History of the A's

1990 - Junior Athletics Win Minto Cup

The St. Catharines Junior Athletics of 1990 fielded a talented and experienced club that thoroughly dominated the eight-team O.L.A. and would ultimately capture the city’s first Minto Cup since 1950. 

The team scored an astounding 419 regular season goals with Darris and Rich Kilgour finishing 1 and 2 in the league’s scoring race, while captain Randy Mearns would finish a strong fourth. The A’s would actually place eight scorers in the top twenty and would average nearly 21 goals a game, all the while just giving up a miserly average of eight goals per game in their own end. 

The team would post a 19 – 1 regular season record with their only loss coming early in the year against the Six Nation Arrows on a night when many of the A’s players were absent with school commitments. 

In addition to Darris Kilgour winning his first of two Ontario Junior scoring titles, Clayton Henry and Rob Thurston would share the award for the goaltenders allowing the fewest goals, and Trevor Bidal would win the league’s outstanding defensive award. Bidal was also a threat on offence finishing eighth in the league with 70 points. 

After a first round bye, the hungry Athletics would open the playoffs with a 23 – 0 win over the Sarnia Pacers in the Ontario semifinals. The eventual four game sweep would give the A’s 22 consecutive wins in regular season and playoff action. 

The Ontario finals would then open in St. Catharines against their chief rivals, the Peterborough Maulers. In recent years, the Maulers were very often the architects of the A’s demise with the most recent coming in the seventh game of the 1989 finals. An eerie sense of déjà vu may have swept over the confident double-blues as the Maulers opened the series with a surprise 10 – 9 win right at the Bill Burgoyne Arena. Wayne Grant led the ‘boro with five goals on the evening. 

But the Athletics would rebound from this setback and win the series in five with Randy Mearns leading the way. Mearns, the diminutive five-year veteran of the Athletics, was an uncompromising leader on the club. Steve Frost for the St. Catharines Standard would write, “Mearns commands the Athletics on the floor – directing, encouraging, inspiring… Mearns plays the game with a reckless enthusiasm. He’s first on the floor and first in the corner, throwing his 5-foot-9 and 155 pound frame into anything that moves.” 

The Athletics of St. Catharines were going to their first Minto Cup final in a long, long time. 

The 1990 Minto Cup showdown was to begin with a three-team round-robin affair in British Columbia with the Esquimalt Legion joining the Athletics and the B.C. champion Richmond Outlaws. 

The Outlaws were reputed to be a very fast team and were led by B.C. scoring champion Leo Paquin. Their first meeting with the Athletics would come on August 24^th at Vancouver’s Queen’s Park Arena and result in a 15 – 13 win over the Ontario champs with Paquin netting six goals. 

The following night in Victoria, the A’s earned a much needed 12 – 8 overtime win against Esquimalt with Tyson Leies scoring five times and Darren Mutch playing strongly on defense. But a big concern for Coach Jim Brady would be the condition of a couple of his key players, Darris Kilgour had suffered a partially dislocated shoulder and Randy Mearns was hobbled with what was described as tendonitis in his knee. 

The 1 – 1 Athletics rematch against the 3 – 0 Outlaws would feature some incredible last moment heroics by the easterners. With Richmond leading 11 – 9 going into the last minute of play, the injured Darris Kilgour would score at 19:08, followed by a power-play marker by his brother Travis at 19:43, and then Darris “fired a rocket shot over the shoulder of goalie Kevin Steeves with eight seconds left to give the Athletics a 12 – 11 victory.” 

This win assured the Athletics a berth in the best-of-three finals against the Richmond Outlaws, once a now meaningless game against the eliminated team from Esquimalt was played the following night. 

In game one of the finals, the A’s goaltender Clayton Henry was spectacular but still the team went down to a 13 – 12 overtime loss. Hat-tricks were registered by both Richmond’s Darrel Phipps and the A’s Rich Kilgour before 1,100 spectators at the Queen’s Park Arena. 

St. Catharines needed to win the next two games if they planned to drink from the Minto Cup for the first time in 40 years. An optimistic Coach Brady would be quoted in The Standard as saying, “Losing this game is not the end of the world for us, we’re quite capable of coming back. If all the breaks go against you one game then maybe they’ll go for you the next game.” 

The Athletics would bounce back to push the series to a final game with an 11 – 7 upset in game two. 

Goaltender Clayton Henry was again the man of the hour. He came in mid-way through the first period after Richmond had fired in four goals and then would hold the Outlaws scoreless until 10:43 of the third. The A’s Mike Lines scored three times and Steve Fannell was credited for a strong game on defense. 

Unfortunately Richmond’s scoring star Leo Paquin would suffer a concussion and not return to the game or the series after the second period. 

The third and deciding game would be played on Saturday September 1^st before a crowd of 1,500. The Outlaws started the game on the attack and put a lot of pressure on Clayton Henry in the A’s net. But St. Catharines would weather that storm and then open up a 5 - 0 lead before cruising to a 9 – 5 victory. 

Randy Mearns would score four goals and be named the series most valuable player. Rich Kilgour had two, while Joe Fagiani, Tyson Leies and Jeff Synder had singles. 

Oliver Marti and Dean Richards tallied two goals each and John Killridge had one for the Richmond Outlaws in the final game. 

Rich Kilgour would say, “This is so special, but in a way it’s so sad. I wish I could play with these guys forever, but I can’t. It’s over.” 

Coach Jim Brady would announce, “The city of St. Catharines should be awfully proud of this team. It put us back on the lacrosse map.” Then prophetically he would add, “And you know something? We’re going to win it again next year – you wait and see.” 

CUP  WIN  HAS  YET  TO  SINK  IN  FOR  A’s 

by Mike Hamilton 

The St. Catharines Standard 

Tuesday September 4, 1990 

How do the St. Catharines Athletics spell happiness? 

M-I-N-T-O  –  C-U-P! 

“It’s an unbelievable feeling! I don’t think it’s sunk in completely yet that we did it,” Athletics captain Randy Mearns said at a reception for the 1990 Minto Cup champions Sunday night. 

This year’s Mountainview Athletics is the first St. Catharines team to win the coveted Minto Cup, emblematic of the national junior lacrosse championship, in 40 years. And more than 300 fans welcomed them home at the Russell Avenue Community Centre. 

“We were the underdogs and they (the two British Columbia teams in the tournament) thought we were out of it a couple of times, but we kept coming back and took it away from them,” said Mearns, whose inspirational play earned him the tournament’s most valuable player award. 

“That was nice too but this was a team win, the same way we won all season. When somebody went down, somebody else picked it up for them.” 

“And in that last period (of Saturday’s final) everybody was aware that for some of us it was our last 20 minutes in junior lacrosse, and everybody, even the rookies, gave 120 per cent for us, so we could go out as champions.” 

Like Mearns, Rich Kilgour is one of eight A’s who wrapped up their junior career Saturday. 

“I can’t put the feeling into words yet. Maybe I never will,” Kilgour said. “I’ve been playing lacrosse for about 15 years and this is what it’s all about – winning a national championship. We were second-best for about four years in a row; this makes up for it.” 

Kilgour, a native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., said being an American did not detract from the thrill of winning a Canadian championship. 

“Hell no! I’ll take my championships anywhere I can get them,” he said. 

Steve Fannell was one of the A’s who was keenly aware that several teammates were wrapping up their junior careers. 

“We were very aware of it. We wanted to win it, but we wanted even more for them,” said Fannell who has two years of junior eligibility left. 

For goaltender Clayton Henry, the championship was twice as sweet. Considered the weak spot in the A’s lineup by some observers, both at home and in B.C., Henry came up with a couple of stellar performances, including the second game of the final series when he came off the bench midway through the first period to stone the Richmond Outlaws. Making 41 saves, he held the Outlaws scoreless for the next 42 minutes as the A’s won 11 – 7 to tie the set and force the third and deciding game. 

“I knew what they were saying about me but I didn’t let it bother me. I just tried to go out and do my best each time, that’s all I could do,” said Henry admitting: “It does feel good to win it.” 

Jim Brady, who won the Minto as coach of the Whitby Warriors in 1980, called the A’s the “team they couldn’t kill.” 

“They tried just about everything but every time it just made our guys come together tighter and play better,” said Brady who has coached the A’s for seven of the last eight years. 

“Everybody contributed, all 22 guys,” said Brady who singled out Mearns for special praise. “He had a great season, then turned it up a notch against Peterborough (in the Ontario final series). But I didn’t think he could turn it up another notch again in B.C. but he did, he played with injuries that would have stopped other players, but injuries don’t stop Randy Mearns…you’d have to cut his heart out before he’d stop,” Brady said. 

While Mearns, Rich Kilgour, Andy Boldt, Tyson Leies, Rob Thurston, Trevor Bidal, Craig Huska and David Cross are through, Brady’s future is uncertain. 

“I don’t now if I’ll be back or not,” said Brady. “I’m going to take some time and think about it.” 

“We lose eight but there are 14 quality players coming back. Some of those who have had to take a back seat this year will be the next stars. Remember the older guys weren’t stars right from the beginning, they had to work for it too,” said Brady.   

LONG TIME BETWEEN TITLES 

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE 

by Jack Gatecliff 

The St. Catharines Standard 

Wednesday September 5, 1990 

For a city which once won every Ontario lacrosse championship the same year between bantam and senior plus a handful of national junior and senior titles through the 1940’s, the spectacular success of the Mountainview Athletics this summer ended an all-too-long barren spell. 

And they did it the hard way – in British Columbia where the rules are interpreted differently and few Ontario clubs return with anything more than an assortment of bruises. 

But the Brady Bunch – coach and GM Jim Brady and his outstanding group of young athletes – was full value for its Minto Cup victory. 

They lost only one of 20 games during the regular schedule and one of nine provincial playoffs before dropping one in the preliminary round in B.C., then rebounding from an overtime defeat to Richmond in the opening game of the final to take the next two. 

Rich and Darris Kilgour, and captain Randy Mearns occupied three of the top four spots in league points, the Athletics scored far more goals than any other Ontario team and allowed fewer. 

Statistics don’t win championships but in this case they are an indication of the 1990 A’s balance and power. 

It was the first Ontario or Canadian junior championship won by a St. Catharines team since coach Doug Cove took the A’s to a three-game sweep over Vancouver Burrards in B.C. in 1950. 

Confident Team 

Mayors Joe McCaffery of St. Catharines and Stan Ignatczyk of Niagara-on-the-Lake, both former lacrosse champions, were among those greeting the new champs Sunday night with former Mann and Minto cuppers such as Roy Morton, Frank Madsen, Whitey Frick, Larry Cunningham, Ted Howe, Joe McNulty, Barney Welch and the trainer of winners Bill DeMars. 

And they recalled similar receptions years ago. 

But this was a night for the 1990’s and a team which refused to lose. 

“We were underrated when we got out there,” said Brady. “They said we couldn’t run with Richmond and Esquimalt. Well, we were just as fast and we checked cleanly but tougher than they play in the West. I knew we had the greatest team in the country and proved it on the floor.” 

“It wasn’t like we were playing Peterborough, our nemesis in Ontario,” said Mearns, captain, team leader and the young man who figured in six goals in the deciding 9 – 5 win over Richmond. “We got up 5 – 0, then when their goaltender deliberately charged Andy Boldt it brought us together even more.” 

The Athletics lose eight players through age limit but Brady insists they’ll be No. 1 again in ’91. 

“We have 14 coming back and a good feeder system from the minors. We’ll be in good shape.” 

Brady indicated he might retire. 

Footnote: the contributions of Brian Allen, President of the junior Athletics in 1990, were recognized by the Ontario Lacrosse Association with the Mr. Lacrosse Award, the Thomas "Tip" Teather Trophy. 

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