Hello everyone and welcome to OUR SPRING season!

We're excited to have everyone on board! Once again, the staff and our volunteers continues to grow and improve. With that comes the growth of our players. We're excited to return great coaches and welcome more coaches that have been around this game for years. 

Our goal is for players to enjoy their season, become better people, and better lacrosse players. We push for positivity, to build confidence, but also to push the players beyond what they think is their bar. Sports are a great way to build character, and we take this job (volunteer for most of us) very seriously.

Leadership Development:

This year and moving forward we're putting a bigger emphasis on leadership and ownership.  Leadership is a skill. Leadership needs to be taught. We'll be incorporating this in all of our practices moving forward. We want the players to be able to communicate with their peers and their coaches more effectively. We want our players to have ownership in their choices and to help each other more. Players will be asked to run parts of practice.  We'll focus on confidence building,  public speaking, and teamwork building. Players will also start practice to lay out their own expectations, end practice with calling out who did well and practice players of the day. Yes, we will push our players, but we're going to make sure we push positivity to build confidence and team bonding. 

Goal Setting:

We'll also be working on goal setting for our teams and for our individual players. We'll be talking to the players about what they're doing well, and what they need to work on.

If you ever have any questions about your son, please reach out to your coaches or to me. We'd be happy to help with personal development and give him things to work on outside of practice or videos to watch to improve a certain parts of their game. We'd also be happy to come early to practice to work on tweaking parts of their game. 

Bullying:

We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying. Coaches and players aim to to lift those up around them and make them better players and people. The impact of positivity is life changing. So is the impact of negativity. Confidence needs to be built, not diminished at these ages. Nothing is accomplished by putting people down around you. This is everyone's first and only warning. Your second talk is being removed from our program. We cannot stress what a big deal this is!!!!!

Parents During Games:

Please keep your cheering to "great job" and cheering. We have no room for:

• Yelling at refs
• Yelling "hit him", "wack him" 
• Do not talk to players/coaches on the other team! 

Important for your son's enjoyment for the season ahead!

We welcome all new lacrosse players! Excited to see them from all ages. With that being said, players starting especially at the 5/6 and 7/8 grade level, this is similar to playing basketball for the first time. We have to learn how to dribble, how to shoot, how to catch and throw for the first time. This is not natural. You will not get better if you just come to practice and never touch your stick!!! We have players that have been playing for 6-7 years. Time to play some catch up. We ask that parents or siblings please help a little bit here! We have noticed second year players at the U12 (5/6), U14 (7/8) level really have not improved since last season! We want the boys to enjoy their experience. 

• Here are workouts at each age group for players to do away from practice!

• This gives you an idea of reps needed at each age group, how many times per week to do them!

• https://rockfordramlax.sportngin.com/page/show/6891412-drills-by-grade

Check this to see where your son is currently at, and where we are looking to go this year! If you're new to the game, please check out the U10 (3/4) skills and focus points to see fundamentals

https://rockfordramlax.sportngin.com/page/show/3779456-player-progression

U14 (7/8 GRADES)

We will have one competative team. Format is 10v10. 3 Attack, 3 Midfielders, 3 Defenseman, and a goalie!  This is one of the best group of players we've ever had at the U14 level! 

U12 (5/6 GRADES)

We will have 2 teams at the U12 level, one competative and one developmental. Format is 10v10. 3 Attack, 3 Midfielders, 3 Defenseman, and a goalie!  

We have a mix of players that have been playing for 5-6 years, 2-3 years, and brand new players. We will be splitting players up on their ability and their effort. In order to conduct practices at this age level especially, it's important to cater drills according to ability. At this age group we put in offensive sets, defensive sets, rides, clears, man up, man down, transition sets. Players 1-2 year, we're going to run much more basic versions of these!

U10 (3/4 GRADES)

We will have 2 teams at the U10 level consisting of 11-15 players per team. They will be playing 7v7 lacrosse. 6 field players and a goalie! We will have one team that is more advanced and two even teams.

Your stick should not be sitting on the floor with the mesh hitting the floor. This will limit how your stick will throw, how to cradle. Imagine having a tennis racket with all loose strings. You will have to change how you serve and your form for returning the ball. This is what happens in lacrosse if you don't put it away the right way! Keep your stick standing straight up with the pocket - the mesh "punched" in. This is true for many cheaper sticks.