Greater Fort Lauderdale Lacrosse League Broward County Lacrosse League Florida Women's Lacrosse League WEATHER HOTLINE (954)334-9622 (ext 230)

Community Service 

Players can earn community service hours through the YMCA by volunteering time training, coaching and umpiring lacrosse practices and games.  Your skills will be matched up with the K-5, 6-8 or High School divisions. 

Sponsorships

Thank you to all our sponsors. Your donation helps develop lacrosse in the South Florida community.  If your daughter or son has gained any value from the sport of lacrosse or the YMCA; and you have the financial capacity to make a donation, please strongly consider doing so.  Your personal or corporate donation is fully tax deductible to the YMCA, a non-profit. 

History of girls' lacrosse

The origins of lacrosse began with the Native Indians of North America, in land now Canada; and playing a game with a ball and stick on a field stretching miles.  It was a game for men, not women, played in preparation for war.  Men's lacrosse is a derivation of this original Native Indian game; however, it has evolved over that last few centuries into a much different game.  The women's game, while sharing the name lacrosse, is vastly different in both its origins and its rules compared to men's game.  In fact, outside of using the same goal and a similar shaped stick; the rules do not resemble the men's game nor the native Indian game of lacrosse. 

French explorers in Canada exported men's lacrosse to Europe where it eventually found its way to England and then Scotland.  At St. Leonard's School, St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1890; the women's game of lacrosse was first conceived with its rules evolving from the game of Scottish field hockey.  The Scots were in need of a complementary spring sport for those women who played field hockey during the fall. From its humble beginnings, women's lacrosse grew throughout the  private schools of Scotland and England.  At the time, there were only two accepted "ladies" sports in the UK, field hockey and lacrosse.  All other popular sports such as football (aka soccer) were forbidden to women, so there was a critical demand for women's lacrosse.  

The rules of women's lacrosse have stayed very close to their roots of 1890 unlike the men's game, where they have changed frequently and radically in order to attract the masses.   The main reason for such stability with the rules of women's lacrosse was due to the sport having written rules in 1890 before the first organized game was ever played.  The men's game was played with hundreds of different variations before rules were finally written in Montreal hundreds of years after the first game was played.

In 1901, field hockey was first introduced in the United States by Constance Applebee of England. 

In 1914, an attempt was made to start women's lacrosse at Sweet Briar College, VA; however, that attempt failed. 

In 1926, a graduate of St. Leonard's School (Scotland), Rosabelle Sinclair, established the first women’s lacrosse team in the United States at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, MD.

In 1931 the USWLA was established at Applebee's US Camp. The USWLA governed the sport of girls' lacrosse on the collegiate and club levels until 1981, when the NCAA inaugurated its national championship tournament. 

In 1971 the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Association (IFWLA) is founded.

Men's and women's lacrosse were played under virtually the same rules each began with, including no protective equipment, until the mid-1930s. From that moment on men's lacrosse began evolving dramatically from its roots, while women's lacrosse continued to remain true to its own original rules. Only recently have US women's rules been modified mandating eye protection, whilst the rest of the world has not followed suit.  In fact, in overseas competition our US players are required to wear eye protection by our governing body while the rest of the world wears nothing. That will change in time.

Did you know that Basketball, Volleyball and Futsal (Indoor Soccer) were invented by YMCA staff?

In 1891, at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass., Program Director Luther Gulick asked gym teacher James Naismith to invent an indoor sport to keep YMCA staff fit during the winter. Naismith hung 2 peach baskets from an elevated running track, posted thirteen simple rules and using a soccer ball - basketball was born.

William Morgan invented volleyball in 1895 at the Holyoke, Massachusetts, YMCA where he served as Director of Physical Education. Morgan originally called his the game "mintonette". Morgan introduced the game using a borrowed tennis net raised to 6 feet, 6 inches - a head taller than the average man; eventually the net was raised to increase the game's difficulty. The game was renamed volleyball in 1896 after a demonstration game of the sport, when a spectator commented that the game involved much "volleying".

William Morgan was born in the state of New York and studied at Springfield College, Massachusetts. Ironically at Springfield, Morgan met James Naismith who invented basketball in 1891. Morgan was motivated by Naismith's game of basketball designed for younger students to invent a game suitable for the older members of the YMCA. William Morgan's basis for the new game of Volleyball was the then popular and similar German game of Faustball and a few other sports including: tennis (the net), basketball, baseball and handball.

Futsal is the international form of indoor soccer and is played under the banner of FIFA throughout the world by more than 25 million players. It was developed by Juan Carlos Ceriana in 1930 for youth competitions for the YMCA in Montevideo, Uruguay. Futsal/5-a-side is played on basketball-sized courts, both indoors and out without the use of sidewalls.

The sport is a great skill developer, demanding quick reflexes, fast thinking, and pin-point passing. Futsal is played with a special, low-bounce ball, making it necessary for players to use their skills, rather than the ball's bounce, to propel it. The term FUTSAL is the international term used for the game. It is derived from the Spanish or Portuguese word for "soccer", Futbol or Futebol, and the French or Spanish word for "indoor", SALon or SALa. The game is frequently referred to as Five-A-Side. Once Cerianai got the ball rolling, Futsal gained rapid popularity throughout South America, particularly in Brazil. The skill developed in this game is visible in the world-famous style the Brazilians display outdoors on full-sized fields. Most Brazilian superstars including Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka credit their skill to Futsal.    

"The harder you practice, the luckier you get."

How do I register? Contact by email the YMCA Program Director or (954)617-9622.

Copyright 2008 Greater Fort Lauderdale Youth Lacrosse League. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners .