Terry Sanderson (August 22, 1952 – November 27, 2014) was the general manager of the

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, 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. ...

of 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, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

and has also held various coaching positions through the NLL. He was a member of the Sanderson family of

Orangeville, Ontario Orangeville (Canada 2016 Census 28,900) is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County. History The first patent of land was issued to Ezekiel Benson, a land surveyor, on August 7, 1820. That was followed by land ...

, which has produced a number of lacrosse players and coaches. Sanderson began his NLL coaching career in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

with the

Albany Attack The Albany Attack was the name of a franchise which played in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) from the 2000 NLL season, 2000 season through the 2003 NLL season, 2003 season. The Attack played in the former Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York (now k ...

. He coached the Attack for two seasons, compiling an 11-15 record. After the 2001 season, Sanderson resigned in order to take the head coach and GM position for the expansion

Montreal Express The Montreal Express was a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 2002 season. They played at the Molson Center in Montreal, Quebec. They were inactive during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The team remained inactive and the franchise wa ...

. The Express only lasted a single season before folding. In 2002, Sanderson replaced his brother Lindsay as head coach of the

Ottawa Rebel The Ottawa Rebel was a team in the National Lacrosse League based in Ottawa, Ontario from 2001 until 2003. They initially played at the Corel Centre (now called the Canadian Tire Centre), but part-way through the 2002 season moved to the smaller ...

. The Rebel finished the

2003 season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

dead last in the NLL at 4-12, and folded after the season. Sanderson was inducted into the

Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame The Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame is a Canadian lacrosse hall of fame, located in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. The Hall was chartered in 1965 by the Canadian Lacrosse Association, and inducted its first class of hall of famers in t ...

as a builder in 2015.

The Toronto Rock

Before the 2004 season began,

head coach and GM

Les Bartley Les Bartley (March 11, 1954 – May 15, 2005) was a Canadian lacrosse coach. Bartley led the Buffalo Bandits to three of their four championships in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL), and won four more championships with the Toronto Rock in ...

announced that he would not be behind the bench for the upcoming season due to his battle with colon cancer, and assistant coaches

Ed Comeau Ed Comeau is a Canadian and head coach of the Georgia Swarm of the NLL. He is the former head coach of the Orlando Titans, until they folded in 2010. Comeau began his NLL coaching career with the Toronto Rock, as an assistant coach under the legen ...

and

Derek Keenan Derek Keenan (born October 2, 1961, in Oshawa, Ontario) is a former lacrosse player, and current head coach and general manager of the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League. Keenan has won the NLL GM of the Year award and the Les Bartle ...

were promoted to interim head coach and GM respectively. However, after beginning the season 2-4, Comeau and Keenan were fired, and Terry Sanderson was hired as the new GM and head coach. Sanderson turned the Rock around, guiding them to a 10-6 record and first place in the Eastern Division. They lost to Buffalo 19-10 in the division finals. During the off-season, Sanderson made a blockbuster trade with GM Johnny Mouradian of the

San Jose Stealth The San Jose Stealth were a member of the National Lacrosse League, the professional box lacrosse league of North America from 2004 NLL season, 2004 until 2009 NLL season, 2009. They played at the HP Pavilion at San Jose, which is also the home of ...

(himself a former Rock GM), acquiring his son

Josh Josh is a masculine given name, frequently a diminutive (hypocorism) of the given names Joshua or Joseph, though since the 1970s, it has increasingly become a full name on its own. It may refer to: People A–J * "Josh", an early pseudonym of S ...

, nephew

Phil Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root te ...

, and

Rusty Kruger Rusty Kruger (born March 26, 1975) is a Canadian retired lacrosse player in the National Lacrosse League and a current assistant coach with the Buffalo Bandits The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as ...

for fan favourite

Steve Toll Steve Toll (born June 16, 1974 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a former lacrosse player and current executive in the Canadian Lacrosse League. In his 14-year National Lacrosse League career, Toll won five NLL Championships four with the Toronto Roc ...

, Darryl Gibson, two draft picks, and a player to be named later, who ended up being goaltender Anthony Cosmo. Any cries of "nepotism" were silenced during the next season, as Josh set a new single-season assists record with 71, and the Rock finished 12-4 and in first place in the Eastern division for the seventh straight year. They defeated the

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 ...

in the division finals, and then beat the

Arizona Sting The Arizona Sting was a member of the National Lacrosse League from 2004 to 2007. They played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, from 2001 to 2003 as the Columbus Landsharks. On August 28, 2003, it was announced that the team was relocating to ...

in the Championship game, held in Toronto, to win their fifth NLL championship in seven years. Former coach and GM

died the day after the Championship game.

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

was a disappointing season for the Rock, finishing with their worst record ever, 8-8, and losing to Rochester in the division semi-finals. Less than two weeks after the end of the regular season, Sanderson was fired.

2007 and beyond

Sanderson worked with his brother Lindsay once again during the 2007 season. Lindsay, the head coach and GM of the Philadelphia Wings, hired Terry as an assistant coach. Both were relieved of their coaching duties after the season as the Wings missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. On July 17, 2007, Sanderson was hired by the

Calgary Roughnecks The Calgary Roughnecks are a professional box lacrosse team based in Calgary, Alberta. They are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games on WestJet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome. The t ...

to be their defensive coach for the

2008 NLL season The 2008 National Lacrosse League season, the 22nd in the history of the NLL, began on December 29, 2007, and concluded with the Buffalo Bandits winning the championship game over the Portland LumberJax on May 17, 2008. In an odd coincidence, all ...

. On June 10, 2009, after two seasons in Calgary, including the 2009 championship season, Sanderson was re-hired by the Rock as their new GM and assistant coach. On November 13, 2014, Toronto Rock owner, Jamie Dawick, announced that Sanderson would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his role as General Manager, with Dawick serving as the interim General Manager in his place.

Death

On November 27, 2014, Toronto Rock owner, Jamie Dawick, confirmed, via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, that Sanderson had died due to health issues.

Personal life

Sanderson owned and operated Sanderson's Source for Sports, a hockey and lacrosse equipment store located in Orangeville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanderson, Terry 1952 births 2014 deaths Lacrosse people from Ontario National Lacrosse League coaches People from Orangeville, Ontario Toronto Rock coaches