LACROSSE BASICS
Lacrosse has roots in the cultural tradition of the Native American Iroquois people, inhabiting what is now New York, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the Northeastern US and lower parts of Ontario and Quebec. As a result of its origins, it is traditionally a Northeastern US, or "east coast" sport, but in recent years has successfully grown into the South, mid-west, and western parts of America.
Lacrosse may have been developed as early as 1100 AD among indigenous peoples on the North American continent.[2][3] By the seventeenth century, it was well-established. It was documented by Jesuit missionary priests in the territory of present-day Canada. The game has undergone many modifications since that time.
Lacrosse is a contact team sport played between two teams using a small rubber ball (62.8–64.77 mm (2.472–2.550 in), 140–147 g (4.9–5.2 oz)) and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick. It is often considered as a rough sport,[1] with slashes and intense checks to the stick and body. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent's goal past the goalie, using the lacrosse stick to catch, cradle, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the other team from scoring and to gain the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The sport consists of four positions: midfield, attack, defense and goalie. In field lacrosse, attackmen are solely offensive players (except on the "ride", when the opposition tries to bring the ball upfield and attackmen must stop them), defensemen or defenders are solely defensive players (except when bringing up the ball, which is called a "clear"), the goalie is the last line of defense, directly defending the goal, and midfielders or "middies" can go anywhere on the field and play offense and defense, although in higher levels of lacrosse there are specialized offensive and defensive middies. Long stick middies only play defense and come off of the field on offense.
The game we know today:
Game Duration: Four 12 minute quarters for Varsity. 10 minute quarters for JV games.
Number of Players: Maximum of 10 players on the field
Two basic types of fouls:
PERSONAL FOULS: Cross checking, slashing, tripping, unnecessary roughness, illegal body checking, unsportsmanlike conduct, equipment. These penalties incur a one minute penalty. Additional minutes or ejection can result for severe infractions. When a personal foul occurs, the offending player must leave the field of play and remain in the penalty box until the penalty time is served, or the opposing team scores, whichever occurs first.
TECHNICAL FOULS: Holding, off sides, pushing, screening, interference, stalling, warding off. These penalties result in loss of possession, and the ball being turned over to the opposing team. Off sides and pushing with possession fouls can also result in 30 second penalties.
