As the participation for the sport of lacrosse has boomed in recent years across all age and gender categories, the lacrosse community has put a big emphasis on its own players not only representing the sport but being ambassadors of it. We can look to this through the numbers and graphs with youth participation to the next generation, we can also look at this being represented geographically throughout the continental United States. Year after year we see more and more high school programs being added, Dunlap's as an example, as well as sanctioned college teams that are getting very competitive early on. Perhaps the biggest testimony to the games growth is represented by the world games that took place in Netanya, Israel during the summer of 2018. Not only was it the first ever world games to be held outside of North America but competing in the tournament where 46 different countries from all over the world. A new record of teams competing at a truly international level.
*Israel national team competing against Puerto Rico in Netanya, Israel*
This global growth of lacrosse has been a common trend among efforts from U.S players, specifically the PLL has they announced a month ago that they would be sending a select amount of PLL players to Japan to play against the Japanese all stars.
*PLL roster of players that played in Japan*
Personally, I believe this is a wonderful move from the league that will only reap new connections between players, organizations, and the two countries.
As players landed in Japan, they hosted a youth clinic to teach children about lacrosse and give them the opportunity to play lacrosse for the first time. The PLL media team made a short video about the clinic that was later released on Instagram which can be found HERE. (actually probably wont be able to view because of the schools wi-fi, but I highly encourage if you want to smile!!)
The game was played the next day and was broadcasted live across the country of Japan and highlights are said to be released the following week on their YouTube channel. here
From what I have seen on instagram and twitter from the league is that the game was very well attended with an electric crowd that was happy to watch the very best players in the world compete. Short after the PLL tweeted the following statement regarding lacrosse in Japan.
These actions taken by the PLL are very important and certainly cannot be taken for granted. It is a move that will benefit the entire lacrosse community and we will see the results in the coming years as many different countries continue to get better and better. A secondary purpose of this very blog is to share information about the league but also inform you about what lacrosse has to offer to everybody who wants to be apart of this special game. If you are any kind of sports fan what so ever, I recommend you watch game highlights on YouTube, even tune into a game this upcoming season, come out to your high school's game. Because for a lot of people, this game serves as a medicine that spreads happiness and creativity, as shown by the joint actions taken both by Japan and the PLL.