Most National Lacrosse League teams have a unique way to recognize someone who has excelled in or reached a milestone in a game — a game ball, a zany helmet, a flashy jacket, a lunch bucket or some other object of sentimental value. Recipients cherish these tokens because they come from their peers or, in some cases, from the coaches in the dressing room right after a game.
Here’s what game MVPs get.
BUFFALO
Jordan Durston and Zach Higgins are thrilled to receive Bandits’ championship belt.
In coming up with something new this season, the Bandits went with an idea originally suggested by assistant equipment guy Nick (McLovin) May: a championship belt.
The team submitted a design — drawn up by May, equipment helpers Jeremy Wiseman and Dan Ristine and forward Craig England — to the Sylvania, Ohio, company ProAm Belts and everybody was happy when the finished product was delivered in Buffalo.
“The players love it,” equipment manager Ted Cordingley said.
CALGARY
The Roughnecks started the season with a suit. Big goalie Frankie Scigliano had to squeeze into it after getting it after an early-season win. Now they go with a game ball. Curt Malawsky got one last Saturday when he registered franchise-record win 47 as head coach.
COLORADO
Assistant coach Chris Gill gets set to present the Mammoth game MVP award, a lunch bucket.
The coaches decide after a win on a post-game recipient of an old-fashioned lunch box done up in Mammoth maroon complete with team logos. This is the second season for an award Colorado players give acknowledging effort on the floor.
GEORGIA
Frank Brown got the Swarm silver jacket after a recent game in which he scored his first NLL goal. Lyle Thompson looks on.
A slick silver dress jacket goes to the Swarm MVP. It’s a beauty.
“Mitch Belisle brought that to training camp last year,” captain Jordan MacIntosh said. “I think it’s the jacket he wore to prom.”
A Swarm player receives the jacket from the previous weekend’s winner.
“It’s a fun way to honor the player who had a big game,” MacIntosh said. “It’s a peer award. The jacket is enormous. It didn’t fit a single guy on our team. Lyle [Thompson’s] wife ended up sewing in some extra buttons so we could actually button the thing up.”
NEW ENGLAND
Like the Bandits, the Black Wolves have a championship belt. This one is similar to the one Rocky Balboa won in the 1979 movie “Rocky II” to be awarded to a player deemed worthy.
ROCHESTER
Craig Rybczynski with game ball to commemorate his 300th play-by-play call of Knighthawks games, flanked by Randy Mearns (left) and John Gurtler.
After every game, win or lose, the coaches huddle and decide on a team MVP, who is presented with a game ball by head coach Mike Hasen. The honor can even go to a non-player in the organization, as was the case in January, when club communications director Craig Rybczynski was selected after completing his 300th game of play-by-play broadcasting.
TORONTO
Rob Hellyer got the Rock game MVP hat, and it fit.
Gord Downie, the lead singer in the Canadian band The Tragically Hip who died last Oct. 17, usually wore a colorful hat while performing. As a way to honor Downie, Rock goalie Nick Rose ordered a royal blue hat from the same shop that supplied Downie and picked it up at Lilliput Hats in downtown Toronto from manager Karyn Ruiz. It has feathers on one side, just like Downie favored.
The hat goes to “whoever put the team on their back that night and helped us win a game,” Rose said. It is to be auctioned off after the season, with proceeds going to the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund (www.downiewenjack.ca).
SASKATCHEWAN
Goaltender Tyler Carlson wears the Rush game MVP helmet.
The Rush game MVP gets a black bike helmet that has a row of green spikes running down the middle and that is dotted with decals of skulls, guitars and lightning bolts. It’s a colorful and crazy post-game award coach Derek Keenan usually presents.
VANCOUVER
The Stealth award a game ball in the dressing room following games.