HEADACHES AND A NIGHTMARE FOR LACROSSE CANADA’S PRESIDENT

by Pierre Filion pierrefilion@bell.net

Matt Shearer has been president at Lacrosse Canada since October 2025; that is six months ago.

Two of his colleagues on the Board of Directors (Alan Preyra and Brad Cann) have recently left the Board; they had been elected at Lacrosse Canada’s AGM in late 2025. Alan Preyra, you’ll remember, was presented as ‘’an award-winning lawyer and legal scholar’’ while Brad Cann was a financial services executive with more that 20 years of leadership experience’’. Heavyweights they were! They have both left a few days ago. Obviously, Lacrosse Canada’s website did not inform the members; neither of their departure nor of the reasons for their departure! Darkness prevails.

On Friday February 27^th the provincial presidents (there are 11) were informed, through email, that the Executive Director, Terry Rayner, was no longer with Lacrosse Canada. In full transparency (!) the presidents were told that ‘’as this was a personal matter further details will remain confidential’’. Obviously, Lacrosse Canada’s website has made no mention of Terry Rayner’s departure nor of the appointment of the interim successor, Wendy Dobbin, the association’s Technical Director and High-Performance lead. Again, darkness prevails.

Three significant and connected departures in the span of a few days. No explanation for any of them. Not a word on the Association’s website.

Matt Shearer now sits in a very lonely chair and is probably asking himself; ‘’What have I done to inherit such a mess?’’ Time for headaches and a nightmare.

But one thing is sure; HE knows why his Board colleagues have resigned; and, for sure, HE knows why he has fired his Executive Director. And as the expression goes: ‘’Those who know don’t talk while those who talk don’t know’’.

NOW WHY WOULD LACROSSE CANADA’S PRESIDENT HAVE A HEADACHE?

Because he had to fire the Executive Director, that’s why.

Now, this is not a pleasant decision to make but it needed to be done for reasons of TRUST. While Terry Rayner was not Matt Shearer’s personal’s choice (he was not LC’s president when Rayner was selected as ED) he had lived with him for some months and had seen him work as Lacrosse Canada’s leader.

And now he needed to fire him; and this was a ‘’personal matter.’’. Not an ideological conflict; not a disagreement over the direction the Association was taking; not an issue of mismanagement of the staff. The firing was not the result of a thorough evaluation of the Executive Director’s performance. No, it was ‘’a personal matter’’ which needs to ‘’remain confidential’’. Surely the president was cognizant of the recurrent deficits of the last two fiscal years but what could give him a headache was mostly his loss in trust towards his Executive Director. Towards the man whose performance he had failed to monitor for the last two years. Because he trusted the man.

From his lonely chair he is probably asking himself: ‘’How could I not see through this man?’’ ‘’How could I not see the ‘’personal matter’’ that is now shattering our reputation?’’ Questions he and only he can ask himself and for which he sees some answers. Answers he needs to keep for himself.

Now, let’s remember that Lacrose Canada’s president is a volunteer. The presidency might be his passion but his status is that of an unpaid volunteer. But that does not take him away from his oversight responsibility towards the Association’s Executive Director. Let’s remember that in good governance the Board of Directors has a staff of ONE, the Executive Director.

He may blame the fired Executive Director for having mislead him (which is a good reason to fire an Executive Director) but in doing so he exposes himself as a poor president lacking oversight abilities. The more he blames everyone else the more he discredits himself as an efficient president. And the more he does realize (or accept) that he failed in his oversight duties the more he can expect the members to hold him responsible for the mess the Association is in now. And maybe ask him to resign. Hey, what a headache!

NOW LACROSSE CANADA’S PRESIDENT MAY HAVE ANOTHER HEADACHE.

Should he resign?

It depends on the outside pressure and on the pressure he puts upon himself.

Outside pressure surely comes from the provincial presidents who, rightly so, will hold him responsible for the two successive deficits…because they will end up paying for those deficits. Hey, if enough provincial presidents ask for his resignation how will he cope with that ‘’request’’? Will he be able to ‘’negotiate his way out’’ of this friendly request (!) or will he slowly and discretely fade away from circulation? If he does resign under provincial pressure it will give the provincial presidents an increased political power which they might need and use in the future.

Now the president, in his lonely chair, might also put pressure upon himself and realize that he has failed; that simply he has failed. Not so much because the fired ED misled him but mostly because he, himself, failed to act as a clear-eyed president. He came to Lacrosse Canada with an impressive résumé and yet, he failed his basic governance task, to overview and monitor his sole employee. Blaming everything on the fired man might just not be enough to reestablish himself as a credible president; and, thus, he could be better off resigning and avoiding some sort of humiliation. Surely this headache keeps him busy.

But he could also work the phones and try to negotiate the support of some provincial presidents; in fact, he would need to sway six provincial presidents out of eleven. Can he do that? Which provinces would give him a second chance? But in exchange of what? And who would those provinces be? The small provinces might just fall for some sort of deal; who knows?

Which pressure will be the strongest? The members or his own? Time will tell. Deadlines might just be approaching!

AND WHAT ABOUT A THIRD HEADACHE?

If the president does not leave he will have to select a new Executive Director. Who will trust his judgement and competence to make such a selection? Will he, and others, select someone they will be able to trust? To reign in! Someone who will accept being selected and monitored by volunteers who have failed badly in monitoring his predecessor!

Will the president want to live with this harassment, with the cynicism and mockery surrounding his responsibilities and his failures? How would he face the staff who, obviously, is aware of his shortcomings?

Now what if he decides to remain in office and also become the corporation’s Executive Director? President and CEO! Two jobs for the man who failed to do one properly!

How will he deal with his reputation in the business world? Will he need to insure his ‘’good reputation’’ by, again, blaming the man he fired? Who will be duped by his ‘’repeated explanations’’? If the provincial presidents were not duped who, in the corporate world, will be duped?

And what about his nightmare?

Well, the nightmare is reality.

This is not a dreamworld. Reality has just caught up with Lacrosse Canada’s president to the point where he might just need to resign as probably have done the two Board members who left quietly and who did not want, nor need, to be associated with Lacrosse Canada.

The nightmare is the state the Association is in. Presided by a president whose headaches are in fact simply a nightmare.

The upcoming days might bring answers to many of our questions. A man’s future is at stake here. And, also, a National Association is, somehow, looking at itself in a mirror.