Clarington Green Gaels

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Clarington Green Gaels

City	Clarington, Ontario
League	OLA Junior B Lacrosse League
Founded	1963
Home Arena
Colours	Green, Black, and White
Coach
GM

The Clarington Green Gaels are Junior "B" box lacrosse team from Clarington, Ontario, Canada. The Gaels play in the OLA Junior B Lacrosse League.

Oshawa Green Gaels (I) 1963 - 1983

Oshawa Green Gaels (II) 1995 - 1996

Clarington Green Gaels 1997 to Present

1 History
2 Season-by-Season Results
3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] The Early Years

Founded in 1963, the Green Gaels were a gael-force lacrosse team from day one in the OLA Junior A Lacrosse League. In ever one of the Gaels first seven seasons, Oshawa won the Minto Cup as National Junior "A" Champions. Since the Minto Cup's inception in 1937, no team has ever won more than 4 championship in a row -- other than the Gaels. The record setting team were National Champions from 1963 until 1969, a record that has never even been approached since it was set.

In the 1963 Minto Cup, the Gaels won the National title by defeating the Victoria Shamrocks 4 games to 2. In 1964, to win the Minto they defeated the New Westminster Salmonbellies 4 games to 1. In 1965, they beat New Westminster again, 4 games to 2, to win the Minto Cup. In 1966, they beat New Westminster, yet again, 4 games to 2 to win the National title. They beat New Westminster a third and forth straight time for the title in 1967 and 1968. In 1969, the Gaels finally got to beat someone else for the Minto Cup again, facing the South Vancouver Legion and sweeping them 4 games to none. The streak was stopped dead in the 1970 season. The Lakeshore Maple Leafs defeated the Gaels 4 games to 1 in the Ontario semi-final.

The Gaels never won another Minto Cup, but stuck around the OLA-A until 1983 when they finally folded after 21 years in the league.

[edit] Rebirth

The Gaels applied for re-entry into the OLA in 1995 and were placed in Junior "B". Since this time, the team moved to Clarington in 1997, and have yet to have a losing season. In 1999, the Gaels even had a perfect season -- sadly, in the end they lost in the league final. Remarkably though, between 1998 and 2004 the Gaels won 2 Provincial titles (2000, 2004) and 4 Founders Cups (1998, 2000, 2002, 2004) as National Champions. The Gaels are year-in, year-out a contender for winning a National title.

[edit] 1998 Playoff Run

[edit] 2000 Playoff Run

[edit] 2002 Playoff Run

[edit] 2004 Playoff Run

After finishing the 2004 season second in the Eastern Conference with a 14-5-1 record, the Gaels were poised to do well in the playoofs. In the first round of the playoffs, the Gaels took out the Markham Ironheads in 3 straight games. In the Quarter-finals, the Gaels faced the Mimico Mountaineers. The Gaels walked through them, beating them 3 games to 1. The Gaels then took on the first seed Akwesasne Lightning in the Confernce final. The Lightning finished the season 17-1-2 and were thought to have a the best chance for a Founders Cup run. In the next three games, the Gaels beat the Lightning 10-7, 7-6, and 13-9 to sweep them and earn a birth into the League Final to face the Elora Mohawks.

The Gaels were up for a big challenge. The Western Champion Mohawks had finished the season 17-3-0 and were the hosts for the 2004 Founder Cup. The Mohawks came into the Final flying, blowing out the Gaels 16-4. In game two, the Gaels evend the score winning a close 9-8 contest. Elora came out hungry in game three, looking to crush the Gaels. That they did, smoking Clarington by a score of 12-1. It looked over for the Gaels, down 2 games to 1 in a best-of-five series and having suffered two demoralizing losses. Game four stayed close like game two, and the Gaels forced overtime. The Gaels pulled it together and scored to win and force a final game five. In the winner-take-all game, the Gaels came out flying and beat Elora 10-7 to win the Ontario Junior "B" title and earn a birth to the Founders Cup in Elora, Ontario.

The Founders Cup tournament started on August 21, 2004, and the first game for the Gaels put them up against the Moose Jaw Mustangs. The Gaels beat them 13-5. The next morning the Gaels beat the Manitoba Buffalo by a score of 12-2. That evening the Edmonton Warriors challenged the Gaels, but came up short as the Gaels won 11-9. The next night, to close out the round robin, the Gaels beat the all-stars from the Iroquois Lacrosse Association 11-7 to finish in first place in their pool.

On August 24, the Gaels faced the Delta Islanders from British Columbia for the crossover Semi-final. The Gaels crushed them 18-3. On the other side, the Elora Mohawks beat the ILA All-Stars 14-8 for the winner-take-all All-Ontario Final.

Despite the abilities of Mohawks, the Gaels came to play. The Gaels beat the host Mohawks, 11-8, to win their forth Founders Cup in seven years.

[edit] Season-by-Season Results

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS	Placing	Playoffs
1963	24	17	7	0	300	229	34	3rd OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1964	24	20	4	0	367	225	40	1st OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1965	20	18	1	1	401	161	37	Ist OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1966	24	23	1	0	438	165	46	1st OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1967	24	23	1	0	467	173	46	1st OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1968	24	24	0	0	483	189	48	1st OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1969	24	22	2	0	571	239	44	1st OLA-A	Won League, Won Minto Cup
1970	28	16	12	0	464	359	32	3rd OLA-A	Lost Semi-final
1971	30	22	8	0	467	368	44	1st OLA-A	Lost Semi-final
1972	28	11	17	0	349	364	22	5th OLA-A	Lost Final
1973	28	6	22	0	314	413	12	8th OLA-A	DNQ
1974	28	12	16	0	383	389	24	4th OLA-A	Lost Semi-final
1975	28	11	16	1	331	390	23	6th OLA-A	Lost Quarter-final
1976	26	9	17	0	338	393	18	4th OLA-A East	Lost Quarter-final
1977	22	14	7	1	304	256	29	5th OLA-A	Lost Quarter-final
1978	30	20	10	0	508	402	40	3rd OLA-A East	Lost Quarter-final
1979	28	23	5	0	597	373	46	1st OLA-A East	Lost Final
1980	20	15	5	0	431	228	30	2nd OLA-A	Lost Semi-final
1981	20	9	11	0	323	275	18	5th OLA-A	Lost Final
1982	20	15	5	0	302	209	30	3rd OLA-A	Lost Final
1983	22	11	11	0	244	217	22	4th OLA-A	Lost Semi-final

1995	22	15	7	0	288	206	30	1st OLA-B East	Lost Semi-final
1996	22	16	6	0	267	202	32	3rd OLA-B East	Lost Semi-final
1997	22	16	6	0	267	174	32	3rd OLA-B East	Lost Semi-final
1998	20	15	5	0	237	132	30	3rd OLA-B East	Lost Final, Won Founders Cup
1999	20	20	0	0	300	98	40	1st OLA-B East	Lost Final
2000	20	19	1	0	273	125	38	1st OLA-B East	Won League, Won Founders Cup
2001	20	14	6	0	192	135	28	3rd OLA-B East	Lost 1st Round
2002	22	16	5	1	245	132	33	2nd OLA-B East	Lost Final, Won Founders Cup
2003	20	11	8	1	179	157	23	6th OLA-B East	Lost 1st Round
2004	20	14	5	1	240	146	29	2nd OLA-B East	Won League, Won Founders Cup
2005	20	16	4	0	225	95	32	3rd OLA-B East	Lost Quarter-final
2006	20	14	6	0	179	149	28	5th OLA-B East	Lost 1st Round