Derek Keenan (born October 2, 1961, in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the ...

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 Ca ...

) is a former lacrosse player, and current head coach and general manager of the

Saskatchewan Rush The Saskatchewan Rush are a professional box lacrosse team based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Formerly the Edmonton Rush, they are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games on Co-op Fie ...

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 ...

. Keenan has won the NLL GM of the Year award and the

Les Bartley Award The Les Bartley Award is given annually to the National Lacrosse League head coach of the year. The award was simply called the Head Coach of the Year award until 2004, when the award was renamed in honour of Les Bartley Les Bartley (March 11, 1 ...

for Coach of the Year three times each; he won both awards in

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 votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

though he shared the 2010 Bartley Award with Chris Hall. After a long amateur career, (with the

Oshawa Green Gaels The Green Gaels are a Junior "B" box lacrosse team based in Clarington, Ontario, Canada, that plays out of the Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The Gaels play in the OLA Junior B Lacrosse League. History The ...

and the

Brooklin Redmen The Brooklin Lacrosse Club is a box lacrosse team from Brooklin, Ontario. Brooklin plays in the Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) league (formerly known as Senior "A"). The MSL, and its counterpart, the Western Lacrosse Association, represent the high ...

of the Ontario Junior and Senior Leagues respectively, and

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and ...

where he made All-American), and appearances with the Canadian National Field team at several world championships, Keenan began professional play in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

with the

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 ...

, where he won the 1992

Rookie of the Year Award A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

. The Bandits won the Champions Cup in both of Keenan's seasons with the team. After a five-year break, he played six games with 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 reside ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, before becoming an assistant coach under

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 i ...

. The Rock won the 1999 NLL Championship, and with Bartley at the helm and Keenan and

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 lege ...

as assistant coaches, the Rock went to the championship game in each of the next four seasons, winning three times, 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 S ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

. In November

, Bartley stepped down due to his battle with

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowe ...

, and Keenan was promoted to interim general manager, while Comeau was given the job of interim head coach. However, less than four months later, after a 2–4 start, both Keenan and Comeau were fired by the Rock, replaced by Terry Sanderson. In 2005, Keenan was hired by the Anaheim Storm, becoming their head coach and general manager. He improved the Storm from a dismal 1–15 record in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

to a 5–11 record in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

. However, the Storm folded after the 2005 season due to low attendance. In July 2005, Keenan was named head coach and general manager of the then-unnamed Portland expansion franchise. The team was named the "LumberJax", and finished the 2006 season 11–5, becoming the first expansion team in NLL history to finish first in its division. Keenan was awarded both the GM of the Year Award and the

for coach of the year. As of November 2012 he was the coach of 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 ...

of the National Lacrosse League. He 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 ...

in November, 2012 Keenan is the second cousin of NHL head coach Mike Keenan. Keenan's wife, Wendy, was the sister of

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame (french: Temple de la renommée du hockey) is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) rec ...

Joe Nieuwendyk Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dall ...

. Wendy died on Friday, January 2, 2015, at age 51.

Statistics

National Lacrosse League

References

Awards

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keenan, Derek 1961 births Living people Buffalo Bandits players Lacrosse people from Ontario National Lacrosse League coaches National Lacrosse League major award winners Portland LumberJax Sportspeople from Oshawa Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse players Toronto Rock players