There are a number of families that are synonymous with the game of lacrosse. The Thomas family is one of them. Join Steve and Ron Thomas as they tell stories of their lacrosse careers at the local to international levels as both amateurs and professionals.

Steve ‘s playing career went from 1960 -1984. He played for Akwesasne/St. Regis through Bantam,Midget, Junior and Senior. During this time he helped to organize the St. Regis Lacrosse Program. He was offered a full scholarship to Syracuse University in 1967. Steve played on championship teams with the St. Regis Jr. Braves in 1969, 70 and 71 and was a Canadian Jr. B finalist in 1971.

He was known as a “hardroc k” defenseman playing for Ross Powless in 1971 and 1972 on the Rochester Iroquois in the Can-Am Pro League.

In 1974 he was drafted by Montreal in the National Lacrosse League.
Steve continued to play on many Championship teams in the Quebec Sr. League for the Akwesasne Warriors.

He was presented with the John Ferguson Best Defenseman Trophy 3 times.
After his playing days were over he continued to contribute to the game as a coach, certified referee,
Indigenous Director for the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of fame and Co-founder of the Akwesasne LacrosseHall of Fame in 1998.

Ron Thomas lists renowned ancestors as those who helped mold his game. His father was Angus Thomas and grandfather was Thomas P. Thomas – both Hall of Famers.

Ron played for the St. Regis Indians Lacrosse Club and the Valleyfield Braves in the 60’s.

He excelled at defense and played with Frank Benedict, Abe Thomas, and Larry Martin. He was employed as an ironworker and spent a great deal of
time and energy driving from jobs in the USA to make games on the weekends.

There are currently 17 Thomas family members in the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Walter “Butch” Goodleaf received his first lacrosse stick at age 7 from his Grandmother. This humble start lead to his well-deserved induction into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He would display unique leadership skills as a Player, Coach and Builder in the Kahnawake community along the way. “Butch” is known for being a team player and possessing great defensive skills, with the ability of creating offense for his Minor and Senior teams. He played on teams that won Quebec Provincial Championships and participated in President Cups and the Commonwealth Games. Goodleaf collected team and league awards that include MVP and All Star team selections. He was well respected by his teammates and was selected Captain many times. He is representative of a by-gone era of Mohawk players that earned their living as steel workers on the eastern seaboard of the USA. Goodleaf is proud of working on the original World Trade Center in New York City and traveling back to Quebec and Ontario overnight on the weekends to play lacrosse. One of his greatest personal off-floor achievements was serving as the sub-chief on the Council responsible for building the Kahnawake Sports Complex and Arena which will be the home of local lacrosse teams for many years to come. Walter Goodleaf’s story is one you want to hear- a tale from a time where love of the game was the main reward for playing.

Joe Curotte is known as one of the toughest defensemen to come out of Kahnawake. His playing career stretched from 1965 through 1980 for both the Junior and Senior Caughnawaga Indians teams.

He played against the best including Gaylord Powless, Johnny Davis, Bruce Roundpoint, Frank Benedict and Mike Benedict. As a Junior he received the Best Defenceman Award in 1966 and 1968 and a similar award as a Senior player in 1976.

He was a Junior All Star in 1967 and 1969. Joe was a member of the Junior team that won the Provincial Championship in 1966. He also won Silver with the Seniors in 1969.

A crowning achievement was capturing the Thorpe Longboat Trophy at the North American Lacrosse Championship in Vancouver in 1969.

This accomplishment and his career in general led to his induction into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2018.

Dennis Joseph descends from a long line of lacrosse players. His father, Willard Joseph, played box and field lacrosse for the famed North Shore Indians teams. Dennis Joseph’s grandfather , Andrew Paull was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Paull was the founder/coach/manager of the North Shore Indians and the Squamish box and field teams. Paull was able to build capacity crowds of over 10,000 fans in the historic Denman Arena in the 1920’s and 30’s.

Outside of lacrosse Paull was the well known activist and lawyer who battled for First Nation rights and advancement. Dennis Joseph followed these footsteps with class and dedication.

His minor years were with the North Shore Indians. He has played box and field lacrosse for over 54 years. He has almost exclusively played goalie and continued to star in Masters and Grand Master divisions years after others had retired.

A most memorable moment in a colourful career was playing against Gaylord Powless and his father Ross Powless who coached when Joseph was 15 years old .

These days he coaches goaltending and serves as an elder at the Senior Level with three different organizations. Join us in hearing the unique story about Dennis Johnson and West Coast lacrosse.

Barry Powless has made his mark in lacrosse on both sides of the border as a player, coach and manager in both the box and field versions of the game. While at Lafayette H.S. near Syracuse he was named a USLA High School All American. He went on to play attack at Syracuse University. After Syracuse he played in the 1980 World Lacrosse Championship and won the Silver Medal as part of the Can-Am Warriors squad in Vancouver. After getting a taste of West Coast life he would play for the next decade in the Vanocuver area. In 1981 he would play and star for both the North Shoe Indians and the New Westminster Salmonbellies who would win the Mann Cup. In 1984 he captured a Presidents Cup with the North Shore Indians. He would join the Vancouver Burrards and the Coquitlam Adanacs during that time.He even made his mark in Field Lacrosse playing for the Vancouver Field Lacrosse Club and won a Provincial Championship and made the All-Star Team. In 1990 he would head back east and he helped propel the Fergus Thistles to a Presidents Cup Championship. That same year Powless played for the inaugural Iroquois National team in the World Championships in Perth, Australia. In 1992 he was picked up by the Buffalo Bandits and would win an MILL Championship. Powless would play at the Senior B level until his retirement at the advanced age of 50 years! This lengthy career brought him many honours including induction into the Ontario Lacross Hall of Fame in 1999, US Lacrosse Upstate New York Chapter Hall of Fame in 2015, the Akwesasne Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2021 as a member of the Salmonbellies Organization . His coaching and managing endeavours included Head Coach of the MLL Rochester Knighthawks from 1995-1997, VP of Lacrosse Operations for the NLL from 2000-2002 and Assistant Coach for the Iroquois 2003 World Indoor Finalists. Barry Powless Jr. Has done just about everything a lacrosse person can do!

As our interview team conducted dozens of interviews across Canada over the last 4 years one
name kept popping up – Jim Bishop. Bishop is one of the most well-known names in the game.
He is deceased, but his influence and work lives on. We have put together a number of former
players and coaches who knew him to discuss the lacrosse life of one of Canada’s most
important contributors to the game.

He was involved with lacrosse for 58 years, making his mark as coach and builder of the game in Ontario and throughout Canada.

Jim began coaching minor lacrosse in Toronto in 1946 and in 1957 he founded the Huntsville
Minor Lacrosse Association. One of his greatest accomplishments was building the Oshawa
Junior A Green Gaels - the legendary lacrosse organization that competed in and won 7
consecutive Minto Cups.

This record of 7 consecutive titles from 1963 to 1969 has not been
equalled since and likely won’t be matched.

Bishop was involved in establishing the initial National Lacrosse League in 1968 and coached the
Detroit Olympics. In 1969, Jim also went to work in Pro Hockey with the NHL’s Detroit Red
Wings. He served as a vice-president of the team for 4 years. In 1974, Jim was instrumental in
establishing the NLL again for a 2 year period. During that time, he was the Coach and General
Manager for the Toronto Tomahawks and then the coach of the Montreal Quebecois.
He became the first Technical Director of the Canadian Lacrosse Association in 1978. In 1997 he
won his 8 th Minto Cup as a coach.

Bishop is a winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award from the Canadian Lacrosse Association for
excellence in lacrosse. In 1969 he was inducted into both the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame and
the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

He did countless clinics for both players and coaches across the country. He wanted to teach
Canadians the proper way to play the game he loved. He also established a company to
distribute lacrosse equipment across Canada which assisted in the development of the sport.
Bishop’s greatness was his vision for the whole sport.

He built systems into the game that were ahead of their time and made his players work hard to be skilled enough to execute these systems. He freely shared his knowledge and approach to the game and was instrumental in helping to expand the game to all provinces in the country.
His story is one everyone in the lacrosse community, young or old, should learn.

After leading the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League in scoring in 1954, Bob Parry went on to an
outstanding Senior A career with the Vancouver Burrards, winning the Inter-City Lacrosse
League outstanding Rookie award in 1955 and becoming an integral part of three Vancouver
Mann Cup winners.

It was after his playing days when he really excelled. As Burrard General Manager for 1970 - O76
he was largely responsible for moulding the team that was a success both on the floor, going to
Mann Cup in 1971, 1975 and 1977, and at the gate.

In the late 1980's Bob was again there to
help resurrect them. He brought the team back to the top with a Mann Cup appearance in 1990.
He has been a tireless behind-the-scenes worker with the Burrards.

Gary Bottomley was introduced to the game in 1968 and began to play in 1969.

He has continued to play, coach, coordinate leagues and run skill development programs for Tyke to Senior players over the past fifty years. Bottomley retired from playing in 1996 at the age of 43.

He played in 13 Canadian Championships and in some years he was a player-coach. In addition,

Bottomley was the coach of the 1999 Nova Scotia Field lacrosse team that played in the Canadian Championship that were held in Halifax of that year.

Other highlights include being a member of the 1973 Nova Scotia Canada Games Lacrosse Team that received the Silver Medal.

In 1975 he was drafted to the Quebec Caribou’s of the National Lacrosse League Later that summer he played in in the Canadian Senior B championship and won a Silver Medal.

In 1977 he was selected to coach the Nova Scotia Canada Summer Games Junior Lacrosse Team. In 1978 he was asked to play with the Crossbow Inn Capitals in Edmonton.

They won the the Alberta championship and went to the Canadian championships n B.C. He won Outstanding Player Awards in two of the games.

He was also selected as a First Team All Star. While playing and
coaching in Nova Scotia, Bottomley was a member of teams that won various league and provincial championships at both the junior and senior levels.
Catch this interview with one of the East Coast’s premier lacrosse people.

Our interview with Jojie Engemann is unique in that he is a son talking about his parents and their legendary contributions to the game.

And Jojie was a fine player in his own right. Rose and Joe Engemann were inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as Builders – for their tireless efforts in the creation and operation of the Spartan Athletic Club.

It all began for their family when the Engemanns registered Jojie to play minor lacrosse in St. Catharines.

That is how an amazing story of building a sports community was initiated. The Spartan program began in 1963. During its peak in the 1970’s and 80’s as many as 2,000 boys and girls were playing in five different sports including lacrosse.

The most notable achievement, besides the joy of sports provided to thousands of youth, was the success of the 1981 and 1996 St. Catharines Spartans in winning Founders Cups.

Jojie Engemann tells the inside story of the dedication and sacrifice his parents made to create a laudable lacrosse organization.