St. Catharines Athletics Jr. A St. Catharines Athletics Jr. A The St. Catharines Athletics are a Junior "A" box lacrosse team from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The Athletics play in the OLA Junior A Lacrosse League. The St. Catharines Athletics Jr.A squad has played in various arenas and under many different names in their history. They also had many years in which the team was defunct. However, the organization has been running successfully without danger of defunction since 1982. During their history, the team has won six Minto Cup championships (1947, 1950, 1990, 1991, 2001, 2003.) Many St. Catharines lacrosse players who played for the
Box lacrosse places at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. Lacrosse is a traditional indigenous people's game and was first encountered by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. Lacrosse for centuries was seen as a key element of cultural identity and spiritual healing to Native Americans. It originated as a field game and was adopted first by Canadian, American, and English athletes as a field game, eventually settling on a 10 v 10 format. Box lacrosse is a modern version of the game that was invented in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s.