Kendal's next generation
Border City Lacrosse Club was founded near Carlisle in April 2019 , and in 2020 the club applied to The Lacrosse Foundation for a grant to help to establish & launch the club.
Since then, the club based in Brampton (9 miles E of the centre of Carlisle) has done an amazing job of spreading the sport in the north of the county. TLF has funded field sticks for three secondary schools – Ullswater, Queen Elizabeth and William Howard (in Penrith & Brampton) all of whom are self-delivering the curriculum. In addition, a number of local primary schools have now adopted lacrosse to feed young players into the club, which also provides progression from primary into secondary education.
In 2023, TLF approved further funding to support the expansion of lacrosse in the southern part of Cumbria, supported by the Border City club, and two passionate lacrosse enthusiasts – Jo Racle, and lacrosse coach Vics Law. Together, they have been working to promote the sport in schools, utilising a four-step model for primary schools in Cumbria to achieve this:
Deliver subsidised taster sessions in schools, which would build towards an end of year festival.
Promote sustainability by offering a teachers CPD event.
Offer a template at the CPD event to enable the schools to more easily submit a small grant application to TLF for the school’s own pop equipment to enable them to self-deliver lacrosse.
Provide coaching to any schools who elect to pay for sessions rather than self deliver.
From Autumn 2023, Jo and Vics introduced the sport into a number of south Cumbria schools with over 600 children being given a taste of pop lacrosse. The focus was on Kendal, which culminated in April 2024 with a lacrosse festival organized for the primary and secondary schools in the area. Despite it being a wet and windy day, over 100 children enjoyed the festival, which attracted 18 teams from 12 schools.
Staff from 19 primary schools in Cumbria have now attended CPD (Continual Professional Development), eleven of which have submitted grant applications to TLF to have their own equipment - typical grants of £800 provide a set of 36 sticks, 36 balls, and 4 x 3ft x 3ft pop lacrosse goals.
The ultimate aim for Dan Clements at Border City is to create and establish a satellite club based in Kendal, providing a more accessible club setting for those young people from the surrounding area – as well as a second club in the county. The commitment of this group to support the development of lacrosse is recognised., and the challenge of maintaining this initial momentum in a location ‘remote’ from the traditional lacrosse heartland will be vital.