The numbers from the Burnaby Jr. Lakers dozen-year dynasty between 1996 and 2007 are staggering. During their reign of 12 seasons, the Lakers won the Minto Cup, Canada’s national junior lacrosse championship, in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005. (The 1998 team has already been inducted into the Hall but the Hall recently changed its criteria from requiring teams to be from a single season to allow for the induction of teams over multiple consecutive seasons.) During the dynasty, the Lakers went to the Minto Cup all 12 years. In addition to their five titles the Jr. Lakers were runners-up six times and came third once (2006).

The Lakers finished first in the BCJALL regular-season standings in 10 of the 12 seasons and were second the other two. Their won-loss-tie record was 259-26-1, which is a winning percentage of 90.9%. The Lakers went undefeated in the 1998, 1999 and 2006 seasons. They suffered one loss twice, just two losses three times and three losses a trio of times. During the Lakers’ dynastic dozen they scored 1,685 more goals than their opposition, an average difference of 140.4 more goals per season.

The mastermind behind the dynasty was the late Jack Crosby, a lacrosse legend who was inducted into the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame’s first class in 2001. Crosby recruited outstanding coaches including Burnaby Hall of Fame honoured members Dave Lough (2008) and Paul Dal Monte (2013), and current Vancouver Warriors coach Curt Malawsky while attracting or drafting many elite players. Although throughout the dozen seasons there was turnover in coaches, players and staff, the one constant was the program’s commitment to excellence in its culture which became the dynasty’s foundation.

The Synergy of a group of girls from North Burnaby on the soccer pitch was something to behold. The collection of U14s simply ran roughshod over all comers from coast to coast in going unbeaten in the 32 games they played that season. In 19 games on the local soccer scene the only blemish on their record was one tie to go along with 18 wins.

They breezed through the Coastal Cup A Championships winning all four of their games and another four at the Provincial Cup Championship. That enabled the Synergy, coached by Tony Drescher and Mark Pennington, to advance to the Canadian youth championships in Prince Edward Island Oct. 5-13, 2008.

In their three round-robin games, Cliff Avenue out-scored the opposition 16-0 before edging Ontario 3-2 in a semifinal. That set the stage for the final in which Synergy surrendered the first goal before bouncing back to defeat Quebec 3-1 to capture the Canadian championship. Many players from the team eventually played on varsity post-secondary teams including Samantha Drescher, Tamara Roughead, Simran Parmar and Shayla Chorney for UBC and Isabella Di Trocchio and Lindsey Pulice at Trinity Western.

In addition, after playing for the University of the Fraser Valley, goaltender Kayla Klim went on to play professionally in Sweden.

After upsetting five-time British Columbia champion UBC Alumni 2-0 in the provincial final, the Burnaby Canadians Anduccis went on to win the 2001 Canadian senior women’s soccer championship with an ending worthy of a Hollywood script. During group play at the national tournament in Vaughn, Ontario the Canadians defeated Saskatchewan 4-0, Newfoundland 3-0 and Quebec 2-0 while tying Ontario 1-1.

That earned them a berth in the final against Nova Scotia, which had not surrendered a goal in winning all four of its games in the other group. In the final, no goals were scored in regulation, or in 30 minutes of overtime. So it was off to a penalty-kick shootout, which turned into a real nail-biter. After each team scored twice in the usual five-shot shootout, the teams exchanged goals and misses in each successive round to where it was 5-5 after 10 rounds.

That left only the goaltenders eligible to shoot. Burnaby goalie Michele Gademans scored on her shot. She then went back in net and saved the shot by the Nova Scotian keeper to secure a national title for Burnaby.

Back: Manager: Mike Everett, Head Coach: Danny Pietramala, Michelle Gademans, Kathryn Manson, Kristine Jack, Kelly Donaldson, Teresa Latham, Phebe Trotman, Leah Stipic, Janine Duprey, Leanna Byrom, Nadia Salvino, Sian Bagshawe, assistant coaches: Chris Johnson and Scott Fletcher.
Front: Catriona Scheffer, Taryn Cervi, Aimee Dunn, Tanya Genovese, Andrea Poole, Lynsey Burkinshaw, Gillian Hicks, Laura Favaro, Leigh Collins, Veronica Lie, Lisa McLeod, trainer: Jonathan Figueroa.
Missing: Sheryl Pietramala, Rosalyn Hicks

The team became provincial champions by defeating Fraser Valley 3-1 in the cup final. That victory earned them the right to represent British Columbia at the 1987 national championships in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Cliff Avenue defeated the host province and Nova Scotia en route to the final against a squad from Scarborough, Ontario.

In the final, Cliff Avenue overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit to win the Canadian U16 championship 2-1 in overtime. The hero was Maurizio Catania who scored a minute into the second OT period.

Back: Bill Bayley (coach), Hilda Higham, Elsie Thornton, Doris Elliot,Inez Brown, Bill Fowler (manager)
Middle: Elsie Brown, Joan Bullock, Edna Winter, Phyllis Bayley, Betty Elliott, Edie Gilmore, Margaret Robertson, Laura Brown.
Front: Dolly Atkinson, Doris MacLean, Florence Brown, Bernice MacMillan, Dot Spring, Kay MacMillan, Alice Would, Audrey Elliott (mascot).