Omer Desrosiers
Sport: Lacrosse: Year Inducted: 1986
Omer Desrosiers was born in St. Moise, P.Q. in 1924 and moved to Cornwall at the age of 4. He lived in Cornwall all his life until his death in 1982 at the age of 58.
As a youngster, he participated in all sports, under the leadership of Joe (Skip) St. Denis, at the then known athletic grounds. He played junior hockey with the Cornwall Flyers and OCOT and was contacted by an American junior hockey team for a tryout; unfortunately, World War II put an end to this project as he joined the Canadian Army and served for a period of 4 years. Upon his return, he took up bowling in which he excelled for many years. He bowled in the Cornwall City League, as well as the Major league, Knights of Columbus and the St. John Bosco Parish league. With these teams, he won a variety of Trophies and Championships. His best score was a triple of 986.
His greatest love was the sport of Lacrosse where he enjoyed many successful seasons with former senior Lacrosse teams in Cornwall as a goaltender; this included a season with the St. Regis Mohawks SRS. In 1948, he took part in the Mann Cup Senior Lacrosse Playdowns against the Hamilton Tigers. In the late 50’s, Omer was one of the organizers of Minor Lacrosse in Cornwall and served 4 years as president. At one point, as president, he presided over 100 players that were registered with the Cornwall minor Lacrosse system.
Omer coached the CMLA Pee Wees and Bantams travelling teams against teams from this district,as well as Huntsville, Toronto and many other parts of Ontario; he was very successful in winning a large number of tournaments in that span of time. In 1969, he became coach of the Cornwall Junior Celtics Lacrosse team. Again, Omer was very successful with this team winning many local and eastern Ontario championships. In 1971, he took the Cornwall Celtics to the Semi-Finals in the Castro cup Series, playing against the best teams from all across Canada.
When the Cornwall Celtics folded, Omer was asked to coach the Paquette Glass Rams and in 1974 and 1975, he was instrumental in bringing the Rams their first interprovincial championship. Omer worked very hard with his team and it paid off handsomely, as the tem kept on winning many more championships and honours. He was chosen Coach of the Year for 1970 and 1975.
Omer worked for 40 years with the A&P food stores, 20 of these years as meat manager. He was president of the Knights of Colubus Bowling League for many years and received a 25 year plaque in recognition for his past services to the organization. Omer was married to Josephine Dicola; they had 2 sons, Michael and Ronald, both also playing Lacrosse.