Orillia’s Liam McCrimmon became a Baggataway Cup champion last weekend, topping the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) tournament with his Brock Badgers in an 11-team event in North Bay.
The Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School (PF) student and former Orillia Jr. B Kings defender made the team on the final day of try-outs, which makes his championship season even sweeter.
“It was a pretty surreal moment to be honest,” McCrimmon said. “This is something I’ve been thinking about since I made the team. It’s a great way to end a great year with teammates who are now all great friends. I will have a special relationship with these guys for the rest of my life.”
The 19-year-old long pole defender says as much as he contributed to the win, it was a total team effort by all 33 players on the team.
“Everyone bought in, our team worked extremely hard, and I don’t think our goal would have been accomplished without the commitment everyone put in,” McCrimmon said.
McCrimmon says growing up in Orillia paved the way for his lacrosse success.
“Without the support of Rob Blasdell of the Jr. B Kings, and Dave Pellarin, who was my coach at PF, I don’t know if I would have made this team,” he said. “They helped a lot with shaping me into the lacrosse player that I am today.”
McCrimmon expects to return to the Badgers next season as he continues his studies for sports management at Brock University for at least two more years.
While McCrimmon is the Orillia player with the championship crown, several other local players also enjoyed success at the university level this season, including Jack Marwick (Trent University), Jesse Ashkewe (Nippising University), Noah Quarrington (University of Ottawa), Mitchell Pellarin (McMaster University), and Ben Schryer (McMaster University).
“I grew up with those kids playing minor lacrosse with them and playing with them at PF. What we are doing now kind of shows that Orillia has a good base for minor lacrosse and building that up to our junior team,” McCrimmon said.
“Hopefully more success is on the way, and I’m so proud of all my friends and the lacrosse community in Orillia.”
