John Lovell, head coach of the Toronto Rock, has won the 2015 National Lacrosse League (NLL) Les Bartley coach of the year award.
Lovell received the award at the NLL awards night on Sept. 29 in Toronto.
“I was very honoured by it because it was a vote by your peers, so in that regard I am very honoured, but it’s an award that I very much share with the rest of my staff … I had a great team to coach,” said Lovell from his home in Elora.
Lovell coached Toronto to the NLL’s best regular season record at 14-4, but the team ended the year with a one-goal loss in game five of the finals against the Edmonton Rush.
Lovell, who was an assistant coach for the Rock for seven years before taking over as head coach in 2014, said the team and staff worked hard together.
“It was something we accomplished as a group. I have a great staff. From a coaching point of view it was a wonderful group to coach,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a group that bought into a message and bought into the team as much as this group did. We were all pretty disappointed when we didn’t win in the end.”
The award is named after Les Bartley, a prominent NLL coach who passed away from cancer in 2005.
“I didn’t know Les but I know that he had a lot of success… I have a lot of respect for him and disappointed I never had an opportunity to spend some time with him,” said Lovell, who will begin his third year as Rock head coach in January.
