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Lumberjax Head Coach Named Coach Of The Year
Submitted by walax on Thu, 2006-05-04 17:19.
KEENAN WINS LES BARTLEY AWARD - NLL HEAD COACH OF THE YEAR
Receiving this year's “Les Bartley Award” for Head Coach of the Year is Portland LumberJax head coach Derek Keenan. Keenan led the expansion Portland team to an 11-5 regular season record, which tied Buffalo. The LumberJax won the West Division Regular Season Title, the only expansion team in league history to win a division title in its first season. Keenan, who hails from Oshawa, Ontario, is also the General Manager of the club.
Keenan began his lacrosse career as a player and transitioned into the ranks as a coach in the NLL in 1999. He spent five seasons with the Toronto Rock, 1999 through 2004, as an assistant coach to the man for whom the award is named, the late Les Bartley. In those five years Toronto won four NLL Championships. The Head Coach of the Year award is named for Bartley, whose contribution to his teams, to the NLL, and to the game of lacrosse is immeasurable. Bartley, who lost his battle with colon cancer in May of 2005, left behind a coaching legacy. He won seven championship rings in his twelve year coaching tenure and is the league's all-time winningest coach. Bartley tallied an astonishing 93-38 regular season record behind the bench.
The National Lacrosse League and ESPN2 have announced the network will televise the league’s 2006 Championship Game live on Saturday, May 13 at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific.