Earlier this week the NLL announced a junior tournament. This is the right track for American box lacrosse.The reason we have leagues like the NALL and others is because the NLL is less than 15% American players. Back in the 1990s in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League the league hosted American stars.
Now in a league that is mostly Canadian, Americans aren’t getting the opportunities. There is no where for American lacrosse players to learn the game of boxla. College lacrosse is great, but these college players go to the NLL with zero box experience, and that is why we are seeing the decline.
In the Canadian Lacrosse League less than 5% of players are American. The same goes for junior lacrosse. Long has it been talked about, a junior box system in the states. We don’t have one, but the NLL is doing something special now.
Next weekend there will be a tournament in Oakville between junior box teams sponsored by NLL teams. Toronto and Vancouver are two of these teams, but Buffalo, Colorado, Minnesota and Rochester are also represented.
This is the first tournament of junior players ever affiliated with the NLL. CLax has junior teams for each of their professional teams as a way to create future players. This one tournament might not make any pros, but it’s a good step to getting Americans to play box lacrosse at a young age.
The league wants to do this several times this season at different locations. Now kids from New York, Colorado and Minnesota and local areas will have a chance to learn the game and be closely affiliated with their favorite teams.
If more Americans learned boxla at a young age, maybe there would be more in the NLL. Right now there has been no possible way for that to happen. Is this a chance to get Americans back in the game?
Also in this past week USBOXLA held a tournament in Los Angeles with youth teams from Minnesota, Colorado, California and Washington state. Several professional and former professional box players coach in these tournaments, teaching American kids the game.
Maybe we don’t have a junior box system in the states as organized as Canada yet, but at least there is some progress on kids learning the game.
