Ray Rice - NOT!!

A few years back...I started passitonsports.ca

Here are the word directly from my About Us page.

Our Mission

To provide an opportunity ro share your feel good sport story and to show gratitude to those who have helped along the way.

Our Vision

Inspiration. Attitude. Enthusiasm. Gratitude: Pass It On.


Ray Rice a professional Football player with the Baltimore Raven of the NFL has been in the sports news 24/7 this week. To me, his story is not sports news. It is a disturbing story, and I am not going to bore you with the details here...it bothers me that much....I am not giving even my opinion on the subject.  Is is NOT a sports story... to me.

...and guess what? Every day there are "feel good" sports stories, and I am here to keep you up to speed.

Let's review what is going on.

• US Open Tennis. The big guns Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer both lost in the Semi-finals to big underdogs. The tourney was won by Marin Cilic a 14 seed and I can tell you this, for his friends and family, this is a great sports story.

                                  Marin Cilic - 2014 US Open Tennis Champion Marin Cilic

• The Victoria Shamrocks and the Six Nation Chiefs are playing this week for The Mann Cup, Canadian Senior A Lacrosse Championships. Six Nations are hosting and the tough series is tied at 2 games each. Six Nations have a fantastic year going, already winning the Founder's Cup (Junior B) and The Minto Cup (Junior A). If you get a chance slip down to a game. This is the best box lacrosse in the world....and you can go to a game for $20.

                                                     The Mann Cup.

• Canada Men's Soccer team defeated Jamaica on Tuesday night 3 to 1. This is big soccer news. Read the story from Gareth Wheeler from TSN....his article is Titled: A Feel-Good Night for Canadian Men's Soccer.

(man....I like the ring of that title).

• The Tour Championship in the PGA Starts tomorrow. Top 30 golfers play Thursday to Sunday...and The Fedex Cup Champion will take home a cool bonus of $10 Million Dollars.

• It is a great time of year for sports fans......NFL has started....NHL and NBA are around the corner.
• ...and Blue Jays are still "in it" - they really are.
• ...and Toronto FC Soccer...might make the playoffs for first time ever....they might.
• Canadian College Football....Canadian Football League etc. etc.

Every single day there is another "feel good" sports story. Watch for them...share them with friends...and don't forget if you have a feel good story of your own you can got to www.passitonsports.ca and become a member for free...and write your own feel good story.

Enjoy.

Mike

 

 

MOB Lacrosse Championship - 2014

I may not be the only one saying this.  Where did the summer go??
The CNE opened today...and MOB Lacrosse is over. Two sure signs of the warm summer nights slowly disappearing.

MOB (Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington) Lacrosse has just completed it's 9th year. We first handed out the coveted Campbell Cup in 2006.

The MOB is a group of players....men/women/age range of 21 to 65. - We compete every summer in a friendly game of lacrosse and an occasional beverage to follow the game.

This years championship games were exciting. The underdog, last place Blue Thunder team managed to sneak into the final against the tough Gold Rush team. The Gold team had great goaltending all year and tonight was no different as Ron Larose led his team to victory and the Campbell Cup. Gold was led by Mark Fryer with 3 goals and "gutty" Brad Wales chipped in a pair.
Final Score  Gold 7 Blue 5.

                                       Gold Rush - 2014 Campbell Cup Champions



There were some other awards handed out on this great night.

My assistant this year...and CFO (Classy Friend and Organizer) Chris Kluczynski surprised and humbled me by coming up with an new award in honour of me being inducted into the OLA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

  Chris showing us the new award. The McMillan HOF Most Valuable Player award.

 The award will be presented annually to the MOB Lacrosse Most Valuable Player and this years winner was an easy choice.

          Black Storm Goaltender Brent Thompson is presented with MOB League MVP Award.


Another very important award from the MOB is the Scott Smith Award, presented annually to the player who embodies the spirit of the MOB, show up weekly, plays with sportsmanship week in and out.

     Dave Johnston (black) presented the Scott Smith award to Jim "Styx" Walker (gold). Also in the picture is Jesse Smith (Scott Smith's son) and me. Congrats Styxie....well deserved.


In the second game of the night...Red Heat defeated the First to Worst Black Storm (sorry guys) to win the Toilet Bowl with a score of 8 to 6.

                                                   Red Heat wins the MOB Toilet Bowl.

 

 

 

I want to thank everybody for another great year of lacrosse. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Mike

Canadian Lacrosse Pride

The 2014 World Championships of Lacrosse in Denver, Colorado are over....and what a great ride it was.

I don't even know where to begin...
- should I start with the incredible final game featuring the USA vs Canada?
 (which Canada won 8 -5)
- or the awesome preliminary games (involving  37 countries)?
- or maybe it is the majestic views of the Denver landscape.

I should probably tell you what happened in our division...the Festival, in which me and 21 of my buddies took part in the Grand Masters Division (50 plus) in an 11 team (very competitive) tournament.

                               Our Molson Canadians had local fans (thanks Brad)


I am exhausted, yet incredibly fulfilled. My excitement was not limited just to lacrosse. I am a very lucky man, as I was able to visit a beautiful city (Denver), while playing the best game in the world (lacrosse), all the while spending time with my beautiful wife Patti, my sister Laura and family, my Mom was there, my son, two of my brothers...etc. I could go on...but on this vacation...I NAILED IT!

When we arrived on Friday, July 11, we drove straight to the mountain town of Frisco, CO., where we spent the next four days enjoying the mountains. We stayed in a cabin with a river in the backyard, a hot tub and the smell of mountain air.

                                     Me and Warren (Colorado river - Coors - Focusing)

On the Monday we headed to my sister's place and prepared for our first game from the Tourney. (the big boys that is) - We saw Canada romp to an easy win over Japan.

Wednesday was tournament day. We started against team Harley....a formidable opponent. You may have heard this line before....we could beat them...but we did not. We lost 8 - 6 (sloppy game)

We then played Team Israel...and handled them easily. Our next game was against an old foe...Mr BOH....we knew it would be a tough game...and it was a must win. (We were up by 4 - we lost) - and it hurt big time. Mr. BOH and Team Harley would go on to play in the championship game. We should have been there.

Our next game we were down, came out flat. Down 7 - 2 late in the 3rd quarter...something clicked. It was a great comeback and we won 8 - 7 in triple overtime. Yahoooo - that felt good.

Our final game was against the England Lions Lacrosse Club. True Gentlemen of the game on and off the field. It was a pleasure to play the again (last time was 2010 - Manchester.) We won this game, but our English friends, short of players and weary. After the game we shared a photo and a cold beer. Fitting end to a tremendous tourney.

                                  The Molson Canadians and The England Lions.

                                    Myself , my English buddy Martin and my brother Steve.

I cannot express how grateful I am for so many things....my teammates, my family and friends and even my opponents. This event was everything I had hoped.

I am going to share some pics....and even some MVP picks that I made.

How to pick an MVP is not easy....so instead of picking one.....I picked a few.

      Silvana - words cannot describe. You are the best Sil - Thanks for everything. (even the gummies)

My pal - Stu Aird. - Played long pole...was amazing as always....(and played for two teams - winning Gold with the other team)

Gary Walker played Attack and was fierce. He had a phenomenal Tourney (I forgive the green shirt)

Warren Dimarco. Yes he was the organizer...he put up with all of us, and did a fantastic job. Aside from that though...he played great, winning faceoffs, hounding loose balls and scoring goals. Well done Warren D.!!

                   The McMillan/Ross/Neely fan base were at every game....Thank you all.

                                       Patti  and I (thanks babe for being such a great fan)

We went 4 wins and 2 losses....ended up in fifth place. Not what we wanted...but what the heck.

 

The Canadian pride at the event was fun to be a part of. The final game saw Canada play heavily favoured USA and the sea of Red Shirts at the game (thanks to Jason Donville) was great to see. When a US superstar went down in a heap...a chant of FIFA rang out from the crowd. I am not going to say who might have started the chant...but she plays in our MOB summer league and is a great physio.  ;-)

 

Well done Canada. Well Done.