See the US Lacrosse Equipment Guide for detailed information about required gear for your player.  The stick is the most important piece of equipment you will purchase for your new player.  For a stick tutorial and recommendations on what stick to purchase see the following video:  POWLAX Stick Recommendation

*Note This video is for BOYS sticks

You can purchase your equipment through these vendors:

Online Vendor Options:

LAX.com

Lacrosse Monkey

Lacrosse Unlimited

Sport Stop

Sideline Swap

Crank Shooter

Local Vendor Options:

Over The Edge- 1094 E John Sims Parkway, Niceville, FL 32578

Dicks Sporting Goods Pensacola- 5100 N 9th Ave, Pensacola, FL 32504

We separate our teams by school grade.  We believe it is best for players to play with their peers and build relationships with the players they will play with through high school.  Simply being ahead of peers in skill or athleticism is not a valid reason to play up.  Learning to take a leadership role on a team and work with others to elevate team play is a valuable attribute that can be gained from playing with their peers.  In very rare circumstances, the NELC will consider requests for your child to play up in age group.  The request must be initiated with a recommendation by the losing head coach to the gaining head coach and approved by the gaining head coach.

All players require a US Lacrosse number for insurance purposes.  Our players and coaches are all registered with US Lacrosse providing umbrella insurance for our program.  You will be required to have a valid US Lacrosse number in order to register for NELC programs.  You can enroll at US Lacrosse.

The NELC attempts to accommodate all players who wish to play lacrosse.  However, to ensure practice quality and adequate play time, the NELC conducts player assessments prior to registration to determine player placement on competitive or developmental teams for boys lacrosse.  In addition, we limit team size to facilitate adequate play time.  If we do not have enough volunteer coaches to facilitate 2 teams for a specific age group, the assessments will function as tryouts and the number of players will be limited.

Each player is initially assigned to an age appropriate team based on their school grade.

For boys teams, based on the large number of players and widely varying experience levels, we generally seek to separate each age group into two teams.  Our ability to do this is dependent on the number of committed coaches for each age group.  If we have the requisite number of coaches and players we will split each age group into two teams.

Prior to registration for each season, the players are evaluated based on ability, experience and aptitude and assigned to one of the teams appropriate to their skill level and position.

We do this for several reasons.  First, it allows us to reduce team size to ensure all players get adequate time on the field during games.  Second, it allows coaches to tailor drills and game play to the skill level and experience of the players.  Finally, it reduces idle time and enhances opportunities for one-on-one instruction during practices.

We understand that you may feel your player should be on a different team than assigned, but please be assured our coaches spend a considerable amount of time ensuring the evaluation process is as objective as possible. They deliberate placement based on the objective assessments along with needs of each team and the best fit for the player.  Sometimes they elect to play players on the less experienced team to allow them the opportunity to lead a team as a starter vs. play as a 2nd or 3rd line sub on the more experienced team.

The NELC attempts to maximize playing time for all players by limiting team size and separating into two teams for age groups with large numbers of players. However, sometimes we are in the unfortunate circumstance of having more than the optimal number of players for one team, but not enough for two teams.

Please understand that it can be difficult to manage the playing time of each player when that occurs, but be assured that our coaches are doing their very best.

During jamborees, the goal is to get each player evenly distributed playing time as much as possible.

The tournaments are generally single elimination, so coaches must manage the games to ensure teams win and have additional opportunity to play.  Therefore, during tournament games, we cannot guarantee the playing time of any individual player.