WRITTEN AND EDITED BY PAUL SWANSON, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JAMES (“JIM”) CALDER

Girls and Womens Lacrosse (“GWLAX”) has become a vibrant and popular sport in Toronto, strongly represented by  the Toronto Beaches in Central Toronto, North York and Scarborough. Over the past two decades, Toronto teams have won a multitude of Provincial Medals and helped populate Team Ontario, Ontario Summer Games, Canada East Development and Team Canada.

Even more significantly, many  players have gone on to play Canada’s National Summer Sport in university in both Canada and the USA. It is a story of success for the greatest sport in the world.

To properly understand the roots of Toronto Beaches GWLAX, tribute should be given to the trail blazers at the Toronto Stars and to the visionaries, builders and dedicated volunteers in those critical early days who helped the Toronto Beaches take flight.

Our story starts with a few daring girls playing on predominantly-boys box lacrosse teams for both the Toronto Beaches Lacrosse Club (“TBLC”) and Toronto Stars lacrosse clubs in the early 1970s, an era when female athletes often did not receive the respect that they deserved.

The Stars’ President Ron Parkinson created a girls box lacrosse program in the early 2000s playing out of Scarborough’s McGregor and Heron Park Arenas. It operated as a house league and eventually evolved to include a growing rep program.

Girls’ box programs were forerunners to the field sport that would soon surge in popularity in just a few years time. The skills learned by these players translated well into girls field lacrosse, which is favoured internationally and at the university level.

The Ontario Lacrosse Association and the Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse association — the sport’s governing bodies — conducted “Play Days” that introduced the sport to more and more young athletes.

The City of Toronto provided practice fields on Tuesday nights at McCowan District Park (“MDP”) sports fields. The Toronto Stars joined OWFL and started to compete against other Ontario clubs. MDP became the home of the Toronto Stars Girls Field Program featuring house league games and practices. By 2008, the Stars U15 team won the Provincial silver medal in the B division.

The 2010s. Beaches GWLAX Arrives!

By the late 2000s, Toronto Beaches noticed that more girls were playing on the boys’ box and field teams than ever before. Toronto Beaches decided to grow a girls program organically, and the experienced Toronto Stars volunteers served as mentors. The two clubs openly worked together to promote girls field lacrosse, with the Stars focusing on adolescents and the Beaches growing a program organically by offering programs to younger ages. Beaches volunteers Frank Ham, Michael McCauley and Paul Swanson persuaded the Beaches boys’ field program to share access to its spring and fall home at Cherry Beach Sports Fields, and the Toronto Stars to share MDP from May to July.

The first Beaches team to compete in OWFL finished sixth at the 2010 OWFL Championships in the U11A category. This team was the first seed planted in what would become a forest. Beaches GWLAX had arrived.

Back row (left to right): Mary Ormsby (trainer), Michael McCauley (coach), Elisha King (coach), Susan Tung (coach)

Middle row (left to right): Adèle Swanson, Lochlahn March, Morgan McEachen, Riley McCauley, Asia Reid, Bryanna Phillips, Reilly Hunter

Front row (left to right): Bailey Jacobs, Amy Nicoloff, Madelyn Farmakovski (goalie), Margaux Williams-Kelly, Lauren Raney

Subsequent Beaches U11 teams would go on to win the bronze (2011, 2014, 2016) and silver (2012-13) in the A-division and gold in the B division (2015).

Their success would carry on into the formation of medal-winning U13, U15, U17 and U19 teams. At the same time, the Stars captured the 2013 U19 D Silver, the 2014 U19 D Gold and the 2014 Senior B Bronze.

In order to introduce the girls to higher levels of the game in the USA, Beaches coaches regularly brought their teams to compete in U.S. tournaments, such as the Goblin Games in Ithaca and the High Voltage tournament in Rochester. Beaches players became a common sight in upstate New York and the U.S. eastern seaboard.

To build the teams for these tournaments, Beaches GWLAX Director Victoria Swanson initiated a practice program at Cherry Beach during the autumn of 2011. Little did we know that this would be the first edition of Beaches GWLAX annual Fall Ball program. The Fall Ball feedback was encouraging, and she took a much bolder step in the winter of 2012 by renting bubbles at Upper Canada College and St. Michael’s School, which would be our first edition of our annual Sprinter (winter-spring) Ball program.

Due to the common purpose shared by Beaches and Stars volunteers, the idea of blending the two field programs caught on. This would come to fruition in 2015 when the Stars provided players, coaches and volunteer administrators to Beaches Lacrosse, and Beaches GWLAX Director Andrew Arifuzzaman reciprocated with players and a very solid administrative organization. The City of Toronto formally transferred the MDP permit to TBLC, and Beaches GWLAX finally had its own home summer field.

An important offshoot both before and after the merger was the creation of a vibrant Toronto high school league throughout schools in the east end. As young players reached high school age they helped pioneer girls field programs.  The Stars and Beaches girls played a significant role in starting high school programs, and later in populating Ontario University teams.

By 2019 Beaches GWLAX was thriving under the leadership of David Copeland. The winter segment of Sprinter Ball moved had moved to 101 Railside.

We had grown to 8 Rep teams and had found 2 Thursday evening home fields at RH King Academy and Regent Park.  Beaches volunteer Matt Pagano was appointed to Team Ontario and coached several Beaches GWLAX players to gold medals at the Brogden Cup and National Championships.

The 2020s. TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY

The decade had a rocky start. We were only half way through the 9th edition of Sprinter Ball when the country went into lockdown. The OLA and OWFL were forced to cancel their seasons.

The Canadian response to the Covid-19 Pandemic prohibited social gatherings of more than 10. Beaches GWLAX knew that it would take years to rebuild if we totally shut down, so we practiced as much as the law would permit, and we even launched the 10th edition of Fall Ball. However, there was no dodging the general damage to children’s sports in Canada.

Then in early 2021 something wonderful happened. For almost a decade the VP of GWLAX Paul Swanson had been trying to get access to beautiful Sunnybrook Park because its location is ideal, and early that year an opening finally appeared allowing Beaches GWLAX to obtain a renewable Tuesday and Thursday night permit from the City of Toronto. Sunnybrook would soon be hosting all of the OWFL clubs in one weekend, a first for Toronto Beaches GWLAX.

There were still covid restrictions in 2021, but OWFL Commissioner (and Beaches Hall of Famer) Yvonne Harding and her executive took a relatively brave approach and conducted a 2021 season, and Beaches GWLAX participated at every age level. Beaches were the Senior Sixes Champions. We were also able to extend our renewable permit at MDP to the beginning of October, allowing GWLAX to host the 11th edition of Fall Ball at Cherry Beach, Sunnybrook and MDP.

In early 2022 Beaches GWLAX, Orangeville Northmen, KW Kodiaks, Oshawa Lady Blue Knights, Oakville Lady Hawks and Owen Sound North Stars founded the Junior Elite Womens League (“JEWL”) for elite U19 players. Beaches GWLAX had the honour of hosting JEWL’s first ever match on May 24, 2022 at MDP.

Around the same time, Beaches GWLAX succeeded in obtaining a broader permit at Cherry Beach Sports Fields during the spring and fall. Our Varsity team was perfect and undefeated at the World Championships Festival. And for the first time ever, Beaches won the overall OWFL Championships at the U13 level.

In 2023 GWLAX took over hosting the popular annual MapleStix OUA Prospect Camp. In May, volunteers Bronwen Smith and Katelyn Gardner founded a house league and a Rep team for U9 players to compete in the inaugural U9 OWFL season.

In June GWLAX finally found our permanent Thursday summer home field when the City of Toronto granted to us a renewable permit to the newly-restored Highview Park. Less than a year later we would host a JEWL match there.

Later in 2023, the winter segment of our Sprinter Ball program would find a new home at Upper Canada College and Stephen Leacock Community Recreation Centre.

2024 saw Beaches GWLAX surpass 200 players and field 9 OWFL teams — our highest numbers ever. Beaches GWLAX, KW Kodiaks, Orangeville Northmen, Oshawa Lady Blue Knights, and Mimico Mountaineers, Nepean Knights and Guelph Regals all founded the OLA Sixes league, and Beaches GWLAX home field at Cherry Beach was twice chosen to host all of the Ontario clubs, including Provincials. Varsity would go on to win the inaugural U17 Provincials Sixes Gold Medal!

A level of excellence has been reached since the humble organizational beginnings in the early 2000s. Many of the players have gone on to become Coaches, Officials and Builders of Programs in Ontario and elsewhere. The work of hundreds of volunteers over the years has been well worth it for those who enjoy it today.

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