The Development of High School Lacrosse in West Auckland Initiative

The club’s community initiative looks to fulfil the Wildcats Lacrosse Club’s responsibilities in promoting the game of lacrosse in West Auckland, whilst removing the social and financial barriers that would otherwise prevent young men in the community from playing.  The club aims to achieve this by setting up sustainable lacrosse programs across West Auckland high schools whilst continually applying for sport funding to meet our obligations and maintain a healthy rate of growth.

One of our primary objectives is to provide the schools entering our initiative with all the necessary gear for their students to safely play lacrosse.  By doing this, it will remove the expensive start-up costs, circa $250NZD per player, that would have otherwise prevented our school-aged audience from participating.  Providing the gear will also oust an outdated social stigma that certain games can only be played by the wealthy. This was never intended for lacrosse and certainly not in New Zealand.

The game of lacrosse was extensively modified by European colonisers to North America and used to be "restricted" to being played at private boarding schools in the USA.  However, lacrosse has its origins from a tribal game played by Eastern Woodlands Native Americans and by some Plains Indians tribes in what is now the United States of America and Canada.  Lacrosse today has been deemed one of the fastest growing sports in the world, pulling young men from other sports thanks to initiatives like this one, and returning it back to the “common family”.

The age group these programs will be targeting are students in years 9 to 10 who are the most vulnerable year groups for dropping out of sport.  These programs will not only be directly increasing the number of young men playing sport but, by the very nature of lacrosse, it will be improving the agility, coordination, speed and cardiovascular fitness of all its participants.  Lacrosse is a sport that is heavily dependent on teamwork and communication skills which are necessary for any team sport and will prove useful well beyond the conclusion of this project. Our programs will also increase fundamental movement skills, especially in such a dynamic sport like lacrosse.

For more details, or know how you can get involved, contact us by email. 

Thank you for your support,

The West Auckland Wildcats Lacrosse Club