America's First Sport

today starts the 2010 george mason lacrosse season. it will be my second year as the head coach for the jv team. i am so excited and nervous. new girls. new challenges. new opportunities. lacrosse has been something i have been passionate about since my eight grade year and to be able to share that passion by teaching the young women at mason is amazing. after jmu and not playing for four years i realized how much i missed the sport. i am excited for the season and to see what will develop this year.. i hope everyone will come out to a game.

last years team

womens lacrosse timeline:  

• 1636 - First documentation of the game by Jesuit missionary
• 1794 - Match between Native Americans creates a basic set of rules
• 1834 - Newspaper report covers a demo of the sport in Montreal
• 1876 - Game demonstrated in England for Queen Victoria
• 1890 - First women’s game at St. Leonards in Scotland
• 1913 - Game is played with 12 players for the first time
• 1926 - First game in the US is held at Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, MD
• 1931 - United States Women’s Lacrosse Association, first national governing body for women’s lacrosse, is established
• 1933 - First USWLA National Tournament
• 1940s, 1950s, 1960s - U.S. National Touring teams travel, compete and conduct National Clinics.
• 1971- The USWLA maintains rules and governing committee for umpires Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (AIAW) for Women founded
• 1972- International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Association (IFWLA) and Title IX formed
• 1979 - First plastic stick entered the women’s game
• 1981 - Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) founded
• 1981 - First Schoolgirl Division included in the National Tournament
• 1980s & 1990s - IFWLA World Cups held in England, USA, Scotland and Japan
• 1981-1982 - AIAW Championships for women’s lacrosse
• 1982 - First NCAA D1 National Championship, with 105 total college lacrosse teams
• 1992 – Rosabelle Sinclair inducted into Hall of Fame
• 1998 - Formation of US Lacrosse; USWLA is one of eight national organizations that become part of the unified governing body
• 2003 -First combined U19 at Towson University, USA
• 2005 -IFWLA World Cup hosted by US Lacrosse, Annapolis, USA, experiences record
• Attendance of 6,820 at a women’s lacrosse game
• 2005 - The US becomes the only country to mandate protective eyewear usage for all girls and women in lacrosse
• 2006 - Women’s NCAA Rules written for college game
• 2006 -US Lacrosse Level 1 Lacrosse Coaches’ Certification Program launched
• 2007 - IFWLA U19 World Championship, Ontario, Canada. NCAA D1 Championships and US Lacrosse National Tournament held over same weekend in PA. The NCAA D1 semifinals in women’s lacrosse had a record  attendance of 6,529
• 2008- The National Tournament celebrates its 75^th anniversary, making it the oldest and most celebrated women’s lacrosse tournament in the country
• The Future - The women’s game is experiencing unprecedented growth. There are
• 477 college and college club teams and over 1400 high school teams in the US. With this growth comes great responsibility and the Women’s Division of US Lacrosse is focused on umpire and coach recruitment, retention and development in order to safely maintain the integrity of the sport as thousands of new girls pick up a stick for the first time each year. Our past helps guide our future, as we all are the culture-keepers of the great game of women’s lacrosse.

® courtesy of uslacrosse.org