Barrie Tornado - History

History

Founded in 2000 as an Ontario Jr. B lacrosse team, the Barrie Tornado were named after the deadly 1985 tornado that put the Canadian City on the map.

The 2000 season, their first season, was a good start but nothing special. Since then, the Tornado have never slipped below a .500 record. Between 2000 and 2003, the team got progressively better. In 2000, they started out with a 5-15-0 record. The next season, the Tornado performed much better with an even 10-10-0 record, making the playoffs. In the first round, the squad faced the Green Gaels, the defending Canadian Champs. The boys from Barrie made quick work defeating the Gaels 3-1. The Tornado moved onto the second round and faced the Scarborough Saints, and eventually fell in a 5 game series. In 2002, Barrie had a 14-7-1 record in an extended 22-game season. Barrie met the Saints again in the first round defeating them 3-0. In the second round, the Tornado faced off against the Gaels yet again. In a back and forth series, the Tornado succumbed to the Gaels in 5 games. (The Gaels would eventually claim the Canadian Championship.)

2003 was the coming out party for the Tornado. By the end of the season, Barrie clinched first in the Eastern Conference with a 15-4-1 record. In the first round of the playoffs, Barrie took on the Oakville Buzz. The series, surprisingly, went the distance. The long series was a sign of the beginning of the growth of a young and quickly developing Buzz team. The Tornado took the series 3 games to 2. The Quarter-finals were against the Mimico Mountaineers. Barrie very quickly went down 2 games to none in the best-of-5 series. To the dismay of the Mountaineers, Barrie pulled themselves back together and won the next 3 games straight to earn a birth to the Conference final. In the Eastern Conference final, the Barrie Tornado took on the Nepean Knights. The Tornado won the series without much trouble, 3 games to 1, to earn a birth into the League final.

The finals determine the OLA's representative at the National Championships. The Tornado's opponent in the Provincial championship was the Six Nations Red Rebels. The two teams split the first two games of the best-of-5 final series with Six Nations winning 15-8 and Barrie taking game two 15-10. Barrie won a hard fought 8-6 win on the Six Nations home floor only to have the Rebels return the favour in on the Barrie floor with a 12-5 win to force a game 5. The thrilling series came to an end with Barrie Tornado claiming an 11-8 victory to win the Ontario title and the J. A. MacDonald Trophy to earn a birth into the 2003 Founders Cup tournament in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.