When Jim Cain received word that he was bound for the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the longtime Victoria Shamrocks trainer broke down.
B次元官网网址淚t means everything to me for my career with the Shamrocks,B次元官网网址� he said, noting that he was waiting at a store when he heard the good news. B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 glad I was sitting downB次元官网网址 was very emotional.B次元官网网址�
Cain began his career with the Shamrocks in 1978, winning the first of what would be seven Mann Cups in his second season with the club. He quickly endeared himself to the teamB次元官网网址檚 players, earning the nickname B次元官网网址淒owntownB次元官网网址� from Bob Cool for his eagerness to join the guys for a drink or two downtown.
B次元官网网址淗e nicknamed me B次元官网网址楧owntownB次元官网网址� because I was single and I was going downtown for the ladies and stuff,B次元官网网址� he laughed. B次元官网网址淎nd it stuck all these years. Here I am married with kids and grandkids, and IB次元官网网址檓 still B次元官网网址楧owntownB次元官网网址�.B次元官网网址�
While the highlights from his time behind the B次元官网网址楻ocksB次元官网网址� bench are numerous, a few do stand above the rest.
Of all the championship teams he was a part of, Cain has particularly fond memories of the 1983 team because of the unexpected nature of their success.
B次元官网网址淎s I always say, we were kind of a lunch bucket team that wasnB次元官网网址檛 expected to do anything. We finally put it together in the end but it was sort of a mediocre team by todayB次元官网网址檚 standards and we won the Mann Cup,B次元官网网址� he said.
One of his proudest moments came in the last dozen years of his tenure. As Cain says, his job was to keep the players in the game, and one year high-scoring forward Lewis Ratcliff was faced with trying to play through a significant knee injury during the Mann Cup.
B次元官网网址淚 perfected a tape job that IB次元官网网址檇 never done beforeB次元官网网址 put strips on him and it took me almost 45 minutes to tape him every night. He played the whole series. I was quite proud of what I did,B次元官网网址� Cain said.
Ratcliff is far from the only player to play through an injury in the rough and tumble sport, and Cain says the toughest pound for pound player that he ever saw was also one of the ShamrocksB次元官网网址� best in Kevin Alexander.
B次元官网网址淚 watched pretty much all 800 of his goals go in and watched him get beaten every night with a wood stick. For a 175-pound man, he was the toughest,B次元官网网址� he said.
Cain left the club after its 2015 Mann Cup win and he says that while it was tough to leave the team, heB次元官网网址檚 also taken advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with family.
He will be officially inducted on Nov. 18 in New Westminster.
B次元官网网址淚 was thinking about my hall of fame speech the other day and I started naming out a few people from the different decades and I was up to 60 people already. I canB次元官网网址檛 do that, IB次元官网网址檝e got to trim that down somehow,B次元官网网址� he laughed.
joel.tansey@goldstreamgazette.com
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