Girls/women's box lacrosse is on the rise across the world. The World Lacrosse Box Championship last month featured ten teams from across the world.

Join the Northstar Box Lacrosse Staff alongside the Women's Senior Box Lacrosse League leadership to teach and grow this awesome version of the game.

Box Lacrosse is one of the few contact sports where the rules are not changed between the boys and the girls version of the game. Not only do we believe that equity has value on its own, but we also think that contact sports train and challenge girls and women on a completely different and extremely valuable axis.

Pros of Box Lacrosse:

• Box lacrosse maximizes live reps. The rules are based on keeping the game moving: Shot clock, quick restarts, smaller/enclosed space, and less whistles keeps the action going and forces players to anticipate/play ahead of the whistle. Stickwork drills are centered around shooting on a live goalie.

• Goalies sometimes take more live shots in one practice than a field goalie will get throughout a summer of field practices which is beneficial to everyone involved. Nobody sees more rubber than box goalies which helps with tracking, reaction, angles, and communication, all while being completely protected. Shooters get to shoot on small spots with a goalie that adjusts. Defenders have to communicate, play, and react through a lot more spontaneous action.

• Just because girls field lacrosse rules are supposed to limit contact, does not mean that there isn’t contact. I have seen more bloody and gruesome injuries in girls/womens lacrosse than in boys/mens. Box lacrosse prepares women for contact and teaches them to embrace and use it within their game.

• Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” and that’s an accurate statement. The contact part of box lacrosse helps train players for a different type of adversity than just about all (non-combat) sports available to girls/women.

• There is a large physicality jump from high school to college and box and box players are not only more able to adjust, but they have a skill advantage they learn through box practices and games.

• It’s one of the few sports out there that there isn’t any rules modifications between the men and women’s game, and I think that’s a cool and relevant experience for girls/women in sports and life in general.

Danita Stroup - Canadian U19 World Cup Champion and Northwestern University field player: “Playing box lacrosse, playing in such a tight space with so few players has really helped my game and my vision going into field lacrosse. Seeing how open everything is and handling the ball in box lacrosse in such a tight space and then being able to handle it in such an open space has really helped and increased my stick skills even more.”

6X NCAA Championship Coach Bill Tierney, former University of Denver coach "If I had my choice, I would have every player under the age of 12 play box lacrosse exclusively or at least a majority of the time.  The number of touches of the ball and the ability to develop better stick skills in a game of box lacrosse far surpasses what happens on a field.  Learning how to pass and catch in traffic, understanding how to shoot, and developing a sense of physicality are all positive traits developed by the box game.”

4X NCAA Championship Coach Dom Starsia, University of Virginia: "When you watch Canadian kids score, when you see their skill level around the cage, you wonder to yourself, 'Jeez, are we teaching kids [in the U.S.] the wrong things?"

Andy Shay, Yale Head Coach:  "Box lacrosse (played normally in Canada) is played in thawed ice rinks over the summer.  The smaller spaces and smaller goals lend to hyper advancement of skills and scoring ability.  The results in our college game are not only undeniable, they are borderline astounding."

Training Sessions: Five Sessions

• 10/26, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, and 11/23

Time: 4-6PM

Location: Ninth Street Soccer and Coffee (801 SE 9th St, Minneapolis, MN 55414)

Equipment: Equipment is available to use. Players will use helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, bicep pads, kidney pads, and a boys stick.

Staff: Northstar Box Director Luke Johnson has been coaching girl's box lacrosse since 2017 and is also the box director for Minnesota Elite, and is a staunch supporter of growing what he calls "the best version of lacrosse" for girls and women.

$250 to cover facility fees, gear maintenance, and staffing.