Two-time Hall of Famer contemplating a return to lacrosse

David General is getting inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Again.

General, who lives in the Six Nations community of Ohsweken and has Oneida/Mohawk ancestry, was inducted into the hall via the team category back in 2008. He had served as a coach for the Six Nations Chiefs, who won three consecutive Mann Cup championships from 1994 to 1996. The Mann Cup is annually awarded to the Canadian senior men’s lacrosse champs.

Anybody that was a member of the Chiefs’ teams during any of those three years was inducted into the hall in 2008.

As for this year, General, 64, will be inducted into the hall, via the builder category, for his extensive coaching accomplishments.

The induction ceremony will be staged on Nov. 8 in New Westminster, B.C. The hall of fame is relocating to the Anvil Centre, a four-floor, multi-purpose facility which opens this month in New Westminster.

“Being recognized as an individual is an honour,” General said. “But because lacrosse is a team concept, I think it means more to me being inducted as a team.”

General, however, is still anxiously anticipating this year’s induction ceremony. He is planning to fly out west for the gala along with his wife Mary.

General’s son Miles, who was a member of the Chiefs’ championship squads in the ‘90s and is thus a hall of famer himself, is thrilled his father is getting some additional recognition.

“This is something that is long overdue,” he said. “Six Nations is the most successful lacrosse community around these days and he’s one of the main reasons for that.”

Three Six Nations teams captured national championships in 2014.

The Chiefs won their second consecutive Mann Cup. Also, the Six Nations Arrows won the Minto Cup, awarded annually to the top Canadian Junior A lacrosse side. And the Six Nations Rebels captured the Founders Cup, the national Junior B crown.

Also, the Six Nations Rivermen were finalists for the Presidents’ Cup, the Canadian Senior B title.

“I think we’ve reached that point as a community we always wanted to be at,” General said.

General had first been nominated (as an individual) as a potential inductee into the national hall about a decade ago.

“I was too young to be inducted back then,” he joked.

Nominees who do not get inducted right away have their names placed on a list during which they are considered again in future years. Hall officials deemed General worthy of induction this year.

Prior to his accolades with the Chiefs, General also had his share of other coaching successes.

His first major accomplishment was coaching a Six Nations’ Peewee team to a provincial championship in 1983.

“It scares the hell out of you when you think if these kids won a provincial title when they are 12 what the heck is in store for them as you move up through the different levels as a team,” General said.

As it turned out, there was plenty more success in store.

Two years after winning an Ontario championship with the Six Nations Peewee squad, he guided a Bantam team from the community to a national title. And in 1987 he led a Six Nations’ Midget club to an Ontario crown.

General then spent the next five years coaching at the Junior A level. For starters he guided the Bay Area Bengals, primarily comprised of Hamilton and Burlington players, for two years. And then he made the switch over to the Arrows.

During his third and final season with the Arrows, in 1992, the club won the Minto Cup.

Six Nations then opted to enter a Senior team, the Chiefs, into the Ontario Lacrosse Association and General moved up to coach at that level.

After a respectable inaugural campaign, in season two the Chiefs won their first of three national titles.

“We were very fortunate at the time to accommodate the interest of playing who were coming to Six Nations,” General said, adding many of the game’s top stars at the time were keen on suiting up for the Chiefs.

Though he hasn’t coached since the Chiefs’ successes in the mid ‘90s, General is contemplating a return to the sport.

“I wonder with grandchildren coming up through the different levels now of getting back into it,” he said. “I might want to just go to some practices. I might want to be involved in some capacity just to be a teacher.”

General has eight grandchildren (two of which have started playing lacrosse) and two great-grandchildren.