HW Youth Lacrosse is affiliated with the Mass Youth Lacrosse.  The official season is April - mid June.  Every age group will practice twice a week.  Games are on Sundays against local towns, times will vary each week.  Select games are on Friday nights.  Pending field conditions, outdoor practices will start at the end of March.  Indoor practices are an unknown at this point and will be revisited in the beginning of March.

 
Lacrosse Commitment

Lacrosse is a hard sport to learn.  It requires a lot of hand-eye coordination and a lot of practice to master the skills needed to be successful on the field.  Lacrosse rules are also modified to keep the game safe at the younger levels.  Meaning, girls cannot ‘check’ sticks at the younger levels and only modified checking is allowed at the older levels.  Because of this, games are often very high scoring as girls can run freely with the ball.  We stress strong person to person defense at the younger ages.  The game changes tremendously as the girls get older, especially in the high school years and gets really fun and fast.  We know that these girls are all very busy and we want them to learn and love this fun game, but they need to show up to practices and games in order to really understand both the complicated rules and to get in the repetitions needed to master the skills.  We can’t help them improve if they don’t show up.  Unless your daughter plays club, this is the only season for lacrosse and we ask that as a family, you try to make a commitment to this spring season of lacrosse.  

Grades/Ages:
MYL assigns teams based on school grade.  All teams will travel to nearby towns:

U9    (Grade 1 & 2) 
U11 (Grades 3 & 4) 
U13 (Grades 5 & 6) 
U15 (Grades 7 & 8)
  
Uniforms:
If your uniform from last year still fits you can wear that.  If it does not fit or you are new to the program, you will need to order a new uniform.  

 
Equipment:
Your child will need:

  •   goggles from US Lacrosse approved eyewear list

  •   a colored mouth guard (extras are good) - NOT white or clear 

  •   a uniform

  •   cleats or turf shoes are recommended, but not required

  •   a girls lacrosse stick (Lacrosse Unlimited and Dick's are good stores for stick sizing or stringing)

Select Teams:

Depending on the number of interested players, try-outs will be offered for a combined 5th/6th and 7th/8th team.  Select practices will be on a separate evening during the week. Select games will be scheduled for Friday nights.  If you are on a select team, you can only participate in games if you attend both select and travel practice and Sunday travel games.

Goalies

Goalies play in the games at every age group (U9 is optional goalie).  Girls often don’t want to play goalie and it is understandable as it can be scary to have a ball thrown at you.  We let girls volunteer for goalie and if no one volunteers, we will ask players to play a half in goal, with the plan to have every player take a turn.  It is important for girls to take a turn playing goalie as they get a better appreciation and understanding of how important defense is and how defense needs to be played with a 100% effort.  Girls are fully padded with helmets on.  As girls get older, some show a real liking to playing goal and this is something to be encouraged.  Goalie is an incredibly skilled spot on the field and takes tremendous hand-eye coordination.  Skilled goalies are incredibly sought out at all levels of lacrosse, much more so than other positions on the field.  IF your daughter enoys playing goalie and wants goalie specific practice please let your coach know so we can plan practice time accordingly and / or refer you to local clubs for specific goalie training.