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L acrosse's meteoric rise has extended far beyond its tradi- tional Northeast and Mid-Atlantic base despite a pandemic timeout. It continues to attract youth and high school players and is now the fastest-growing college sport in the country. This popularity is fueling new lacrosse programs for female athletes and is opening up more opportunities for those players and, by extension, team dealers. The 2021 World Lacrosse Women's World Championship, hosted by US Lacrosse, is slated to kick off at Towson University in July. This international tournament is held every four years and out of the 10 events held since 1982, the USA Women's Team has won eight times. "Outside of the pandemic data, the trend is still positive and growing at the youth, high school and college level for women's and girls' lacrosse. I see it continuing to grow over the next five years," says Caitlin Kelley, women's lacrosse director at US Lacrosse. To help generate excitement and partici- pation, the organization launched a women's game webinar series last fall called She Competes. "The program was very successful so we are looking to do that again this year in Q3. It targets female athletes of all ages on issues such as confidence, media coverage and leadership skills," she explains. Kelley believes it is imperative to provide girls with opportunities for participation at all levels. "There are many opportunities to continue to play at the college level, not just at the prominent D1 levels. I believe con- tinuing to support lacrosse at the collegiate club and NAIA levels, as well as community and rec-based programs alongside the club lacrosse world, is important so that female athletes can continue in lacrosse with more opportunities across a range of commitment and focus levels," she says. At All Lacrosse in Montclair, NJ, owner Howard Schweibel reports that girls' sales have been very good this year, but the main challenge is the issue of allowing players to get back on the field. "Everyone is eager to get going again," he says. "Right now, our business is 75 percent men and 25 percent women, mostly due to the amount of equipment men need. The girls just need sticks and goggles." He adds that the shoes he sells are unisex and right now Under Armour's UA Spotlight is the most popular model. Schweibel also notes that girls and boys differ in their shopping preferences. "For apparel, girls want to try everything on, whereas the boys don't. Also, girls care more about what a lacrosse stick's shaft feels like and they are more in tune with color in equipment, whereas boys focus on how a head is strung — girls aren't as picky about that." He adds that a great advance from man- ufacturers has been to sell women's sticks with mesh string because "the mesh gives and makes it easier to catch, especially for younger and less experienced players." While there is a debate about whether to require helmets for girls, Schweibel believes it may be good for business, but not necessarily for the women's game. Over at Medford, NJ-based Sports Paradise, owner Scott Treiber notes that based on his web store sales, lacrosse and soccer will hit as normal, whereas basketball and volleyball are way behind pre-pandemic numbers. "Volume-wise, lacrosse is number one for me and soccer comes in second, due to the size of the teams. About 40 percent of our business is women's," he reports. "We expect our business percentage to get closer to a 50-50 split between men's and women's over the next couple of years." Aaron Karsh, director of operations at California Pro Sports in Harbor City, CA, believes that finding enough coaches and officials for women's lacrosse is crucial to the sport's health. And on the product side, he says that having brands offer women's fits and cuts is important, but "certain brands keep changing sizes and it's hard to keep track of all the size charts. There are always questions about how the sizing runs, whether the apparel is true to size, bigger or smaller." n STICKING TO IT Women's lacrosse is on a roll and is boosting the team business at many levels. Lacrosse continues to attract youth and high school players and is now the fastest-growing college sport in the country. • Brine (a subsidiary of New Balance and the sister company of Warrior Lacrosse) will exit the men's lacrosse market and rebrand itself exclusively as a women's equipment maker. Along with looking to stop competing with its own Warrior brand on the men's side, Brine cites growth in the women's game as a primary reason for the transition. • Participation in women's lacrosse has grown 200 percent over the past decade, with youth participation topping 165,000 athletes in 2018. (Source: SFIA) FAST FACTS GIRLS' SPORTS | LACROSSE • TEAM 72 • May 2021 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com

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