Shawn Williams (born June 20, 1974 in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
) is the inaugural General Manager and Head Coach of the
Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the
National Lacrosse League
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United States and five in Canada. The N ...
(NLL). He is a former
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a 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 was extensiv ...
player who played for 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 B ...
,
Toronto Rock
The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville resident ...
,
Buffalo Bandits
The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse
Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada in the 1930s, where it is more po ...
,
Rochester Knighthawks
The Rochester Knighthawks (also known as the K-Hawks) are a professional box lacrosse team in the North Division of the National Lacrosse League. They play in Rochester, New York at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
The Knighthawks are ow ...
and
Edmonton Rush
The Edmonton Rush were a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) that played from 2006 NLL season to 2015.
The team announced on July 20, 2015, that they would be relocating to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for the 2016 se ...
of the NLL and the
Hamilton Nationals
The Hamilton Nationals were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They began play in the 2009 season in Toronto, Ontario as the Toronto Nationals, becoming the first-ever Canadi ...
of
Major League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff ...
. He was also previously a scout for the Buffalo Bandits and assistant coach with the
Colorado Mammoth
The Colorado Mammoth are a box lacrosse team playing in the National Lacrosse League. The Mammoth have played at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, since the 2003 season. They are owned by Stan Kroenke, who is also the owner of the Colorado Avala ...
. He was inducted to the
NLL Hall of Fame in 2021 as a first ballot nominee.
NLL career
Williams started his NLL career in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
with 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 B ...
. The Raiders moved to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
the next year, becoming the
Toronto Rock
The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville resident ...
. Following the
1999 season, Williams was traded to the Buffalo Bandits for a draft pick, and played two seasons in Buffalo. On May 18,
2001, Williams was traded again, this time to the Rochester Knighthawks as part of a seven player blockbuster deal.
Williams played his best season in
2004. When Knighthawk star
John Grant, Jr. went down with a season-ending knee injury, Williams picked up the slack, finishing 8th in the league in points with 81, 3rd in goals with 45, and was named to the first All-Pro team. He was named Overall
Player of the Week three times — all in the last four weeks of the season — and Offensive Player of the Week five times.
Williams has played in six
NLL All-Star games, in
2002,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, and
2009 scoring the overtime winning goal in the 2008 game.
After ten seasons in Rochester, Williams was traded in October 2011 along with Aaron Bold to the
Edmonton Rush
The Edmonton Rush were a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) that played from 2006 NLL season to 2015.
The team announced on July 20, 2015, that they would be relocating to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for the 2016 se ...
for
Ryan Cousins
Ryan Cousins (born April 1, 1981 in Toronto, Ontario) is a former professional lacrosse player. Cousins played for eleven seasons in the National Lacrosse League, winning a championship in 2012 with the Rochester Knighthawks. He was selected to pl ...
,
Alex Kedoh Hill, and Andy Secore.
Williams was traded from Edmonton to
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
for two second round picks in the
2013 NLL Entry Draft. Minnesota then sent him to Buffalo with Brendon Doran, a 2012 first round pick, and two 2012 second round picks for the third overall pick in 2012.
MSL / WLA Career
Williams has been a member of the Brooklin Redmen of the
MSL since 1996, other than 2003, when he played one year in the
WLA for the
Coquitlam Adanacs
The Coquitlam Adanacs are a Canadian box lacrosse team based in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The Adanacs play in B.C.'s seven team Western Lacrosse Association (WLA), whose champion competes against Ontario's Major Series Lacrosse champion for ...
. He was a member of the
Mann Cup
The Mann Cup is the trophy awarded to the senior men's box lacrosse champions of Canada. The championship is a best-of-seven, East vs West series played between the league champions of Major Series Lacrosse, the East, and Western Lacrosse Associa ...
-winning Redmen in 2000. He has won the
Bucko McDonald
Wilfred Kennedy "Bucko" McDonald (October 31, 1911 – July 19, 1991) was a Canadian professional hockey and lacrosse player, coach, and politician.
Born in Fergus, Ontario, he played for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and New Yo ...
Memorial Trophy as the top scorer in the MSL three times, in 1999, 2001 (co-winner with Josh Sanderson), and again in 2004. Williams also holds the MSL record for most points in a game — 21, set on July 26, 1999 against the Ohsweken Wolves.
Field lacrosse
Williams is also an accomplished field lacrosse player, and has been a member of Team Canada at the last two
World Lacrosse Championship
The World Lacrosse Championship (WLC) is the international men's field lacrosse championship organized by World Lacrosse that occurs every four years.
The WLC began before any international lacrosse organization had been formed. It started as ...
s. He also served as the coach for
Brock University
Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...
. On June 9, 2009, Williams was inducted into the Brock Badgers Hall of Fame.
Statistics
NLL
Reference:
Canadian Lacrosse Association
Awards
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Shawn
1974 births
Living people
Brock University alumni
Buffalo Bandits players
Canadian lacrosse players
Edmonton Rush players
Lacrosse people from Ontario
National Lacrosse League All-Stars
National Lacrosse League major award winners
Rochester Knighthawks players
Sportspeople from Scarborough, Toronto
Hamilton Nationals players
Toronto Rock players