Terry Sanderson has been hired to coach the expansion Albany franchise in 2000, according to sources around the league.

The recent electee to the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame has been rumored as a candidate to replace Les Wakeling at the helm of the Buffalo Bandits, but it appears that it is the Albany job he will take. In doing so, he accepts the challenge of building a professional team from scratch.

Between 1972 and 1989, Sanderson had an impressive lacrosse career as a player in the Canadian leagues, progressing from Junior C in Bolton to Senior B in Orangeville.

He played professionally in Syracuse and Quebec, and other stops along the road included time spent with teams in Fergus, Victoria, Brampton, and Owen Sound.

As a player Sanderson won the President's Cup three times, and brought home one Mann Cup championship. He also won a National Lacrosse League championship while playing professionally in Quebec.

His statistics show that he was not only a scoring threat but also a force to be reckoned with physically. His penalty minutes to climb into the 160-minute range on few occasions.

Sanderson has achieved as much or more success as a coach and developer of the game of lacrosse.

"All the teams he's coached have been winners, basically," said Bob Clevely, a former general manager of the Orangeville Northmen and current member of the board of directors for the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Most recently Sanderson has been involved in the game as co-coach of the Senior Brampton Excelsiors, and last year he helped lead them to an Ontario Championship and a Mann Cup championship. In 1997, he was head coach of the Niagara Falls Gamblers, a Major lacrosse team. The Gamblers won the Ontario Championship that year.

His teams won the Minto Cup in 1995 and 1996, and he was named Junior A coach of the year in 1995. In total, as both a player and a coach, Sanderson has brought home two Mann Cups, three President's Cups, three Minto Cups, and 12 Ontario championships.

The Unofficial OLA Page contributed to this article.