Les Bartley (March 11, 1954 – May 15, 2005) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

coach. Bartley led the

Buffalo Bandits The Buffalo Bandits are an American professional box lacrosse team based in Buffalo, New York, that competes in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team plays its home games at KeyBank Center. The Bandits played in the Major Indoor Lacrosse L ...

to three of their four championships in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL), and won four more championships with the

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a Canadian professional box lacrosse team based in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area that competes in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. The Rock play their home ga ...

in the renamed

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league comprises 14 teams8 in the United States and 6 in Canada. The NLL is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

(NLL). He was named NLL Executive of the Year in 2005.

Personal and early life

Bartley was born in

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

, Ontario. He attended St. Catharines Collegiate, playing football and lacrosse. After graduating from high school, he worked at the GM plant in St. Catharines, and later became a union official.

Coaching career

Buffalo Bandits

Bartley became the assistant coach of the Bandits in 1992. When the team started off the 1992 season 0-3, Bandits head coach Buff McCready was fired, and Bartley was given the job of head coach. He then led the team on a 22-game winning streak and MILL championships in 1992 and 1993. The streak included the entire

1993 season The General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to th ...

, during which the Bandits were 8-0, the only undefeated season in NLL/MILL history. The streak came to an end on February 19, 1994. Bartley's only losing season as a professional lacrosse coach came in the 1995 season after going 3-5. In

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, he coached the Bandits to their third championship in the MILL. After the 1997 season, Les left the Bandits after leading them to a 36–13 record in six seasons.

Toronto Rock

When the MILL became the NLL in 1998, the league added its first

franchise: the

Ontario Raiders The Ontario Raiders were a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 1998 NLL season. The franchise was founded as an expansion team in Hamilton, Ontario, and played their home games at Copps Coliseum. Former Buffalo Bandits coach Les Bar ...

, who played in

Copps Coliseum Hamilton Arena (originally Copps Coliseum, later renamed FirstOntario Centre) is a sports and entertainment arena at the corner of Bay Street North and York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1985, it has a capacity of up to 19 ...

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. Bartley, a native of nearby St. Catharines, Ontario, helped get the new franchise off the ground. In 1999, the Ontario Raiders moved to Toronto and became the

. Les coached the Rock to four championships in five years. Prior to the 2005 season, Bartley lent his labour negotiation expertise to the league, helping the NLL to reach a

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...

agreement with the NLL players' association. On May 9, 2005, Bartley was named by the NLL as its Executive of the Year, and renamed its coach-of-the-year award the Les Bartley Trophy.

Death

In November 2003, Les gave up his role of coach and general manager of the Rock to fight

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

, though he maintained the title of vice-president of the Rock. Bartley retired as a

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

union representative in 2004. Less than a week later after being named NLL Executive of the Year, Les Bartley died at his home on May 15, 2005, in St. Catharines after his 18-month battle with cancer. Bartley was 51. He died 18 hours after the Toronto Rock won their fifth NLL Championship. He was survived by his wife Gloria and children Matt and Laura.

Legacy

Bartley led the Rock to a 51–19 record in five seasons in the NLL, and 9–1 in the post-season. His overall record of 93–38 (.709) in the regular season is second all-time. Only current Buffalo Bandits coach Darris Kilgour has more. His 18–4 (.818) record in the playoffs is the most wins of any coach in NLL history. In recognition of Bartley's contribution to the NLL and his success as a coach, the NLL renamed the annual Coach of the Year award as the ''

Les Bartley Award The Les Bartley Award is given annually to the National Lacrosse League head coach of the year. The award was simply called the Head Coach of the Year award until 2004, when the award was renamed in honour of Les Bartley, the most successful coach ...

''. Fittingly, two of the first recipients of the renamed award were Derek Keenan of the Portland Lumberjax in 2006 and Ed Comeau of the Rochester Knighthawks in 2007, both former assistants of Bartley in Toronto. In June 2005, the National Lacrosse League announced that Bartley would be a Charter member of the

National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2006

NLL All-Star Game The National Lacrosse League All Star Game was a box lacrosse game played between two teams representing the two divisions of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The last game took place during the 2012 season. 1990s 1991 (Major Indoor Lacrosse L ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. In March 2007, the Toronto Rock announced a new award in honour of Bartley. The

(not to be confused with the ''Les Bartley Award'' given by the league) will be "given annually to the Rock player that best exemplifies Les' emphasis on the importance of character and commitment to the team".

References

External links

Les's Fund

Remembering Les
(an obituary at the NLL website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartley, Les 1954 births 2005 deaths Deaths from colorectal cancer in Canada Sportspeople from Toronto National Lacrosse League coaches National Lacrosse League major award winners Deaths from cancer in Ontario Toronto Rock coaches Buffalo Bandits coaches Lacrosse people from Ontario