Alberta ready to join B.C. and Ontario as junior A lacrosse powerhouse

The Okotoks Raiders and Calgary Mountaineers have brought the Minto Cup to Alberta. Now the challenge is to keep it there.

The two Rocky Mountain Junior A Lacrosse League rivals are co-organizers of this year’s Canada’s junior A lacrosse championship in Calgary, only the fourth time Alberta has been the site of the four-team tournament. Almost all of the other Minto Cup tournaments in the trophy’s 117-year history have been held in and won by either Ontario or British Columbia.

“The time is close. I don’t know if it’s going to be our team this year, but an Alberta champion will be coming down the pike shortly,” said Raiders general manager and head coach Andrew McBride on Thursday. “It’s an inspirational story. Great success and great moments come from great opportunity and all we’ve done is put ourselves in a position where we have an opportunity to do something special.

“I’m really looking forward to the kids embracing the opportunity to play in front of their friends and family in their hometown.”

Calgary plays the Coquitlam Adanacs, representing B.C., in the first game of the tournament on Thursday night and Okotoks faces Ontario’s Brampton Excelsiors in the late game.

Governor-General Lord Minto donated the trophy in 1901 to be used as Canada’s amateur lacrosse championship in a challenge format. Teams that secretly paid their players began to play for the trophy almost immediately and by 1909 only professional teams were competing. Between 1925 and 1936 no one contested the Minto Cup and in 1937 it was re-introduced as Canada’s junior-A championship.

The Montreal Shamrocks won six of the first seven Minto Cups in the confusing semi-professional era but since their last championship in 1907 a team from either Ontario or British Columbia has won it every time. Teams from Alberta only began competing in the Minto Cup in 2003, with the province hosting it in 2005 (Edmonton), 2008 (Calgary), and 2011 (Calgary).