Welcome players and parents to the 2008 Lacrosse America spring youth league. This travel league incorporates over 100 teams from 38 park districts and dozens of towns all over Chicagoland! Lacrosse America's staff of current and former players and coaches have been running instructional and competitive programs since 1991. Over 40,000 athletes have participated, with players going on to play at colleges such as Syracuse, Duke, Yale, Cornell, Loyola, North Carolina, and Notre Dame.


WHEN DOES MY PROGRAM START?
-Most Lightning(5-6th Grade) and Junior (7-8th Grade) programs begin this weekend(April 5-6th.) Most Bantams (3-4th Grade) and Pee-Wee’s (1-2nd grade) do not begin until next weekend(April 12-13th.) For up to date information about your exact practice times and dates, please click here and click on your town.

WHAT EQUIPMENT WILL I NEED FOR PRACTICE?
YOU MUST HAVE ALL EQUIPMENT ON THE FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE!!!! There will be NO equipment available at the fields. Required lacrosse equipment includes a stick, helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, a mouth guard, an athletic supporter, cleats(football or soccer, no baseball) and a water bottle(Pee-Wee’s require only a helmet, gloves, stick, mouthgard, cup and water, they do not need shoulder or elbow pads.) Hockey equipment is fine, but most players prefer lacrosse gloves over hockey gloves due to the more flexible thumb. Equipment can be rented or purchased from any Lacrosse America pro shop. If you are looking to purchase equipment buy an entire set from Lacrosse America (helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, and gloves) and receive 20% off!

Rental equipment information can be found here.
http://www.lacrosseamerica.com/il/rental.shtml

Pro Shop Locations and Hours can be found here:
http://www.lacrosseamerica.com/il/contactus.shtml
(please note rental equipment is distributed on a first come first serve basis)
-All rental equipment can be returned at the end of season tournament.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PLAY, AND WHICH WILL I BE IN?
League divisions are based on both age and skill level. Click here for a full description of each level and information about playing up a level.

Notes about our different levels of play:
-Not every level is offered at each park district
-Players will only be allowed to play up a level if there is room on the higher level team. If there is no space available for a player to move up, that player will play at the level that corresponds to his grade. Players may not move down a level. If you plan on playing up a level YOU MUST TRY OUT! You will not be on a higher level team simply because you registered for it. Players should sign up for their current grade level. If a player would like to be considered for a higher level, they must attend the first practice of the level they'd like to be considered for. (ie. If an experienced 4th Grader wants to be considered for "Lightning", he should sign up for "Bantams", but attend the first day of "Lightning" practice. The first weekend and week of practice will serve as tryouts.) Lacrosse America personal have final say on all decisions pertaining to team making, trying out, and playing up.

HOW WILL TEAMS BE MADE:
If your program has multiple teams at the Bantam or Lightning level teams will be split as evenly as possible. There will be no “A” or “B” team, every effort will be made to evenly distribute players so that neither team has a decided advantage over the other. Car pool requests can be relayed to coaches during the team making process, and we will do our best to honor them. However, team equality will trump carpooling requests while teams are being made. We will honor at least one carpool request per player. Player emails will be available and coaches will assist in finding new car pools if need be.

Towns that have multiple Junior (7-8th Grade) teams will hold Junior “A” team tryouts the first week of practice. Players trying out for Junior “A” should have multiple seasons of lacrosse experience and demonstrate the skill and knowledge necessary to compete at the “A” level. All players are welcome to try out; any 7-8th grader who chooses not to try out, or is not selected to the “A” team will be on Junior “B”. Both levels focus on fundamentals and stress a fun learning environment. However, Junior “A” will play a more difficult game schedule and will require more travel and a higher level of commitment.

WHO WILL THE COACHES BE?
Coaches will be made up of Lacrosse America staff, current college and high school players, and many generous dads, both former players and those new to the game, that volunteer to share their son’s love of the game. We are always looking for more help at every level, no experience necessary. If you are interested please email programs@lacrosseamerica.com.

You may also notice that our referees do some on field coaching. Many of our referee’s are very experienced players and coaches. They will often help players while they are out on the field and out of earshot of their coaches. Referees will assist both teams evenly, and many times can prevent a penalty before it occurs with just a little instruction.

WHEN WILL GAMES BEGIN AND HOW ARE SCHEDULES MADE?
The first two weeks of the program will be strictly practice(including your programs weekend day.) This is scheduled in order to allow teams to get to know each other and come together before they take the field against an opposing town. This time is also used to get any new players caught up on the rules and techniques of lacrosse before they are entered into competition.

Games will begin April 19th and 20th for Lightning and Juniors (April 26th and 27th for Bantams). Game schedules for April 19-20 and April 26-27 will be released around Wednesday, April 16th. A complete season schedule will be released shortly thereafter. Game times will very due to field availability and will not always correspond with your listed weekend time. Some games will be home and some will be away. This greatly depends on your town’s field situation. Towns with multiple game fields will have more home games, while towns with only one available game field will receive fewer. Utilizing towns with multiple game fields allows Lacrosse America to have a director present at each game. An effort will be made to keep most games against local park districts, however, an occasional longer trip (no more than a few towns away) may be scheduled so that you are not playing the same teams each week.

Junior “A” will require more travel as there are fewer “A” teams in the league and they tend to be more spread out. Junior “A” will also have a cross-over day where they play our “A” teams from our southern and western programs (Naperville, St.Charles, Hinsdale, etc.) All teams may have an occasional “double-header” or 2-game weekend (play both Saturday and Sunday.) This is simply to provide more lacrosse opportunities to those who can make it. These games are scheduled in addition to your regularly scheduled games, if you have prior commitments, just let your coach know.

Season ending tournament will be May 31st for Lightning and June 1st for Bantams.

Juniors will have their season ending tournament June 7th. Locations and times TBA. NO lacrosse memorial day weekend unless make ups are necessary.

WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR THE GAME SCHEDUES TO COME OUT?
We want to make sure that all of our games are competitive. We take the first two weeks of the program to evaluate each of our teams so we can schedule them against teams of equal ability. While there will always be lopsided games here and there, you should notice that most of your games are close and exciting.

WHAT ARE THE RULES OF THE LEAGUE?
Coming Soon

HOW WILL COACHES COMMUNICATE WITH US?
Lacrosse America and your coach will be communicating program information with you via email. Schedules, newsletters, and other info will be emailed, so please be sure that Lacrosse America emails do not go to your spam folder. You can see your team roster, and communicate with your coaches and other players by logging onto your Lacrosse America account. If you don’t have an account, create one today, its free! If you have previously registered for a Lacrosse America account, use your username and password that you created. If you never had a Lacrosse America account we created one for you. Log in with the username that was sent to you via email and click on “forgot password” to change your password.
https://lacrosseamerica.cmiregistration.com/Login.aspx

WHAT ABOUT BAD WEATHER AND CANCELLATIONS?
In the case of foul weather, one of three courses of action will be taken:
1. In the case of extreme weather, practices and games will be cancelled as early as possible.
2. If weather is questionable, but not dangerous, we will monitor weather radar and make the call one hour before practices and 90 minutes before games.
3. If weather is good before practice or a game, but radar indicates that foul weather may move in during practice, we will have our coaches make the call at the field. In many cases we can get in a good half-practice before bad weather moves in, or wait out a quick rain shower and still get a lot done. In this case, do not stray too far from the field in case the weather takes a turn for the worst and players need to be picked up.

HOW WILL WE BE NOTIFIED OF CANCELLATIONS?
Lacrosse America has both a weather hotline and a weather update page on its website. Please check both frequently in the case of foul weather as they are constantly updated.
NORTH HOTLINE: 847-926-0859
SOUTH HOTLINE: 630-598-4529
Website:
http://www.lacrosseamerica.com/il/weather.shtml

WILL PRACTICES AND GAMES BE MADE UP?
Practices are not required to be made up. If coaches and fields are available, coaches may schedule make up practices on their own. Games will be made up by scheduling double header, scheduling a Saturday-Sunday game, or by scheduling a week day make-up (if fields are available.) Memorial Day weekend will be used for make-ups as a last resort.