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21st Annual Barry Burman Shootout takes over Orangeville arenas

June 28, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Lacrosse teams from across Ontario came to Orangeville for the 21st Annual Barry Burman Shoot-out on June 28 – 30.

Games were held at Tony Rose arena and the Alder Street arena with full schedules over the three days.

There was a constant rotation of teams on the floor as different towns battled it out.

Five divisions, Tyke, Novice, Bantam, Peewee, and Midget, were represented.

In total around 900 players competed.

Competition was fierce as all the teams came from centres with notable lacrosse programs.

The tournament has to cap at 41 teams to make for a reasonable schedule, however more than 100 teams applied to take part in the Shootout.

“This is our 21rst tournament,” said organizer Blaine Burman, son of tournament namesake, Barry Burman. “We get tons of teams applying and we can only take 41. We get probably 100 team that apply to be in the tournament. There’s eight teams per division and five divisions. Teams come from all over. We’ve got a team from London so that’s a bit of a hike. Peterborough sent a team in every division so they’re well represented. Sarnia is here. The rest are from inside the GTA. It’s an ‘A’ tournament so all the best teams in the province in their division want to come and play these teams in this tournament. These are all top notch teams.”

Teams are guaranteed four games thanks to the round-robin type of play.

“There are round-robins, and again on Saturday, then on Saturday afternoon the top two teams will play the semi-final,” Burman explained. “The finals go on Sunday. They are guaranteed four games so that makes it worth it for teams that come a long way.”

Because there are only four playing surfaces in Orangeville, the games start at 10:00 a.m. on Friday in order to get all the scheduled games played out.

“We have a lot of good supporters in local businesses. Local restaurants give out free vouchers. Sanderson Sports gives all the kids 20 per cent off their equipment. Dairy Queen gives every kid an ice cream. It’s good to have their support that way.”

The tournament is named after Barry Burman, a long time supporter and participant in local lacrosse including coaching with the original Orangeville Stingers junior team. He was also a member of the Northmen executive and a coach.

The tournament brings a lot of players and their families to Orangeville which in turn supports local businesses in the area.

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