OJLL willing to reinstate Beaches, alumni posts petition after team informed
Photo: Ontario Lacrosse Association
Before the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League’s decision on last week’s appeal hearing was made public, the Toronto Beaches Jr. A Lacrosse Club, through a Twitter account seemingly created in recent days, Toronto Beaches Alumni (@BeachesAlumni), published a change.org petition.
In addition to pleading for public support of the club’s reinstatement, the petition also includes a “Timeline of Events” starting on the day the team was suspended (Dec. 6th) by OJLL Commissioner, Mark Grimes, for “their intention to defect to a competitor of the Ontario Lacrosse Association”.
As previously reported by The Lax Mag, that competitor is of course the Tewaaraton Lacrosse League and their newest franchise, the Toronto Lacrosse Club, which is owned by a co-owner of the Toronto Beaches Jr. A Lacrosse Club, Jason Shuttleworth.
Although nothing from last week’s appeal was made public by either the league or team prior to today, it’s believed that the OJLL Board of Governors had until the end of day today to issue their decision.
Hours after the tweet by Toronto Beaches Alumni and before the suspected deadline would have passed, the OJLL issued the following statement:
Source: Twitter.com/TheOJLL
The Lax Mag reached out to Grimes for further comment, but the OJLL Commissioner respectfully declined.
Less than 24 hours after last week’s appeal hearing, the Beaches made multiple surprising executive moves, including Shuttleworth stepping down from his role as director and officer of the club. Likely due to this oddly occurring almost immediately after the official appeal hearing, it’s suspected that the OJLL is requesting a formal confirmation from the club versus what was shared on social media.
The Toronto Beaches Alumni petition indicates that on January 7th, “Voting commences. League votes in favour of having Beaches reinstated (7 - 3) Governor votes”. On the same date, the petition also claims that “Mimico says voting was out of order and ignores vote”. As outlined above, today’s OJLL statement claims otherwise. The opposite in fact.
The Lax Mag has confirmed with various sources that a motion was tabled by email on January 7th to reinstate the Toronto Beaches outside of the agreed-upon appeals process and in advance of the official recorded vote that was scheduled to take place on January 9th. The Lax Mag has also learned that Kitchener-Waterloo Braves President & Governor, Jeff Williamson, who serves as the OJLL Board Chair (at one time the co-chair alongside Shuttleworth), had opted not to chair the Beaches appeal hearing. Rob Michalsky, President of the Mimico Mountaineers Jr. A Club, was selected to chair the appeal instead. The email motion was ruled out of order and no votes were recorded.
As indicated in today’s league statement, the OJLL governors officially agreed to reinstate the Beaches if the previously mentioned condition was met, coincidentally, by a 7-3 vote. It’s also worth noting that the vote was specific to the reinstatement with condition, not necessarily a vote against reinstating the club altogether. While it’s unclear on what the previously mentioned email vote was attempting to accomplish, the majority of the OJLL Board of Governors officially ruled on the conditions placed on the Beaches for reinstatement.
The alumni petition reads, “We are a concerned group of Alumni for the Toronto Beaches Jr A, at risk of losing the organization we have all played for, grown up with, and cheered on as our careers have come and gone.
“The Beaches have been a staple in the junior lacrosse community since the 1970s (Jr B, 90s elevated to Jr A), and we are looking to bring awareness to what’s at stake not only for the athletes who are currently playing, but the kids who will ultimately be affected by these changes.”
Had the alumni group been informed of the official league decision, which the OJLL announcement asserts was provided at 11:22am ET today, they would have learned that there really is only one statement & signature that is required to get the group back into the league. A timestamp on change.org puts the publishing of the petition at 2pm ET or slightly later. Alumni supporters, some who currently work directly for the Beaches, continued to champion the petition several hours after the team was allegedly informed of the condition of their reinstatement.