Editor's note: the following article was submitted to the Outsider's Guide by an official from the Ontario Lacrosse Association who is also an avid NLL fan. He has asked for his identity to be withheld.

With the NLL regular season in the books, the attention now turns to heated opinions on predictions for the championship and whose performances warranted the accolades. Heated opinions seem to abound whenever a referee makes a significant ruling on the floor, so I hope to cause some more with the following "calls" on the Outsider's Guide Fan Choice Awards. Enjoy, and remember to keep the jeers clean if you think "That call stunk!"

The Most Valuable Player is John Tavares. He tied for the league lead in scoring, tied for third in loose balls, and is a terific leader of a championship contender that wasn't expected to be there. The league is set up so that offense has the bigger impact, or else Pat O'Toole would be the MVP. O'Toole isn't even on the All-Pro squad, but he was the steadying force in a team that was looking to rediscover itself (losing Darris Kilgour and Ted Dowling, while bringing in John Grant, Jr., caused some unsettled beginnings). He beat out another All-Pro for the starting job and kept it with the threat of a benching ever so present. His save percentage was just as good as that of Toronto's Bob Watson (who plays for a team with mucher deeper defensive talent pool and a more defensive system), his passing (best in the league until Gee Nash comes around) was incredible, and he gobbled up a ton of loose balls. With performances of this year in mind, these two rate higher, but Gary Gait is still the best player on the planet.

The Rookie of the Year is a no-brainer. John Grant, Jr. is all that. I know his father well and whether it is nurture or nature, Senior is a big part of the reason why Junior will be even better. Devin Dalep was as good as expected only after he made the adjustment from the four-by-four goals of Canadian box to the larger NLL nets. This kid won a Mann Cup last summer and you can see from just a few minutes of conversation with him how much of a true student of the game he is. Pittsburgh is not in as bad of shape as they think they are. They just need a little more size on defense.

The Goaltender of the Year is O'Toole -- Watson's save percentage led the league by a hair, but the MVP comments earlier explain why he's second-best. Dallas Eliuk may be the best pure ball stopper and has plenty of passion but he hurt his team a number of times with stupidity. He has either too much emotion or not enough brains to be the best.

Terry Sanderson is the Coach of the Year. He hates me (and all refs, for that matter) but I love him. He is often a miserable man to speak with, but he is most miserable to compete with! No coach matches his intensity (just ask his players, especially his relatives) or exceeds his knowledge (few match him). What he got out of his squad this year was incredible. Ted Sawicki would have won it any other year for what he did with a revamped team. Buffalo was everyone's darkhorse to make the playoffs, but they ended up hosting a game. Les Bartley could win it every year for running such a steady ship without the superstars other teams have (Chris Gill was the Rock's top scorer, but fifteenth in the league) -- Bartley's system is Toronto's real superstar.

It's not just the fact that they were the top goal scorers that makes me pick the guys for Attacker of the Year. It was the way they did it. Ted Dowling's style is "full speed ahead," and even though everyone knew what to expect, they couldn't stop him. His mouth is the same way and it showed in some of the less-than-insightful public comments he made this year. Tom Marechek's style is "any which way you can." The nickname Hollywood is appropriate because he can fill an annual highlight reel alone. I have to give him the nod because a multi-dimensional scorer is touger (in theory anyway) to stop. Couldn't we pick a lefty and a righty?

Defender of the Year is my favorite category. Can you tell what kind of player I was? Regy Thorpe is just a little better than Pat Coyle. Reg is just as tough as Paddy, but quicker and a little smarter. Coyle is no dummy, but he takes a bad penalty on occasion.

The most improved player is a surprise beyond the change in performance. Josh Sanderson's numbers are there but I don't believe he got that much better. Everyone in the OLA knew he was that good already. The kid was the leading scorer in Junior A. I think he just got the opportunity to be the go-to guy again that he didn't get in Rochester. The Knighthawks were loaded, while Albany was good but not great. Roy Colsey went from dud to stud. He is comparable to Jake Bergey and is one of the few Americans tough enough to make waves in the land of the wooden sticks if they wanted to. So far only Chris Panos has done it.

I wish the Outsider's Guide would have had a class act award. Two guys who would be my frontrunners are Toronto's Jim Veltman for his leadership by example (led the league in the hustle stat -- loose balls -- and gave himself up for the team) and Rochester goaltender Steve Dietrich, who O'Toole beat out for a starting spot. Steve sincerely supported O'Toole when no one could have blamed him if he didn't.