BALTIMORE – US Lacrosse has joined with the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) as a bronze level education partner. Since NASO’s inception more than 27 years ago, its mission has been to provide sports officials at every level of play and sport with the finest training materials, educational resources, benefits and support. US Lacrosse is committed to the ongoing recruitment, training, and retaining of high-quality lacrosse officials.

"We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to educate and train lacrosse officials and provide them with the best tools and services," said Nathaniel Badder, US Lacrosse’s manager of officials education and training. "Knowledgeable officials are crucial to growing the sport of lacrosse responsibly. NASO has been - and will continue to be - a great resource for US Lacrosse while we further develop our officials’ education and training programs."

NASO’s other education partners include: the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Referee Magazine, and several state high school athletic associations.

"We are very pleased to have US Lacrosse as one of our Education Partners," said Barry Mano, founder and president of NASO. "Our goal is to provide our education partners an array of resources that can be used to improve the training, security and performance their officiating programs. At the same time NASO will benefit from the excellent work already being done by US Lacrosse on behalf of its officials. Together we will increase the body of knowledge used in sports officiating."

Over 8,300 men’s and women’s lacrosse officials are members of US Lacrosse. Last year, US Lacrosse trained 1,900 new men’s game officials and 350 new women’s game umpires. So far in 2008, US Lacrosse has trained nearly 2,000 men’s officials and 450 women’s umpires.

About National Association of Sports Officials
Since its founding in 1980, NASO has campaigned to improve working conditions for officials. NASO works with many state and local associations to provide training seminars, nationally renowned speakers, books and manuals for educational purposes, and provides an aggressive public relations program that promotes sports officiating as a positive, rewarding and meaningful career. Nearly 17,000 officials worldwide belong to NASO.

About US Lacrosse
US Lacrosse, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, is the national governing body for men’s and women’s lacrosse. US Lacrosse has more than 250,000 members in 60 regional chapters around the country. Through responsive and effective leadership, US Lacrosse strives to provide programs and services to inspire participation while protecting the integrity of the game. To learn more about US Lacrosse, please visit www.uslacrosse.org.