America’s first sport is rapidly becoming one of its favorite sports and the growth shows no signs of slowing. In 2008, there were 524,230 players nationally in the United States, an increase of 9.1 percent from 2007. The game is growing from the youth to the professional level, with the sport reaching out to every corner of the country. Highlights of the growth at various levels of the game are listed below.

More complete information is available in the 2008 US Lacrosse Participation Report (PDF).

Youth
Youth lacrosse has more than doubled in just seven years. It is one of the fastest-growing segments of the sport. In 2008, there were 265,214 players, a 9.8 percent increase from the previous year. Significant growth has occurred in Georgia, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Colorado, New Jersey, Washington and Florida.

High School
There were 218,823 high school players in 2008, an 8.7 percent increase from 2007. According to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations, no sport has grown faster over the last decade than lacrosse, with more than 2,300 boys' and girls' programs added in that time. In 2008, North Carolina and South Carolina became the 19th and 20th state high school associations to formally recognize or sanction lacrosse as an official sport.

College
Lacrosse is also the fastest-growing sport at the NCAA level over the last decade. There were 29,822 players at the collegiate level in 2008, up 5.4 percent from the previous year. Twenty-one new varsity programs were launched in 2009, and 40 more have been announced to begin in 2010 or 2011. These new men’s and women’s programs are coming to states like Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, Wisconsin, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Nebraska and Kentucky. There are more than 500 club and junior college teams around the country, the vast majority of which compete in the US Lacrosse Women's Division Intercollegiate Associates (WDIA) structure and the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA).

Post-Collegiate
There are numerous former high school and college lacrosse players that give back to the game as coaches and officials, and many continue to play in post-collegiate clubs. On the men’s side, there are more than a dozen leagues that primarily take place in the spring and summer, including the American Lacrosse League, a league of more than 50 teams that stretches from New Hampshire to Virginia. On the women’s side, there are more than 70 clubs around the country, with most play taking place during tournaments held throughout the year. In 2008, there were 10,071 men and women participating in post-collegiate lacrosse, an increase of 9.3 percent from 2007.

Professional
There are two professional lacrosse leagues - Major League Lacrosse, a six-team outdoor league that played its first season in 2001, and the National Lacrosse League, an 12-team indoor league that dates to 1987. The NLL features teams in Canada and the U.S., with Edmonton, Minnesota and Portland (Ore.) as its newest franchises. In 2008, there were 300 professional players.

International
The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) was formed in the summer of 2008 as the new governing body for men’s and women’s lacrosse at the international level. The organization is a result of a merger between the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) and the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF).

Organized lacrosse is now played in more than 30 countries on five continents. A record 22 nations competed for the men’s world championship in Canada in 2006. The U.S. had won the last six men’s world championships, but finished second to Canada in 2006. A record 10 countries competed in the 2005 World Cup for women’s lacrosse with Australia defeating the U.S. in the final in Annapolis, Md., ending a string of four straight championships for the United States. The women will compete again in 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic. The men compete in 2010 in Machester, England.

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