USA Lacrosse hosted a State of the Sport Webinar on March 25, examining the trends, challenges and opportunities within the sport. The presentation generated lively discussion in real-time. Here are some of the questions coming out of the presentation with further insight and resources from USA Lacrosse. To access the full presentation, USA Lacrosse members can log into their membership profile and click on 'My Transcript' and choose 'STATE OF THE SPORT - 2026.'
Making the Case for Lacrosse
Question: How does USA Lacrosse provide tools for people who want to learn more about the sport?
USA Lacrosse delivers a comprehensive education ecosystem designed to lower barriers to entry and elevate knowledge across the sport. At the foundation is its free Discover Lacrosse hub, which provides K–12 curriculum, instructional videos, and inclusive resources for educators, parents, and players.
For deeper development, the organization offers physical education curricula and turnkey lesson plans, alongside grants that help schools incorporate the sport into their programming.
Finally, USA Lacrosse equips communities with practical toolkits—startup guides, presentations, and athlete development frameworks—ensuring stakeholders at every level can confidently teach, grow, and sustain the game.
Resources
- Discover Lacrosse
- Grant Application Process (2026 cycle opens on June 1)
- Adaptive Lacrosse
- PE Programming
Club vs. Rec
Question: Are you seeing the trend where competition to play club is pulling talent away from recreational leagues?
Recreational and club leagues tend to have a complementary—but increasingly imbalanced—relationship.
At the entry level, growth in recreational leagues often fuels the pipeline of players who later transition into club environments as interest and skill development increase.
However, in many markets, rapid expansion of club programs has begun to outpace rec league growth, creating an imbalance. The result is effectively pulling higher-skilled and more committed athletes earlier in their development. This can create participation gaps in local recreational leagues, particularly in the middle-school age range where drop-off is most pronounced.
That said, strong ecosystems intentionally link the two—using rec leagues as broad access points and club programs as advanced pathways—resulting in healthier overall participation.
The key trend is not pure competition between formats, but how well organizations manage the transition between them.
Resources
Sportsmanship
Question: What are some tools to help improve sportsmanship on the field and in the stands?
At USA Lacrosse, we are committed to supporting positive and safe environments for all players, coaches, officials and spectators. As a result, we have developed a Code of Conduct Policy that honors the game by focusing on Honesty & Integrity. We also provide guidance on how to report incidents appropriately. These tools are designed to support parents, coaches, and officials in addressing concerns constructively.
Resources
Support for Coaches & Officials
Question: What support does USA Lacrosse provide to coaches & officials?
Coaches and officials are supported through a robust e-learning platform with curated tiered certifications. The tiered level training starts with courses focusing on fundamental skills and practice planning support and progresses into higher level team strategies and skills. These courses are instructed by top collegiate and club coaches or experienced coach educators providing a true best in class master class experience.
Additionally there are continuing educational offerings on an annual basis of a 5 part virtual conference series. The 2026 series were just released here and can be accessed through the eLearning platform.
As a result of this learning platform, USA Lacrosse achieved an all-time high of 40K+ active coaches in 2025, which was a 300% increase in just 3 years.
Member engaged officials increased 46% over the same time highlighting the strengthening of the infrastructure and support needed as more players look to enter the sport.
Resources
The Future of Sixes
Question: What do you think is the future of sixes?
We believe that Sixes will become an increasingly common and accessible entry to the sport. Fewer players are needed, they get more touches, and as a result, they have more fun.
The return of lacrosse to the LA28 Olympics will also feature the Sixes format. The data suggests that this will result in increased visibility and interest towards this format for both current and prospective players, further fueling interest in this format going forward.
Resources
Participation by Format
Question: Is the data shared available by playing format (eg, Field vs. Sixes vs. Box)
The data in the presentation was aggregated across playing formats. In the future, we plan to explore opportunities to identify and report on trends by format.
