Adanacs’ Minto Cup title awakens local lacrosse community

Scott Wortley stood on his seat with 12 seconds left in the game. 

Directly behind the home team goal, he was surrounded by close to 100 Coquitlam Adanac alumni clad in purple and yellow — roughly 80 of whom had cycled through the club since he took over as general manager of the junior team in 2012. 

A couple of days earlier, when the Adanacs clinched a spot in the Minto Cup Finals, he didn’t know how he would react if Coquitlam won the tournament at home. 

Following a victory in the opener of the best-of-three finals against the Orangeville Northmen, the only team to previously defeat Coquitlam in the 2024 Minto Cup, the Adanacs had a chance to sweep the series at home last week. 

It was also a chance to turn the dream of celebrating in front of hundreds of fans and alumni into a reality.

“I had a whole bunch of emotions and things going on,” Wortley said. 

This year’s Minto Cup marked the second time Coquitlam has hosted the national Junior A lacrosse tournament at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex in the last 14 years. The last time Coquitlam served as hosts, in 2010, they won the Minto Cup. 

That title came two years before Wortley, an ex-Adanac who lost back-to-back Minto Cups in 1992 and 1993, joined the team’s front office. Coquitlam also hosted the 1992 tournament. 

As the clock ticked away in the second game of series with Coquitlam up three goals, Wortley turned around to face his ex-players.

“They embraced me, it was unreal,” Wortley said. 

The victory marked Coquitlam’s fourth Minto Cup title since 2010, but their first since 2018. 

It’s a win that has resonated with players, alumni and people who are tangentially connected to the program across the Lower Mainland, said Wortley, who now lives in Mission and has heard from old friends and former teammates he hasn’t spoken with in years following the tournament.

“Yesterday was an emotional day for me,” he said earlier this week. “It makes you look at the journey of life, 20, 30 years later, your friends got kids, friends you haven’t seen in 10 or 15 years, they’re rooting you on, like you haven’t skipped a beat.” 

The Adanacs are also the only team to win a Minto Cup on home floor twice in the 18 times that the trophy has been handed out in the tournament’s four-team era. (Coquitlam won the Minto Cup in 2016, but that year’s tournament was held at the Langley Events Centre.) 

In 2003, the Minto Cup introduced the current four-team format, inviting the host team and winners of the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League, Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and Rocky Mountain Lacrosse league, which comprises teams in Alberta and Saskatchewan, to compete for a title. 

The Minto Cup briefly switched to a best-of-seven series pitting winners from Ontario and western Canada in 2014, before reverting back to the four-team format. 

Goaltender Jack Kask, who was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, played a massive role in securing the Minto Cup for the Adanacs this year. 

The Coquitlam native, who also plays for Marquette University, recorded four wins in the tournament and posted a 5.99 goals against average in five starts —  well below the next closest goalie, Orangeville’s Lindyn Hill, who had a 7.42 goals against average in three games played. 

“His performance all year was kind of understated,” said Wortley, adding that Kask recorded two shutouts in the regular season. “He’s a ‘six goal guy’ every game. If you look at a game, three periods, if a team’s only getting two goals on you per period, that’s a pretty perfect game.” 

For comparison, the Northmen’s regular starter, Connor O’Toole, a Vancouver Warriors draft pick, notched a 7.47 goals against average across five starts this Minto Cup. Coquitlam also had three of the top five highest scorers in the tournament. 

Kask’s performance can also be credited with a strong defensive structure implemented by Head Coach Pat Coyle, Wortley said. 

Coyle, the current head coach of the National Lacrosse League’s Colorado Mammoth, rejoined the Adanacs earlier this year after previously serving as coach from 2015 to 2019, leading Coquitlam to a pair of Minto Cup titles in 2016 and 2018. 

“He’s a legend, man, the way he carries himself, the way he brings people together. He knows when to be serious and when he can joke around,” Wortley said. 

Ontario-based teams have won 13 of the last 17 Minto Cups, according to The Province. The Adanacs, with their four titles since 2010, have been the only team to bust that near two-decade streak. 

Coupled with the recent success of the Port Coquitlam Saints — who made their first Minto Cup this year — the Tri-Cities is a growing hub for junior lacrosse in Canada. 

Travis Cornwall, head coach of the Saints, who was a member of Coquitlam’s 2010 Minto Cup-winning team, told The Dispatch at the beginning of the tournament that the Tri-Cities has a storied lacrosse legacy that is continuing to grow with the success of the two programs. 

“The Tri-Cities is one of those rare places in Canada where lacrosse is on equal footing, or greater footing than hockey,” he said. 

Wortley added that the crowd atmosphere and support throughout the tournament even surpassed his wildest expectations. 

“I honestly feel like we set the benchmark for future Mintos,” Wortley said.

Although Coquitlam’s 2024 championship is less than one week old, the club’s coaching staff and front office are already turning their attention towards next year’s Minto Cup in St. Catharines, Ont. 

The club, which expects to be in contention for a Minto Cup every year, has never won back-to-back titles. But that hasn’t prevented Wortley and his staff from thinking about what it would mean to hoist the trophy again next August. 

“Winning a Minto is probably one of the toughest things to do,” he said. 

“Here we are, talking about trying to go back-to-back, that’s surreal to me.”