Communication from the Ontario Jr A Lacrosse League Council
28 May 2020
After much thought and consideration, very regrettably, the OJALL board of governors announces the cancellation of the 2020 season. Following the announcement of the CLA, cancelling the Minto Cup, our board of governors felt the safety of all participants within our league needs to be our first priority.
The decision was made in consultation with every club and was based on recommendations from public health experts. It was made in effort to guarantee the health and safety of our athletes, coaches, officials, support staff and volunteers. Other considerations for the board’s decision included access to consistent and safe facilities in all of our local communities. The board also considered having adequate time for our athletes to be able to prepare and train safely for the physical demands of a season in our top-level league.
All of the governors are committed to have our league compete in our local communities and there is so much more to the OJALL then the actual competitive play of the clubs.
Our athletes and coaching staffs’ are local ambassadors of the game to countless minor lacrosse players in our communities. Our league raises the level of lacrosse in each community not only by our fans coming to their local venues but also having our teams support local minor lacrosse and supporting development programming. The league felt we could not deliver on that full experience this summer with so much uncertainly around the health and safety of all of our citizens.
The OJALL fully supports the decision made by the Canadian Lacrosse Association to cancel the 2020 Minto Cup. Our host city of St. Catharines in partnership with the Niagara 2021 Canada Games Host Society will be ready in August 2021 to deliver a very special event. The OJALL is considered the top and most competitive junior box lacrosse league in the world. Losing a year competing to represent Ontario in the Minto Cup does not come without large disappointment for all of our players and as a league we have started to plan our run up to what will be a highly competitive Minto Cup next August. We are looking forward to defending the championship in 2021.
We are very thankful and appreciative of the support of our fans, our families, and league partners in the OJALL lacrosse community, and we look forward to getting back into a position to develop outstanding local competition in all of our communities in 2021.
Jason Shuttleworth
OJALL Board Chair