Blackwolves' Clark, Kirk take National Lacrosse League honors
New England Black Wolves head coach Glenn Clark and goalie Evan Kirk were both honored for their accomplishments during the 2016 season at the National Lacrosse League Awards Ceremony Tuesday night at Oakville, Ontario.
Clark, in his first season with the Blackwolves, was named NLL Coach of the Year and Kirk was honored as the NLLL Goalie of the Year.
Clark led the Black Wolves to a 10-8 record and a second-place finish in the East Division. The team won the franchise's first playoff game since 2001 as Clark engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in the league after a 4-14 finish 2015. Clark coached two of the league's top 12 scorers in Shawn Evans and Kevin Crowley and one of the best goalies in Kirk. A standout player in the NLL from 1998-2006, Clark had previously been named ILIndoor.com Coach of the Year Kirk led the league with a career and franchise record 620 saves. He ranked second in the NLL with a .789 save percentage and third in goals against average at 11.79 while facing the most shots of any goalie per game at 55.61. Kirk recorded nine wins on the season in his third year with the franchise.
Three other members of the Black Wolves organization were finalists for awards on Tuesday. Shawn Evans was a finalist for Most Valuable Player, Rich Lisk for General Manager of the Year and co-owner Michael French for Executive of the Year.
Following the awards ceremony, Black Wolves assistant coach Tracey Kelusky was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame. The 2001 NLL Rookie of the Year, Kelusky won two Champions Cups during his 14 year career and ranked 11th in both goals (383) and points (823) in league history and 13th in games played (195) when he retired following the 2014 season. Kelusky was joined in the 2016 Hall of Fame class by John Tavares and Josh Sanderson.