Mike O'Reilly wants to bring back the heyday of Burnaby junior lacrosse.
O'Rielly and former Burnaby Cablevision teammate Lloyd Symons will both be behind the bench of the junior A Burnaby Lakers this season.
After missing the post season for the last two seasons, Burnaby finished dead last in 2012 with a 3-18 record - the five-time Minto Cup champion's worst finish in recent memory.
"I don't know what has happened," said O'Reilly. "I've got good people around me and good kids are coming out. Our goal is to make the playoffs."
O'Reilly enjoyed three consecutive Minto Cups with the 1977/79 Cablevision club.
His mentor was the late Jack Crosby, who always had a special place in his heart for the junior program.
O'Reilly means to draw on Crosby's influence to rekindle that winning spark.
"I played all my life with Jack Crosby," said O'Reilly. "Now, it's a question of can I help these kids out? It's something I really wanted to do, and I took (the job) in a second."
O'Reilly previously coached with the senior A Burrards and the junior A club in Port Coquitlam.
He's a believer in the traditional two-way style of box lacrosse and aims to implement that system against the more familiar offence/defence model seen in today's game.
"I'm going to do the same thing Jack would do," O'Reilly said. "We've got kids from all over the Lower Mainland coming to training. It's going to change - it has to change."
Burnaby will play its first exhibition game against PoCo on Friday, April 19.
The junior Lakers will open their regular season in Ladner against Delta on April 27. The team's home opener is against the PoCo Saints on Sunday, April 28 at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
