Box lacrosse
Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. Box lacrosse is traditionally played on an ice hockey rink once the ice has been removed or covered. The playing area is called a box, in contrast to the open playing field of field lacrosse. Box lacrosse is played between two teams of five players and one goalie each. The object of the game is to use a lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an effort to score by shooting a solid rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent's goal.
The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse.
While there are 62 total members of World Lacrosse, only fifteen have competed in international box lacrosse competition. Only Canada, the Haudenosaunee Nationals and the United States have finished in the top three places at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. The most prestigious domestic competition is the National Lacrosse League.
History
Lacrosse is a traditional indigenous people's game and was first encountered by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. Lacrosse for centuries was seen as a key element of cultural identity and spiritual healing to the people of Turtle Island. It originated as a field game and was adopted first by Canadian, American, and English athletes as a field game, eventually settling on a 10 v 10 format.Box lacrosse is a modern version of the game that was invented in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. The roots of indoor lacrosse are obscure, but its invention has been attributed to one Paddy Brennan, a field lacrosse player and referee from Montreal, who, being annoyed by the constant slowing of play from balls going out of bounds in the field game, experimented with indoor games at the Mount Royal Arena during the early 1920s.
Joseph Cattarinich and Leo Dandurand, owners of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens in the 1920s, led the participating ice hockey arena owners to introduce the new sport. In the 1930s, 6 v 6 indoor lacrosse came to be played in the summer in unused hockey rinks. Canadians adopted the new version of the sport quickly. Eventually, it became the more popular version of the sport in Canada, supplanting field lacrosse. The form was also adopted as the primary version of the game played on Native American reservations in the US and Canada by Iroquois and other Native peoples. It is the only sport in which the American indigenous people are sanctioned to compete internationally, participating as the Iroquois Nationals. However, many field lacrosse enthusiasts viewed the new version of the sport with negativity.
The first professional box lacrosse games were held in 1931. That summer, the arena owners formed the International Lacrosse League, featuring four teams: the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Cornwall Colts. The league lasted only two seasons. In the wake of the original International Lacrosse League opened the American Box Lacrosse League featuring six teams: two in New York City, and one each in Brooklyn, Toronto, Boston, and Baltimore. The league played to small crowds on outdoor fields such as Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, before closing midway through its inaugural season. Lacrosse was officially declared Canada's National Summer Sport with the passage of the National Sports Act on May 12, 1994.
The first box lacrosse match conducted in Australia came about as part of a fund raising appeal for the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. The Victorian Lacrosse Association was approached by the appeal committee to stage a lacrosse match as part of a multi sport carnival at the Plaza ballroom at St Kilda on 1 July 1931. After a lightning six-a-side tournament format was successfully carried out a few weeks prior, it was decided to play six-a-side for this exhibition game between MCC and a composite team from other clubs, with players wearing rubber shoes and using a softer ball for the match. Newspaper articles at the time suggest that the sport may have even been created in Australia, with P. J. Lally of the famous Canadian lacrosse stick manufacturing company requesting a copy of the rules of the game from the VLA Secretary. By 1933, box lacrosse matches were being played in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. This new version of the game however did not overtake the traditional version of lacrosse in popularity in Australia as happened in Canada.
The Canadian Lacrosse Association began sponsoring box lacrosse. In 1932, the Mann Cup, the most prestigious lacrosse trophy in Canada, was contended for under box lacrosse rules for the first time. Previously, the national senior men's lacrosse championship, awarded since 1901, was competed for under field lacrosse rules. The Mann Cup is an annual tournament that presents the champion of the Western Lacrosse Association and Major Series Lacrosse in a best of seven national championship. A few years later, in 1937, the Minto Cup, began being awarded under box lacrosse rules to the junior men's champions. Currently the Canadian Lacrosse Association oversees the Mann Cup, the Minto Cup, the Presidents Cup the Founders Cup all under box lacrosse rules.
Briefly in 1939, a professional box lacrosse league started up in California, called the Pacific Coast Lacrosse Association. This four team league also folded shortly after opening. Professional box lacrosse did not return to the United States again until 1968 when the Portland Adanacs and Detroit Olympics franchises played in the National Lacrosse Association, a circuit that folded after one summer season.
File:2005NLLAllStarAction.jpg|thumb|National Lacrosse League action during an All-Star Game in 2005
A new professional indoor lacrosse league was created in the 1970s with the formation of the original National Lacrosse League. This league opened in 1974 with teams in Montreal, Toronto, Rochester, Syracuse, Philadelphia, and Maryland. For the 1975 season, Rochester moved to Boston, Syracuse moved to Quebec City, and Toronto moved to Long Island. Thus, by its second year, the original NLL was playing in all major league arenas: the Colisée de Québec, the Montreal Forum, the Boston Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Spectrum, and the Capital Centre. When the two wealthier '75 NLL franchises, Philadelphia and Maryland, finished out of the playoffs, and with Montreal losing access to the fabled Montreal Forum in the upcoming season due to the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, the league folded after two seasons due to financial uncertainty.
The rebirth of professional box lacrosse in the United States came on March 13, 1986, with the formation of the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League, which was incorporated by Russ Cline and Chris Fritz. The league originated with four teams: the Philadelphia Wings, New Jersey Saints, Washington Wave, and Baltimore Thunder, and unlike box lacrosse generally, was played during the winter. The league rebranded itself as the Major Indoor Lacrosse League immediately after its inaugural season, and in 1998 renamed itself again, this time to the NLL. In 1998, the NLL entered into the Canadian market for the first time with the Ontario Raiders. Although eight of the league's fourteen teams are based in American cities, more than two-thirds of the players are Canadian.
On June 29, 2022, a group of Lacrosse fans announced a new league the Professional Box Lacrosse Association. The league spokesperson identified nine teams which will be in cities in the United States.
Rules
Players, equipment and officials
During play, a team consists of six players: a goaltender and five "runners". A runner is any non-goalkeeper position player, including forwards, transition players, and defenders. Runners usually specialize in one of these roles and substitute off the field when the ball moves from one end to the other. When the sport originated teams played with six runners. However, in 1953 the sixth runner, a position called rover, was eliminated. The goalkeeper can be replaced by another runner, often when a delayed penalty has been called on the other team or at the end of games by teams that are behind to help score goals.A player's lacrosse stick must be between and in length. In most box lacrosse leagues, the use of a traditional wooden stick is allowed. However, almost no lacrosse players use wooden sticks any more, preferring aluminum or another metal, and a plastic head. In the NLL, wooden lacrosse sticks are not allowed. Besides a lacrosse stick, each player must also wear a certain amount of protective equipment, including a lacrosse helmet with face mask, lacrosse gloves, arm and shoulder pads, and back/kidney pads. Rib pads are optional in some leagues.
In some box leagues, especially the NLL, the five "runners" wear helmets specifically designed for box lacrosse. These helmets consist of a hockey helmet with a box lacrosse face mask attached instead of a hockey cage.
During a typical game the number of officials can range from one to three, depending on the league and level of play. In most games there are at least two referees: a lead official and a trail official. In NLL games there are three officials per game.
Goaltender
The goaltender's responsibility is to prevent the opposition from scoring goals by directly defending the net. Box lacrosse goaltenders equipment includes upper body gear, large shin guards that must measure no more than at the knee, at the top of the shin and at the ankle, and a field lacrosse helmet or ice hockey goalie mask.The to radius area surrounding the net is called the "crease". Players except for the goaltender may not enter the crease while playing the ball. Punishments for crease infractions include a change of possession, resetting of the time-clock, or a possible two-minute penalty depending on the infraction. Opposing players may not make contact with the goaltender while he is in the crease. Once he leaves the crease, however, he loses all goaltender privileges.
Even as box lacrosse grows in the United States, the American goalkeeper is a rarity. The skills required to be a successful field lacrosse goaltender and a successful box lacrosse goaltender are very different and do not lend well to one another.