In '85, Wayne
 Colley would get a second chance.

 New Westminster won a tight first game.  Ivan Tuura tied the contest
 8-8 with two minutes left.  In spite of the Redmen outshooting the
 Salmonbellies 22-11 in the third period, the home side managed to get
 to overtime.  They had the netminding of Banister to thank for that.
 1977 all over again?  Geordie Dean scored twice during the extra period
 as New Westminster won 11-9.

 It was Colley's turn to shine in Game Two.  He made 47 saves compared
 to Doug Zack's 38 stops.  Nevertheless, Brooklin played from behind
 much of the night and lost 7-5.  They were soon down 3-0.  Banister
 turned away 52 shots as the Salmonbellies hung on for a 9-8 victory.

 Yet another eastern failure on the coast, what else was new?  Everyone
 had suspected the Redmen were too inexperienced.  Now they were down
 3-0 and certain to lose.  In lacrosse, no team had ever come from 3-0
 down in a Canadian championship final.  The greatest comebacks the Mann
 Cup had seen was when Vancouver had come from 3-1 down to win in '64.
 New Westminster did the exact same thing the next year.  Both teams had
 done it against Brooklin!

 Yet the easterner champs were not dead yet.  Colley was playing the
 best lacrosse of his life - a red wall in front of his net.  With his
 goaltending, Brooklin registered their first win in Game Four.  Derek
 Keenan and Gil Nieuwendyk both scored two goals during the 7-6 victory.
 The next game the Salmonbellies showed up to finish the Redmen off.
 They outshot their opponents 20-8 in the first period.  Thanks to
 Colley, New Westminster only won the period 2-1.  That was the turning
 point in the series.  On the strength of a five goal third period the
 visitors won the contest 7-5.  After the win Peter Vipond said, "they
 have a bigger club and are more experienced but it's not over yet." It
 was far from over.  Wayne Colley was just getting started.

 Brooklin evened the Final at 3-3, thanks to another huge third period.
 They led only 3-2 after the second but broke away for a 9-5 triumph.
 Nieuwendyk led them with a hattrick.  Over 3,000 fans attended the
 game.  The Redmen had started the series with ten supporters.  By the
 end of Game Six their grit and determination had won over the Vancouver
 and Coquitlam fans.

 The seventh match would once again be an exercise in frustration for
 the Salmonbelly shooters.  For the third successive night they would
 only beat Wayne Colley five times.  They did win the opening period
 2-1.  Brooklin inched ahead in the second and took a 4-3 lead to the
 intermission.  This contest went down the stretch even 5-5.  Ken Colley
 scored the championship winner with less than five minutes remaining.
 The OLA had ended its drought on the coast!  And under the most
 unlikely circumstances.