They’ve come a long way to be together again

Nearly 19 years ago. Same arena, with a different name. Same sport, with a different team.

Glenn Clark will be the assistant coach to Hamilton’s Ed Comeau when the Canadian national men’s box lacrosse team tangles with Team USA in the Heritage Cup at First Ontario Centre, on Oct. 21. But Clark also played for Comeau at FirstOntario Centre, when it was Copps Coliseum, and in his first game there he broke his leg and was out the season.

That season was the National Lacrosse League’s first in Canada. In recent releases the Canadian Lacrosse Association celebrates the fact the first really successful pro boxla league — now with teams in Toronto, Saskatoon, Vancouver and Calgary, and has also been in Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton — played its first game in Canada Jan. 3, 1998. In Hamilton.

It was the Ontario Raiders against the defending champion Rochester Knighthawks, with the visitors winning 15-14 in overtime.

The Raiders had innovative, but unwise, uniforms and the same could be said of their moniker. Nobody in a major city in this province identifies as “Ontarians,” so the nickname didn’t resonate in Hamilton. And the uniform numbers were difficult to read.

“Our uniforms were a strange colour combination of gold, red and black,” Comeau recalled. “They were pretty flashy.

“I remember a good crowd for our first game. That game launched a great NLL career for Colin Doyle. He was supposed to be a scratch opening night, but Chris Gill was not able to make it and Doyle was activated. A great night led to many more that year and rookie-of-the-year honours.

“We improved as the year went on and ended up building the basis for a great Toronto Rock run the next five years. Others besides Doyle continued on to have great playing careers in the league.”

The Raiders averaged 6,000 fans per game, but were sold and moved to Toronto, and Maple Leaf Gardens, after their only season. Crowds increased more than 250 per cent in Toronto and the newlynamed Rock won the league title their inaugural season, plus four more in the ensuing five years.

But Clark, a Pickering native, recovered to play for all those early Rock champions and made the NLL all-star team three times on defence. He played for Comeau again, and in Hamilton, when Canada won the first world indoor lacrosse championship in 2003, 21-4 over the Iroquois Nationals, in front of 7,132 fans at Copps.

Comeau, meanwhile, stayed as an assistant coach under Les Barkley, and won four NLL titles in Toronto. He was briefly the Rock’s head coach, and eventually took over the same Knighthawks franchise, which won that first game against him in Hamilton.

He led them to the 2007 NLL title, tying the league record for wins, and then coached the Orlando Titans, before leading the Georgia Swarm to its first title last season. He has also been on the coaching staff of all four of Canada’s world indoor championship teams, the past two as head coach.

He’ll have Clark at his side for the Heritage Cup, but they’ll go head-to-head this winter: Clark is head coach of New England Black Wolves, and Comeau returns to lead the Swarm.

The $20 tickets (each earning a second ticket to the game for free), are available at Ticketmaster.ca