Adèle Swanson was a minor lacrosse player for Beaches from 2008 to 2019. After receiving a crushing crosscheck from a boy while playing box lacrosse, she was an inspiration for the establishment of the Girls & Women’s Lacrosse program (“GWLAX”) and a member of our first ever all-girls lacrosse team in 2010. During her years playing for Beaches, she helped her team win multiple Bronze and Silver Medals in the “A” Division of the OWFL.

She was always recruiting other girls to play for Beaches so that we would have viable and competitive teams. Every year she went south of the border to play in tournaments and camps to hone her skills. She played for Team Ontario for five consecutive years, winning the National Championships in 2019. Columbia University recruited her to play in the Ivy League where she repeatedly finished in the top five of the Ivy League for ground ball pickups, a key defensive statistic.

After completing her Ivy League career in 2023, she accepted an MBA offer from Duke University and played for them in the ACC conference for two years. Team Canada invited her to try out in 2019 and 2021, and she won the Brogden Cup over Team U.S.A. in 2017 and 2018.

Despite her busy playing career, Adèle started coaching Beaches girls teams in 2014, and she never stopped until she moved to New York City in July 2025. During these formative years, any time that our club had a need, she found ways to introduce lasting solutions for GWLAX; e.g. from designing and delivering flyers, to teaching and recruiting new players, to running summer camps, to officiating at house league games — she was always there to help build Beaches GWLAX.

She played a particularly pivotal role by running small practices to keep GWLAX afloat during Covid — a crisis for team sports throughout Canada that could have been fatal to our small program at the time.

When she was finally old enough, she took over as head coach of the U11 Blue team in 2019. They were rebuilding with a team composed mostly of minors, but they still managed to win silver in the C division. She identified significant potential in these players and found ways to develop them and achieve their goals. She was also imparting her knowledge and experience from the NCAA, and her players and their parents revered her as a role model. By 2022 the U11s had become major U13s and she led them to Beaches GWLAX’s first ever OWFL Provincials Gold Medal in the “A” Division. As U15s, her team competed in the “A” Division and won the Bronze in 2023 and the Silver in 2024. She commanded the respect of her players and her colleagues on the bench.

In 2025 she took the reins of a JEWL team that had been fighting to avoid relegation. She managed to stabilize their position in JEWL, and a year later (after she moved to work in New York City), they were able to win the Bronze. She also helped Team Ontario to win the Silver at the National Championships in 2025. The only reason that she is not coaching Beaches now is that her career led her to Wall Street in New York City.

Adèle always understood the importance of volunteering and giving back, and she was a key pathbreaker in the establishment and rise of Beaches Girls & Women’s Lacrosse. She has demonstrated her love for Beaches, and we are a better club as a result.

Glenn developed a passion for sport early on through his involvement in various sports as a youth. His love for lacrosse began as a result of his basketball career ending early in first year university. This lead to him to join the Wilfrid Laurier lacrosse team. Though the number of games they won can be counted on one hand, playing on those teams in the early days of CUFLA remain some of the highlights from  his university years.

Living in the Beaches neighbourhood with a young family, it was only natural that his children and all their friends would play lacrosse with the Toronto Beaches Lacrosse Club. Glenn quickly became involved with the organization and over the past 15+ years has been a coach or trainer on over twenty different teams from House League to Boys Field to Girls Field and most recently with the Women’s Varsity team.

Spring soon became a busy time of year in the McKelvey house as both his son Liam and daughter Kiara would be playing lacrosse at the same time. Glenn would be out numerous evenings a week at practice and at games both Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, there were numerous road trips to tournaments in Maryland, New Jersey, Michigan and across New York State. Lasting memories were created in the hours spent traveling as a family with his wife Maria and kids or  olo with just Kiara or Liam and carpooling with other players and parents.

Coming out of Covid lockdowns, in 2022, Glenn helped in re-establishing high school lacrosse at Malvern Collegiate, winning city championships and leading the team to the provincial OFSAA tournament in both 2022 and 2023. Success at Malvern was not the number of games won, but rather the number of girls who were introduced to the sport, with some later joining the Beaches and playing on different teams within the organization.

Always interested in learning more, countless hours have been spent watching games or YouTube videos and never far from his notebook – taking notes on drills, drawing up plays and creating lineups. Though competitive in nature, his calm character and dry humour endears him to many. His dedication to the players was especially important, rain or shine (or snow), Glenn always had to be there. By far his favourite were the 7am practices on Sunday mornings all winter long with the Varsity teams!

Glenn’s support of his players continued after many had graduated from playing for the Beaches. Travelling to university, junior and even professional lacrosse games to watch them play and to just check in with them and see how they were doing. Some of those players such as Aria, who plays with his daughter Kiara at Queens said of Glenn

“From the start of my lacrosse journey way back, Glenn has been a presence. Both on and off the field, his sense of humour and lacrosse IQ have made him a great coach and a wonderful member of the lacrosse community. Looking back it is impossible to remember lacrosse life without Glenn and his family. Long drives, freezing downpours in November and even snow games, Glenn was always there to help you make the best of your skillset. There is no Beaches Lacrosse without Glenn McKelvey”

Others such as Katelyn and Jordyn who he coached recently say  “Glenn was such an amazing coach that pushed girls to their fullest potential. We could always count on him to be honest, and help us get to that next level playing university lacrosse”.

A tremendous amount is owed to the great mentors Glenn has had over the years who supported him and taught him so much about the game and about coaching in general. His passion for lacrosse was greatly influenced by people such as Max Perren, Frank Hickey, Paul Swanson, Dave Copeland and Mike Ruscitti, along with many other coaches and parents, but most of all, the players he has enjoyed watching mature from young children to the young adults they have become.

For more than three decades, Frank Ham has been a strong advocate for the Toronto Beaches and for the sport of lacrosse in general.

Frank has served on our Board of Directors for decades, and many of its members consider him to be their mentor. Even many years after his son played his final game for Beaches, Frank held an executive role leading Beaches’ Boys’ & Men’s Lacrosse.  He helped BMLAX survive the existential threat of the pandemic and other crises and low points.

Frank also played a pivotal role in the establishment of Beaches’ Girls & Women’s Lacrosse, and can justly be considered a co-founder with Jim Calder, Mike McCauley and Paul Swanson back in 2010. By 2024 GWLAX had grown to the same size as BMLAX.

From drafting policies to lugging lacrosse goals to fields, Frank is the paragon of the dedicated, selfless volunteer. He opened the door for many boys and girls to find their passion for lacrosse.

It began with a walk along the beach – Chris and Michele had recently moved to the Beach, and while they were strolling along the boardwalk, they came upon a game of paperweight lacrosse being played at the Box. Michele was pregnant, and Chris decided, “This is what my kids will play.” And the rest is history.

Neither Chris nor Michele grew up around lacrosse; it was a foreign sport to them. However, they both embraced the sport as they watched their two children fall in love with the game. From the very beginning, paperweight for Andrew and tyke for Sam, both Chris and Michele were extremely involved.

It didn’t take Chris long to learn the game, and he would go on to coach both Sam and Andrew in all versions of the game — box, women’s field, men’s field, house league, and rep — he really did it all. Chris has always taken great pride in the game of lacrosse, and if he wasn’t on a bench, floor, or field, he would be found volunteering. While he held no formal role, he was instrumental during the transition period when Toronto Stars folded their women’s field lacrosse program into Toronto Beaches — he served as a liaison of sorts. As Chris continued to fall in love with the game, he decided to begin refereeing.

With that decision, he had to take a step back from coaching. However, after becoming the Toronto Beaches RIC (referee in chief), it became clear that Chris’s passion for coaching continued — he remained focused on “coaching” the next generation of Beaches referees. To this day, Chris is a devoted Beaches volunteer and acts as the RIC. He will be traveling to PEI in September to represent Toronto Beaches and Ontario as a referee at the men’s field lacrosse nationals.

The love for the sport and Toronto Beaches Lacrosse was shared by both Chris and Michele. While Michele left the coaching to Chris, she played an instrumental role in Beaches Lacrosse for over 15 years.

Regardless of the team or role, Michele could always be found providing players with snacks on the bench or between games, or organizing the best team lunches and dinners. She drove many of Andrew’s coaches to arenas all over southern Ontario, and she truly became a member of Sam’s team’s coaching staff, holding the role of manager for five straight years.

Her dedication to the sport, her coaches, and most importantly, the kids, never went unnoticed. In 2009, the lacrosse club hired Michele to serve as the club administrator – she would go on to hold the role for the next 14 years. As the role, club, and sport developed, Michele remained focused on helping grow the game and creating the best environment for the kids.

She put in many hours every week of the year to ensure the club had facilities, uniforms, insurance, coaches, and registration. Michele made sure the club could keep going. In addition to her job with the club, Michele continued to volunteer as a team manager and an active fan on the sidelines for her kids. Even after they stopped playing, you could likely find Michele on the sidelines cheering on the kids that her KIDDS were coaching. 

If you’ve been around a Beaches Lacrosse event, it’s quite certain that you know or know of Chris and Michele. Michele is always there to answer questions, whether in person or via email. Chris is always there to advocate for and grow the game.

There is nothing the two love more than watching their kids play the game, and it’s a love they’ve spent the past 17 years trying to share with as many other parents as possible. Chris and Michele — thank you for your dedication to the club and your advocacy for the game.

Yvonne Harding began her life in lacrosse as a career trainer for the girls field program from 2013-2019, aiding and supporting several players on their way to silver and bronze medal provincial finishes.

Going through the registration process as a parent for box, field, and girl’s field as well as a volunteer and trainer, Yvonne experienced everything wrong with the system firsthand, taking it upon herself to become the club’s registrar.

Over the years, through many conversations about zoning laws and releases, she learnt the system better than anyone else and moved it to an efficient online platform before transitioning to be the Director of Registrations for the whole of Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse (OWFL).

During her role as Director of Registrations, Yvonne facilitated the integration of several new clubs into OWFL, helping to grow the game for girls across the province, increasing accessibility and competition for the league.

At the same time, she continued her involvement as a passionate volunteer for The Beaches organization, on the bench as a trainer and at McCowan and Cherry Beach with the girls’ house league program on Tuesday nights.

Yvonne helped foster a safe environment for girls of all skill levels to push themselves as athletes, encouraging them to be confident in their mistakes and proud of their accomplishments.

A prime example of which was the introduction of OWFL Play Day’s for the new U9 “Minis”, focused on fun and play rather than the competition.

Yvonne has spent close to a decade supporting and creating sustainable opportunities for girls lacrosse in order to grow the sport and fulfill players’ dreams.


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