Now it's Northmen Way

The Orangeville Junior A Northmen Lacrosse club was honoured at Orangeville Council this week with the presentation of street signs for "Northmen Way".

Council approved a recommendation of the Recreation Committee to have a section of Fead Street past the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Complex designated as Northmen Way.

The team has won five Minto Cup Championships, with two of the wins coming in the last two seasons.

In 1989, the junior Northmen club was reestablished after a number of years of having no junior lacrosse program in Orangeville. Playing in the Junior B ranks, the Northmen won back-toback national championships in 1989 and 1990, bringing the Founder's Cup to Orangeville.

Then, in 1991 the Northmen moved to the Junior A ranks and were competitive in their very first year.

In 1993, after only three years in the league, the Northmen became the Jr. A Lacrosse Canadian national champions and brought the Minto Cup to Orangeville for the first time.

The Northmen went on to win back-to-back Minto Cups in 1995 and 1996. In 2000, they won their fourth Ontario Jr. A championship, but lost to Burnaby, B.C. in the Minto Cup final.

Then in 2008, after eight years, the Northmen won their fourth national final and the Minto Cup returned to Orangeville.

In 2009, the Northmen had their biggest challenge in trying to repeat as national champions. The Northmen were down three games to zero against the Brampton Excelsiors in the Ontario final and were able to come back and win four straight games to win the Ontario championship and move on to the Minto Cup in Brampton, where they overcame the host Excelsiors again to become the national champions for the second year in a row.