By Tyler Reis-Sanford
Like any brothers and sisters, the Lamoureux siblings butted heads from time to time while growing up. But never anything that couldn’t be resolved with the help of a lacrosse stick and ball, and maybe a body-check or two.
“There were definitely a few heated lacrosse games in the basement,” laughs Bryceson Lamoureux, one of several rising stars in his family. “We got our fair share of scrapes and bruises.”
All of Bryceson’s siblings – both brothers and his younger sister – have all donned the green and gold of the Gloucester Griffins during their youth, and they’ve amassed a solid collection of golden prizes in recent years too.
Bryceson says the family’s love affair with the sport first began when his cousin started playing lacrosse, and passed his love of the game on to Bryceson’s older brother.
“My older brother really fell in love with lacrosse. From there, we just ran with it as a family,” recalls Bryceson. “I started playing at a very very young age, I think two or three years old.”
This season, Austin Lamoureux earned All-American honours from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association as a midfielder for the Limestone University Saints in South Carolina.
Bryceson is following in Austin’s footsteps in several ways. He’s on the path to playing NCAA lacrosse – he’s currently building his portfolio at Culver Military Academy, a private prep school in Indiana – and also building on his family’s military tradition.
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During the COVID pandemic while still at St. Peter Catholic High School, Austin spearheaded the Poppies for Poppas campaign, which raised money for the Royal Canadian Legion and gave hundreds of poppy facemasks to veterans, including his grandfather and great-grandfather.
Read More: Austin Lamoureux driven by lacrosse, Canadian military vets
Colton, the clan’s youngest brother, left his mark last year at the Lacrosse Canada Minor Box National Championships when he scored two assists in Team Ontario’s 5-3 U13 championship game victory over B.C. Bryceson earned a silver medal in the U17 event last summer, on the heels of his past gold medal win at the U15 nationals.
Those brothers again added to their awards haul this summer with podium performances with their Griffins squads at the 2025 Ontario Lacrosse Festival.
Colton won gold in the U15 ‘C’ division, while 17-year-old Bryceson was the leading scorer for Gloucester’s U22 ‘A’ silver-medallist team, which fell in a hard-fought 6-5 overtime contest against the Owen Sound North Stars in the provincial final.
The Griffins won four earlier matches over Windsor, Hamilton, Newmarket and Sudbury to reach the championship game. Bryceson scored 10 goals in the five contests, none more clutch than his two in the third period of the final, including the game-tying marker with 1:08 left to force overtime.
Bryceson only had four practices with the team prior to the August provincials due to his longer school schedule at Culver.
Despite being away for a large portion of the season, Bryceson says he still felt a strong connection with his hometown clubmates upon his return.
“A lot of us were playing for the graduating seniors this year,” he notes. “We had a great group that we knew could be special. It took a little time to gel, but by the first two games, we were all moving as one system.”
When the Griffins met Owen sound in the finals, it was not only the first time they’d matched up against the North Stars all season, but the first time either had even participated in the same tournament.
Gloucester coach Evan Coolidge took a look at box scores and roster sheets, and from what he saw, he knew the North Stars were serious contenders.
“One thing about this age group is there’s a lot of kids who split time between these teams and junior teams,” signals Coolidge when asked how he prepares his team. “It’s still minor lacrosse, so I don’t have film going into these games, it’s just what I can see.”
Local lacrosse teams earned several more medals from the provincials in Whitby. Alongside Colton and the U15 Griffins’ ‘C’ crown, the #3 Nepean Knights U17 team won the ‘D’ provincial title, and the Nepean U17 girls earned the capital’s top crown with their victory in the ‘B’ division.
The Nepean U17 girls went undefeated as goalkeeper Kyleigh Payne conceded just five goals over the course of the tournament. The triumph came as something of a surprise to the Knights, who hadn’t previously won any tournaments all season long.
“It was really exciting for all of us. We’d never really won before,” Payne told the Ottawa Sports Pages in Newfoundland, which was her next stop after the provincials for the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games.
Payne’s sister helped her dye her hair bright red before the provincials, which, conveniently enough, matched both the feathery plume on the Nepean Knights’ helmet and the red of Team Ontario’s jerseys. She went on to record a shutout in Ontario’s 12-0 victory in the Canada Games bronze medal match. Gloucester’s Mary James was Ontario’s general manager and an assistant coach at the Canada Games.
Also going deep at the Ontario Lacrosse Festival were the Knights U17s, who made it to the ‘A’ Final Six and narrowly missed the podium with a 7-6 overtime defeat to London in the bronze medal game.
The Nepean U15 girls reached the semi-finals in the ‘A’ competition, while the Gloucester Lady Griffins were semi-finalists in the U22 ‘B’ division, falling to the eventual champions from Akwesasne.
At the 2025 Canadian Box Lacrosse National Championships in Halifax, Nepean’s Deryn Dent and Gloucester’s Avery May earned a silver medal with the Ontario U15 girls’ team.
“I love this game to the core,” May, who started playing with the Griffins at age 3, noted in a Gloucester Lacrosse Instagram post. “Every year I’ve been pushed to get better. This was my second Nationals with Team Ontario — U13 and now U15 — and both times we came away with silver. I’ll be back at U17, chasing that Ontario gold.”
Nine local representatives were part of the Ontario U22 women’s team, which placed fourth at its national championships. Gloucester’s Kendra Byrne, Chloe Chalmers, Isabelle Lavergne, Halle Lubiniecki and Anastasia Thorpe played for Ontario alongside Nepean’s Addysen Byrnes and Aurora Williams, while Gloucester’s D’Arcy Belyea was the head coach and Nepean’s Hunter Gibbons served as assistant.
And there will soon be a major homecoming for a past Nepean star as the Ottawa Black Bears traded for Knights product Sam Firth around the National Lacrosse League draft, which saw nine players from Ottawa selected.
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