Get involved: National Lacrosse Day!

England Lacrosse is excited to announce that National Lacrosse Day 2023 will be celebrated on Saturday 16 September 2023, and this year's theme is Safe Sport.

National Lacrosse Day is your opportunity to celebrate everything you love about the game and get the season going with a bang by coming together as one community to celebrate lacrosse.

From field, to box, to sixes, to mixed, to clubs, to schools, to universities, to just having a throw-about in the park with your friends, everyone is welcome within the sport and should be able to discover the reasons why we love lacrosse. 

Our aim this year with the theme of Safe Sport is to highlight the important steps we can all take to ensure our sport remains safe, welcoming and fun for everyone involved.

Whether you're a player, a coach, an official, a volunteer or a spectator, we all have a duty to support one another in all aspects of the game.

We are focusing on five specific areas on National Lacrosse Day this year:

1. Welfare Officers

- Who is/are your club’s Officers?
- Where can this information be found?
- How do people report a concern?

2. Concussion and Injury Awareness

- If in doubt, sit them out
- Report all injuries

3. Qualified and Registered Coaches

- Are your coaches fully qualified, registered with England Lacrosse, CPR trained, and DBS checked?

4. Qualified and Registered Officials

- Each official must be qualified for the level they are officiating and registered with England Lacrosse

5. England Lacrosse Values

- Does your club uphold the England Lacrosse Values of Inclusivity, Integrity, Teamwork, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect?

More information on Safe Sport can be found HERE.

And you can download our exclusive National Lacrosse Day graphics and Safe Sport Pledge badge HERE.

If your club is promoting Safe Sport and would like to be featured this National Lacrosse Day, get in touch with Hannah Royer (h.royer@englandlacrosse.co.uk) who would love to hear from you!

National Lacrosse Day 2020 - Value our Volunteers: Sheena Macrae

Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.

Here, we recognise Cobham Lacrosse Club’s very own Sheena Macrae who has played a vital role in keeping the club going at an organisational level throughout 2020 and the coronavirus lockdown.

Despite never having played lacrosse, Sheena has been involved in the sport for 11 years and now runs Cobham.

She says that what has happened this year with the coronavirus pandemic has been difficult to watch but has remained positive throughout.

“I was very sad during lockdown, writing out to cancel training, our annual tournament and other friendly matches.

“However, Club News and our various social media accounts carried on throughout March, April, May, and June.

“It has been great to offer virtual activities for everyone at home such as sport psychology sessions for parents and online workouts for the girls.

“At every stage we kept our members updated, and with Phases 3 and 4 announced, we were glad to be busy with membership again”!

Sheena’s daughters play a combination of international, US college, and BUCS lacrosse and she recognises how difficult it has been for them, as well as lacrosse players all over the country, to keep up with their training.

“There was (and is) a very strong imperative for the highest quality training and practice which was pretty hard in lockdown.

“Our garage became a gym and training area which was good for the girls and myself in terms of fitness but not so good for the car!

“Our bikes came out, running shoes on and corners of parks used for stick-work and fitness.

“High-level lacrosse requires thinking outside the box; getting workouts planned and executed in the pandemic certainly tested that required mentality”!

Even though it’s been quite stressful, Sheena understands that the health and safety of everyone connected to Cobham is the most important thing.

“England Lacrosse’s web pages on COVID-19 are simply excellent. We trawled through them, and out of that information produced a COVID-19 Members Policy and a Risk Assessment which is our current operations strategy.

“From disinfectant to thermometers, a new training registration system and switched-on Head Coaches and Club Committee, we are hopeful we can cope with all eventualities (and work towards answers to inevitable new problems)”.

And Sheena believes sport is one of the best things we can all do to help get us through these difficult times.

“Lockdown and uncertainty can cause inward-looking loneliness.

“Sport, belonging to a lacrosse club, training again and laughing with friends out on the pitches looks outwards.

“So it’s good to belong. Team sport quite simply is support – as important to a ten year old junior as to a seasoned senior”.

We’d like to thank Sheena for her hard-work and dedication to Cobham Lacrosse Club during 2020 and hope she continues to use her skills to help the lacrosse community for many years to come!

National Lacrosse Day 2020 - Value our Volunteers: Oli Jones

Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.

Here, we recognise Liverpool Lacrosse Club’s Treasurer and men’s team secretary, Oli Jones.

Oli, who is 33 and started playing lacrosse while at Liverpool University in 2006 before joining Liverpool Lacrosse Club a year later in 2007, has spent most of his time during lockdown, as Club Treasurer, looking at the club’s finances.

“Unfortunately when the lockdown started we had to stop our coaching sessions in schools and say goodbye to our LDO three months earlier than planned, so a lot of the initial work was involved in sorting those issues out, understanding the financial liabilities to the club, and keeping players/parents informed on training being cancelled etc. 

“As we've started to come out of lockdown thankfully I've moved into getting everyone back to training in a safe manner and ensuring we are complying with the latest guidance etc.”.

In normal times, Oli can often be found organising match day teams as part of his role as men’s team secretary as well as managing the Junior Development Programme and coaching the U12 and U16 boys’ teams at Liverpool.

He has been kept quite busy in his work-life too since lockdown, something which he is really thankful for.

“I've been lucky that my job involves working in a key sector, so I have been pretty busy during the lockdown with a number of work projects.

“Since the initial lockdown period ended, I've also been able to get out and play as much golf as possible during the weekends with teammates so that has certainly kept me sane”! 

Despite the challenging circumstances we all find ourselves in, Oli believes sport is something that can benefit all aspects of our lives.

“I think Sport during these times is really important not just because of the fitness benefits; it gives you an opportunity to escape the everyday issues you might have personally and just focus on doing something you enjoy to the best of your ability, either for yourself or a team.

“Whether that's as a player, coach, ref or volunteer, sport can be anything for everybody which is a pretty rare thing”. 

We’d like to thank Oli for his hard-work and dedication to lacrosse, especially during this year, and we hope he continues as one of our amazing volunteers for many years to come!

National Lacrosse Day - Value our Volunteers: Alison Cara

Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.

Here, we recognise Brooklands Lacrosse Club’s junior, senior, and membership secretary and current England U19 men’s team manager, Alison Cara, who has been dealing with all coronavirus related things since the UK went into lockdown.

Despite never having played lacrosse herself, the 57 year old has been involved in the game since her son started playing around 20 years ago.

She says she’s had a lot of work to do since the prevalence of COVID-19 but that it has been an important part of getting her teams ready for the return to play.

“I am the COVID officer for Brooklands and also the England U19 men’s team; this has involved ensuring that I have the appropriate risk assessments in place which are kept updated for each Phase of the return to play pathway.

“I keep up to date with all the current guidance and monitor/make changes as necessary. I issue the guidelines for the club to all players and members to keep them up to date with the changes put in place.

“Communication is vital for all parties”.

Alison’s COVID officer role also extends to looking after the data collected from track and trace as well as ensuring the club has the necessary PPE.

During lockdown, despite the obvious difficulties, Alison says both Brooklands and the England U19 men’s team were kept busy.

“At Brooklands, we ran sessions for the juniors when allowed as we thought it was key to help them through the difficult time.

“For England, we held online meetings with the players in large and small groups, held one to ones and communicated with the players via vlogs.

“The contact was imperative for us to monitor how they were coping with the lockdown and to maintain contact.

“We have now run two training sessions in bubbles of 30 which the players have thoroughly enjoyed. I ensure we take the necessary measures to enable us to train – track and trace data, temperatures taken, supply PPE etc”.

In normal times, Alison is often seen managing various teams at Brooklands as well as running their school coaching programme. In fact, we’re not sure how Alison fits it all in!  

“I also assist with the junior coaching programme at the club. I attend the sports club playing committee meetings and until a couple of weeks ago I was on the Brooklands sports club board.

“I attend the JNGLA meetings and also the JSN meetings. I have been Chair of JSN for the last 6 years and have also been fixtures secretary on and off for a number of years and will be taking on this role again this year.

“In my role as JSN Chair I sit on the NWLA committee. I am the U19 league and competition organizer for the NW. I sit on the NEMLA committee to assist with the running of the men’s game in the North.

As you can imagine, Alison hasn’t really had much time to do anything else these days after dealing with lacrosse and coronavirus related stuff but says she does enjoy a bit of gardening and watching TV!

But ultimately sport, and lacrosse in particular, is her life and she believes it has many positive aspects, especially given the current circumstances.

“I think that maintaining contact with the players and club members is imperative. It gives you the opportunity to see how everyone is coping with the lockdown and opens up the avenues for communication if they need to talk. Everyone is dealing with the pandemic in different ways and I will do anything I can do to help.

“Giving players the opportunity to train, even if it’s only for a short period, helps maintain a little normality in these uncertain times”.  

We’d like to thank Alison for her hard-work and dedication to lacrosse, especially during this year, and we hope she continues as one of our amazing volunteers for many years to come!

National Lacrosse Day 2020 - Value our Volunteers: Dan Clements

Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.

Here, we recognise Border City’s Club Chair and occasional junior/senior coach, Dan Clements who has been ensuring the club has been able to reopen since lockdown restrictions eased in July.

The 46 year old attacker, one time midfielder, and occasional pole has been involved in lacrosse on and off since 1987 (that’s 33 years!) and says planning for the return of lacrosse has been at the forefront of his mind since the lockdown was announced.

“The team have kept in touch and, as soon as we were allowed, we started socially distanced training sessions.

“But the most important thing I’ve been working on has been grant applications so that we could try to provide lacrosse to even more people in the Cumbria and South Scotland area upon our return.

“And, of course, we’ve also been planning for this season as best we can”.

When not playing or dealing with lacrosse-related stuff, Dan runs his own architectural business, is heavily involved in his professional institute, and is a retained firefighter for Cumbria Fire and Rescue.

But he feels sport, and lacrosse in particular can be a force for good, especially in such strange times.

“I think team sports in particular are fantastic for mental health, something we are particularly keen on promoting at Border City. 

“People play for a variety of reasons, but it is guaranteed contact from friendly faces each week and has still got to be one of the best physical workouts around. 

“I think most of our players, myself included, were looking forward to getting back on the pitch at the earliest opportunity; it gives everyone a sense of normality in difficult times.

We’d like to thank Dan for his hard-work and dedication to lacrosse and Border City especially during the coronavirus lockdown and beyond!

National Lacrosse Day 2020 - Value our Volunteers: Lara Owen

Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.

First up, we recognise England senior women’s manager, Lara Owen, who has played a vital role in ensuring our England women’s team could maintain top level training throughout the coronavirus lockdown.

Lara, who’s 37 and has been involved in lacrosse for a whopping 27 years, is a midfielder for West London Lacrosse Club as well as being involved in the England set-up since 2010, becoming England manager in 2015.

She says the England squad has been desperate to keep in touch on a regular basis since the initial lockdown was announced way back in March.

“We started with weekly situation reporting so that we could keep track of our squad’s physical and mental health and offered support throughout for anyone that needed it.

“We had weekly update emails, and squad zoom meetings every three weeks. We are still continuing with those now.

“We had regular staff and coaches video calls in between as well to keep everything running and we set up a COVID-19 task group for key staff to plan our activities throughout the different phases of play that were allowed.

“The players organised a few squad video quizzes and a lot of online workouts! I think these were all really successful in keeping us connected as a squad, and actually got even more people involved than can usually come to physical training sessions, as we made sure the timings worked for all our overseas players and staff so they could also join”.

Despite the squad’s ability to stay in touch and keep training in an albeit different way, Lara acknowledges that it’s been difficult for all involved.

“It has been a challenging time for everyone, but we have managed to stay connected and keep training throughout the different phases of returning to play.

“Initially a lot of online workouts were done, then players who lived near each other could meet up in pairs to work on skills.

“When Phase 3 was announced, we started to organise small group training in local areas with coaches as well.

“The coaches also set different skills tasks throughout, and the players could still complete this in teams (virtually!) so keeping that competitive spirit going!

“Phase 4 has been the biggest boost to be able to get back together again as a squad. A lot of work has been done by all staff to help keep us going throughout so it has been a real team effort. Our coaches, S&C, physios and psychologist have all provided support to our players throughout so that we could stay ready to return to lacrosse when we were allowed to”!

With the coronavirus pandemic hitting team sport hard, Lara has been tasked with taking on the job of COVID Co-ordinator for both England and West London.

“We appointed the COVID officer quite early on and as manager it made sense to complete most of the COVID paperwork as I’m in charge of the squad logistics in general anyway.

“I have a great assistant manager who started during lockdown who has really helped, and our assistant coach also helped with the intent to train forms. I actually work in facilities management for my job, so have been heavily involved in all the COVID guidance and planning from the beginning, so I was happy to do this for England as well.

“I’m also the COVID officer for my club, West London, so it’s becoming my special skill”!

And with Phase 4 of Return to Play coming into force late last month, Lara thinks sport, in particular lacrosse, is the perfect tonic to what has been a pretty shoddy year for everyone.

“Sport at any level gives a lot of people a place to belong, a community and, most importantly, something in common that we all love. It’s personally such a big part of my life that there would be a huge hole without it!

“There’s the physical benefits to staying fit, but the team aspect and social side is what has kept people going through this period.

“We tried to address some of the key issues that came up during lockdown and not only had sessions on lacrosse, but had sessions on Black Lives Matter, Pride and How to be an Ally as well.

“We see sport as a key place where people and athletes can use their voice for things they believe are right”.

We’d like to thank Lara for her hard-work and dedication to lacrosse throughout her 27 year involvement as well as her enthusiasm to the cause during the coronavirus lockdown!

Value our Volunteers for National Lacrosse Day 2020!

England Lacrosse are delighted to announce the theme for this year’s National Lacrosse Day is “Value our Volunteers” and will take place on Saturday 19 September!

We think it’s fair to say that this year has been a little different from other years and we’ve all been playing a lot less lacrosse than we’re used to.

But, despite such trying times, many dedicated volunteers up and down the country continued to work hard to ensure their local lacrosse clubs were able open after lockdown.

Throughout the four month lockdown period, many volunteers were keeping their club’s pitches and clubhouses in good nick, phoning club members to check on their wellbeing, delivering online lacrosse sessions perfect for back gardens, and much much more.

So, we think it’s only fair to dedicate National Lacrosse Day 2020 to all those volunteers who have helped to keep lacrosse going through the coronavirus pandemic!

As part of National Lacrosse Day 2020, we’re challenging every school, university, club, and individual involved in lacrosse to value your volunteers; those who have helped you and your club/team through this period and who are invaluable to the lacrosse community.

But before we flood social media with pictures of our wonderful volunteers, we want you to get in touch with us to tell us all about the volunteer/s you value most.

We’re going to tell the stories of these volunteers throughout National Lacrosse Day and really celebrate the fantastic people who keep lacrosse in England going.

To get involved, simply email j.naylor@englandlacrosse.co.uk with a picture of the volunteer you want to recognise and an accompanying story charting how they have helped you/your club during this difficult year.

Why not get the National Lacrosse Day 2020 word out on your social media channels? Download and share now!

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