The Langley Thunder are a member of the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA), an amateur Senior A league comprised of seven teams throughout the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The teams compete in the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA) for one of the most historic sports trophies in Canada, the Mann Cup.
The Thunder originated as the North Shore Indians in 1994 before relocating to Kelowna as the Okanagan Thunder (2000-2001) and after a brief return to the North Shore (2002-2003) established their roots in Langley in 2004.
The team has played out of Langley Events Centre since 2009 and captured the Western Lacrosse Association Championship in 2011, 2012 and 2022. The Thunder hosted the 2011 Mann Cup Championship.
Award History
Since joining the WLA in 1994, the organization has won 28 player awards, 11 team awards, four coach of the year awards and one executive of the year award.
The North Shore Indians won the Ab Brown Trophy as the most sportsmanlike team for three consecutive seasons, 1994 to 1996, and again took the trophy as the Okanagan Thunder in both 2002 and 2003. The Langley Thunder made it a three-peat for the honour in 2004.
The organization has s taken top honours as the best team during the regular season four times with the North Shore Indians 1996 squad winning the CKNW ‘Top Dog’ Trophy, the 2012 and 2013 Langley Thunder teams winning the Stan Shillington Trophy -- the award was renamed in 2009 -- and again in 2022.
And three times -- 2011, 2012 and 2022 -- the Langley Thunder have won the Ted Fridge Trophy as the playoff champions.
For the individual awards, the Ed Bayley Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year has been the most frequently won award with the Gord Nicholson Trophy (Top Defensive Player), Leo Nicholson Memorial Trophy (Top Goaltender) and Fred Wooster Trophy (Unsung Hero) right behind. The Leo Nicholson Memorial Trophy was changed to the Les Wingrove Memorial Award in 2019.
Shawn Cable (2002), Tom Johnson (2007), Garrett Billings (2009), Brodie MacDonald (2011), Anthony Malcom (2015) and Tyler Pace (2018) were each named rookies of the year. Malcom was co-recipient of his award.
In 2010, Mike Grimes became the first Thunder player to win the Gord Nicholson Trophy and Brett Mydske later captured the award four times (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016) in a five-year span. Mydske also won the Fred Wooster Memorial Trophy in 2011 and he is one of four players to capture the honour as the league’s Unsung Hero, alongside Doug Hill (North Shore Indians, 1999), Paul Jones (2004) and Ian Poole (2012).
Dwight Maetche won the Leo Nicholson Memorial Trophy as the WLA's top goaltender in both the 1995 and 1996 season for North Shore while Joe Bell (2009), Brodie MacDonald (2013) and Frank Scigliano (2023) won for Langley.
Both Todd Katanchik (North Shore Indians, 1998) and Derek Malawsky (Okanagan Thunder, 2000) have won the Denny Huddleston Memorial Trophy as the regular season scoring champion. Katanchik also won the WLA Three Star Award for the Indians in the 1998 season.
Ryan Williams (2003 with the North Shore Thunder), Rob Buchan (2008 with the Langley Thunder) and Keegan Bell (2022 with Langley) have each won the Maitland Trophy, which is presented to the player displaying value to his team, good sportsmanship and assistance to minor lacrosse.
The Bill Ellison Trophy as the most valuable player during the post-season has also been won twice by Thunder players with Brodie MacDonald earning the honour in 2011 while Lewis Ratcliff won in 2012.
As for coaches and executives, Bill Munroe (1997), Scott Schwartz (2003), Randy Delmonico (2009) and Rod Jensen (2011) each took home the Dorothy Robertson Memorial Trophy as coach of the year while Frank Kirby (North Shore Indians, 1996) was the winner of the Norm Kowalyk Trophy as executive of the year.
WLA 
