2024 Male Athlete Inductee - Gord Lilley
For this year’s inductee in the Male Athlete category, Gord Lilley, it all started on May 6, 1966. He attended Central Public School from kindergarten to grade five, followed by grades six to eight at W.T. Laing, and grades nine through 12 at WDSS.
Upon graduation from high school, he was off to Georgian College in Barrie where he earned a diploma in graphic design and played for the Georgian Grizzlies hockey team in 1985 and 1986. Gord grew up playing hockey and lacrosse in Wallaceburg. He learned to skate at the age of three and played WMHA until he was sixteen, winning the Essex Minor Hockey Tournament B Division title. He also made back-to-back trips to the OMHA Finals in 1980 and 1981. In 1983, Dick Todd, the coach of the Peterborough Petes OHL Junior A team, invited Gord to attend their trainingcam p. Although he did not make the team, he made it until the last cut and had the privilege of skating with several
future NHLers including Steve Yzerman. Coming back home to Wallaceburg, he played for the Wallaceburg Lakers Jr. C team from 1983-87 before playing a year of Senior Hockey for the Wallaceburg Capitals in 1988.
As far as summer sports go, Gord started off playing baseball at age five until at the age of nine. He realized that the sport of lacrosse was the one he was passionate about and the one he would excel at. In 1975, he began playing in Novice. Moving to Pee Wee in 1977, they won the Dresden Invitational Tournament and followed that up in 1978by winning the All Ontario C Championship and the Greater London tournament in 1979. As a Bantam in 1980, they won tournaments in Kincardine and Guelph and
finished third in the Ontario Summer Games. At the Ontario Championships, they lost out to Six Nations in the finals. After playing Midget lacrosse, Gord was invited to try out for the Peterborough Junior A team in 1983 but signed with the Sarnia Jr. B Pacers. It turned out to be a great decision as the Pacers won back-to-back Ontario Championships and Founders Cup Canadian Championships in 1983 and 1984. Returning to Wallaceburg in 1986 to play for the Jr. B Wallaceburg Griffins, they won the Ontario C Division Championship and Gord finished in the Top 10 in scoring,made the All-Star team, and broke the single-season scoring record with 104 points. Returning to Sarnia in 1987 after Wallaceburg folded, he led the team in scoring and was in the top 10 in the league. The year 2000 saw him play Senior B and he tied for the team lead in scoring as well as finishing in the top 10 in league scoring. They lost to Brooklyn in the finals.
Always wanting to give back to the game he loves, Gord began refereeing in 1979 and would go on to ref at every level including Minor, Jr. B, Jr. A, and Major Sr. A. He began coaching in 2000 and would go all through minor lacrosse as well as assisting in the formation or the inaugural Wallaceburg Red Devils Jr. B team.
He lists Jeff Cole, Mike Dalton, Brian Landon, Mike Miles and Lance Phenix as mentors and also has a long list of favorite coaches in all of the sports he played. They include Gord Webb, Norm Cole, Tom Ayres, Newt Richardson, Bill MacArthur Jr., Tom Wright, Gord Neely, Bob Ricciotti, Shawn Moynihan and Kim O'Neil.
Gord's career highlights include playing with so many amazing players and building friendships along the way, giving back to the game that gave him so much - winning four Ontario and two Canadian championships, being the all time single season scoring leader in Wallaceburg Junior B Lacrosse as well as winning awards like MVP, Most Dedicated and leading scorer throughout his minor, junior and senior career.
