rob collinge

Rob started The Foundation as a charity in 2006 to help The Blues raise money to run a lacrosse programme in their local schools. Now he chairs the trustee board that will transform us into a national charity to support the growth of lacrosse.

Rob first played the game as a goalie around 50 years ago for Imperial College. On leaving college he played for St. Helier, now part of The Blues. When he retired from play, and after many years as club treasurer, he took up refereeing - representing England as an official at the World U19s in 1996. He has recently retired as the BluesFest head referee and is focused on training the next generation of referees. He also works, as secretary, with The Centurions to support initiatives that grow the game.

Rob is retired from work having spent his career at GlaxoSmithKline for the later years as a SVP in their Corporate HQ.

Adam Footitt

Adam is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and works as an audit manager with a wide range of businesses including owner managed business and complex groups across many sectors such as manufacturing, retail, wholesale and distribution. In addition to this, Adam has over five years experience working in the academy sector along with dealing with numerous charities and not-for-profit organisations.

Adam started playing lacrosse at the University of Hertfordshire in 2008, and represented the university throughout his time there, along with Welwyn Warriors where he worked his way up to their first team. Once graduated, he moved back to the midlands and began to play for the newly formed City of Stoke Lacrosse Club, and has been the first team captain since 2012 and Chairman and Treasurer since 2013. Adam has also represented the North West and Lancashire.

Amit Biswas

Amit discovered lacrosse 30 years ago whilst looking for a new sport to play after leaving school. He joined Blues Lacrosse Club and was quickly captured by lacrosse. Since then Amit has played, coached, officiated and administered the sport at various levels.

Amit was instrumental in establishing the Blues Lacrosse schools and junior development programme which he ran for 10 years and, to help fund this, became a founder trustee of the charity SELET from which The Lacrosse Foundation has evolved. He has served as a volunteer member of the English Lacrosse Technical Committee and was an Assistant Coach for the England National Team in the 2012 European Championships.

Amit is looking forward to continuing his passion for lacrosse through the work of The Lacrosse Foundation and to use his varied experiences within the sport to support its development.

Peter Jessup

Peter’s involvement in lacrosse began at the age of 12 at school in Manchester, and progressed to playing the game at club, county, regional, and national team level.   He is believed to be the youngest ever captain of a Flags-winning team (20yrs 125days), which was won whilst at Sheffield University.  He was then a founder member of Sheffield Steelers LC, and also played with Mellor LC & Leeds Univ.

Off the field, he helped initiate the Sheffield LC junior programme, and served as Secretary and then President of the Yorkshire County Association.

Peter’s working background is in the Banking & Financial Services sector, in roles relating to Strategic & Business Change, Operations Design, and Digital Customer Experience, for companies including NAB, Egg, Citibank, HSBC & Sopra Steria.

After 15 years away from the game, Peter joined TLF as a Trustee to help support the growth of lacrosse in all parts of the UK.

Heather Carroll

Heather discovered lacrosse at school, joining Purley Ladies Lacrosse Club (who later on went to merge with Walcountian Blues Men’s Club) as junior, playing at University of Birmingham and also representing Surrey, South and South East territories. She has held various roles across the Blues committee since 2009 including Ladies Captain, Bluesfest Organiser and Chair, and has also held roles on South East Women’s Lacrosse Association from 2012-2015. She is a qualified level 2 umpire.

In a professional capacity, Heather is a Volunteer Manager, having worked in the Higher Education and charity sectors. She has a keen interest in increasing opportunities for underrepresented communities that comes from her time working with students, and hopes to bring this experience to the work of The Lacrosse Foundation.

Ally McDonald Alonso

Ally has been involved in lacrosse since school - playing for her school teams and then playing for Loughborough University as a student including winning BUSA (former name of BUCS). Ally also played for Wales in both the U21’s and represented Wales at the European Championship. Ally latterly spent 3 seasons coaching the Loughborough University second team, including taking them to a BUCS championship!

Ally is now working for Portas Consulting, the premier global management consultancy dedicated to sport, leading their Marketing and Knowledge function, and previously was the Head of Staff to the Vice-Chancellor and Special Envoy to the USA at Loughborough University. Ally has two young children and two dogs and is a passionate advocate for the positive impact sport can have on people and society.

Sarah Laptain 

Sarah started playing lacrosse at school before playing in both the University of Sheffield and University of York first teams. Sarah now plays for Sheffield Steelers Women (formerly Sheffield Ladies Lacrosse) and is a member of the committee who agreed the club merger with Steelers. She now spends most of her lacrosse time umpiring the women's game.

Sarah is currently a PhD student, researching who engages with digital crowdsourcing projects and why they get involved. She previously worked for Stemettes, a social enterprise working to support young women and non-binary people into science careers. Sarah hopes to bring the experience of working with volunteers to The Lacrosse Foundation and is excited to grow the game further across the UK.