History

History

The Langley Junior Thunder compete in the eight-team BC Junior A Lacrosse League (BCJALL) which is for players ages 16 to 21 and features future and current NCAA and professional players.

The Thunder joined the BCJALL in 2009 and in that time have had individual players win 10 league awards.

In 2012, Brett Dobray became the first Thunder player to win a major league award as he was recognized with the Most Sportsmanlike Award.

Ryan Martel would win a pair of awards during his time in a Thunder uniforms, earning the Rookie of the Year in 2017 and the Bob Reid Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2019.

The team's most successful season came in 2022 as they posted a .714 winning percentage and took home three major awards with Matt Abbott winning the Al Boles Award for Most Inspirational Player,  Kyle Brunsch the recipient of the John Urban Award for Graduating Player and the team's coaching staff -- head coach Adam Smith, assistant coaches Kevin Reid, Connor Frost and Keiffer Widen and goalie coach Kyle Mooney -- receive the Doug Hazelwood Memorial Trophy for Coach of the Year.

In 2023, Stuart Phillips made it back-to-back winners of the John Urban Award for the Thunder as he was named the BCJALL's Top Graduating Player. It was one of two awards Langley players won as Jaiden Terry was recognized with the Keith McEachren Trophy as the league's Most Sportsmanlike Player.

Terry would become a two-time winner of the Keith McEachren Trophy, also earning the honour in 2024. And Austin Vanichuk was awarded the Rookie of the Year that same season.

Langley has also had seven players drafted into the National Lacrosse League with Dobray a third-round selection (26th overall) of the Vancouver Stealth in 2013 while Martel and Anthony Kalinich were each taken by the Calgary Roughnecks in 2017. Martel was selected in the first round, 11th overall, while Kalinich was second-round pick, 21st overall. The 2022 edition of the Thunder team saw four players drafted by NLL teams: Isaac Ngyou (second round, 40th overall) to the  Saskatchewan Rush, Drew Kask to the Vancouver Warriors (fifth round, 85th overall), Stryker Roloff (sixth round, 91st overall) to the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, and Kaden Doughty (sixth round, 99th overall) to Calgary.