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
