Thursday, December 5, 2013

Jamie Batley leaves Lakers as one of the most successful senior lacrosse coaches ever

Jamie Batley's tenure as the Head Coach and General Manager of the Peterborough Lakers was one of the most successful in the history of Canadian senior men's lacrosse. The Lakers opted this year not to renew Batley's contract, but they recognized the exceptional success to which he had led the team in his 12 years with the club. Batley came on board with the Lakers in 2002 and immediately helped to turn around a team that had struggled for much of the previous two decades, not having won a Mann Cup or even an Ontario championship since 1984.

In 2004, the Lakers won the Ontario title and went on to capture the Mann Cup with a finals victory over the Victoria Shamrocks. That started a decade of almost unprecedented winning. Peterborough claimed six Ontario championships and five Mann Cups in the nine years from 2004-2012. Their winning percentage during Batley's reign was a remarkable .718 during the regular season and .599 in the playoffs. Only twice in his 12 years did Batley's team fail to reach the Major Series Lacrosse finals: the first year and the last, both times falling to Brooklin in a semifinal.


The only other teams with similar runs of success were plying the lacrosse floors many years ago. The New Westminster Salmonbellies dominated the early part of the century, winning 10 Mann Cups in 13 years from 1915-27. The St. Catharines Athletics took five Mann Cups in nine years, from 1938-46.

Batley was also part of the reason the Lakers were able to rejuvenate their fan base, growing it from basically friends and family in the 1990s to the current situation where Peterborough draws several times as many fans as the rest of the league combined. His legacy in Major Series Lacrosse is a strong one; his time in Peterborough will be remembered as one of the most successful periods in senior lacrosse history.




Regular season
Playoffs
Final results
Year
Wins
Losses
Ties
Wins
Losses


2002
12
6
2
1
4
Lost MSL semis to Brooklin
2003
8
6
0
7
9
Lost MSL finals to Brampton
2004
13
5
0
12
8
Won Mann Cup over Victoria
2005
14
4
0
10
7
Lost Mann Cup to Victoria
2006
13
4
1
12
6
Won Mann Cup over Victoria
2007
13
3
1
12
5
Won Mann Cup over Coquitlam
2008
12
5
1
7
4
Lost MSL finals to Brampton
2009
12
6
0
9
6
Lost MSL finals to Brampton
2010
14
2
0
12
8
Won Mann Cup over New Westminster
2011
16
4
0
6
7
Lost MSL finals to Brampton
2012
9
5
0
15
3
Won Mann Cup over Langley
2013
13
7
0
3
4
Lost MSL semis to Brooklin


149
57
5
106
71



.718 winning percentage in regular season
.599 winning percentage in playoffs
5 Mann Cups
6 MSL championships

10 straight MSL finals