National Junior Rankings: Week 11
During the 2022 Canadian junior seasons, The Lax Mag will publish our National Junior Rankings, a weekly rundown of all 23 A-level teams across the country. Week 1 will begin on June 1 with future editions published in the middle of every week until the start of the Minto Cup.
The rankings will include the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League (OJLL), British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League (BCJALL) and Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL).
The Lax Mag’s rankings will position teams based not only by overall record, but also the strength of their opposition and the quality of their results, win or lose.
A week later and there are still six sides in the Minto mix, although both the Victoria Shamrocks and Miners Lacrosse Club are just a win away from booking their spot in Brampton alongside the Whitby Warriors and Toronto Beaches.
The OJLL has started announcing finalists for major year-end honours, and a name many expected to be in the MVP conversation is MIA.
Described by OJLL Digital Content Producer & Colour Analyst (among other things) Johnathan Donville as completing “one of greatest goal scoring seasons of all time”, Whitby’s Brock Haley (Vermont) was not included in the league’s final three for MVP (yes, we know there’s a MOP too, more on that later), which were (all very valuable talents too): Toronto’s Willem Firth (Cornell), Whitby’s Adam Poitras (Loyla) and Mimico’s Finlay Thomson (Syracuse).
Haley, whose 2022 season was a historically significant one, was first in the OJLL in goals (74) by an absurdly wide margin (22), was four points shy of Thomson for most points (having played three fewer games), and was Top 10 in assists too (46). As confirmed by the OJLL, Haley’s goals-per-game output (4.6) was the third highest in league history (going back to the 1930s) and the largest regular-season sum since 1994 when John Grant netted 86.
As we pointed our just prior to the playoffs, no Junior A team anywhere in the country relied on a single player for scoring as much as Whitby did Haley, who produced a seemingly very valuable 30% of the the Warrior’s goals this summer.
Quoting Donville for a second time now, “Is that good?”
Those two previously mentioned talents with higher-than-Haley-points-per-game production were Ron MacNeil with Alderwood in 1963 (4.8) and Mike McKee in 1980 with Oshawa (5.3). That’s it!
Like Haley, neither MacNeil or McKee were named the Green Gael Trophy winner (MVP) during those historically high goal-getting seasons either.
While Haley may still get recognized as the league’s Jim Veltman Award winner (Most Outstanding Player), the OJLL’s record books aren’t on his side there either.
Since 2000, when the Veltman honour was first handed out, only five times has the league’s top goal scorer also been named most outstanding: Andy Secore (Brampton, 2003), Shawn Evans (Peterborough, 2005), Cody Jamieson (Six Nations, 2008), Austin Shanks (Whitby, 2015) and Thomas McConvey (Mimico, 2019). None of those players’ per-game figures came all that close to Haley’s tremendous 2022 total though.
Haley, who led the OJLL in goals & points during the playoffs, currently sits fourth in point production playing for Team Canada at the World Lacrosse Men’s U21 World Championships in Ireland, because, well, what else would he be doing?
National Junior Rankings: Week 11
TW. (LW) Team (League) Regular Season (Playoffs)
*Eliminated from Minto Cup entry
1. (1) Whitby Warriors (OJLL) 10-10 (8-2)
2. (2) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL) 15-5 (6-4)
3. (3) Toronto Beaches (OJLL) 15-5 (6-5)
4. (4) Langley Thunder (BCJALL) 10-4 (7-4)
5. (5) Orangeville Northmen 13-7 (5-5)*
6. (5) Burlington Chiefs 10-10 (5-3)*
7. (9) Miners Lacrosse Club 12-3 (7-1)
8. (7) Mimico Mountaineers 16-4 (0-3)*
9. (9) Coquitlam Adanacs 9-5 (4-4)*
10. (8) Calgary Mountaineers 12-3 (5-4)
11. (11) Nanaimo Timbermen 10-4 (1-3)*
12. (12) Oakville Buzz 13-7 (2-3)*
13. (13) Peterborough Lakers (OJLL) 10-10 (1-3)*
14. (14) St. Catharines Athletics (OJLL) 10-10 (0-3)*
15. (15) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL) 7-7 (1-2)*
16. (16) Okotoks Raiders (RMLL) 5-10 (1-2)
17. (17) Six Nations Arrows (OJLL) 5-15*
18. (18) Delta Islanders (BCJALL) 4-10*
19. (19) Brampton Excelsiors (OJLL) 3-17*
20. (20) KW Lacrosse Club (BCJALL) 1-19*
21. (21) Port Coquitlam Saints (BCJALL) 1-13*
22. (22) Saskatchewan SWAT (RMLL) 1-14 (0-2)
23. (23) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL) 4-10 (0-2)*