Lacrosse is a fast paced game of agility, speed and strength. The skills of hockey, basketball and soccer are all rolled into one sport. Players must learn to work together to create field strategy to score goals or play defense. Like any organized sport, discipline is required to attend practices, focus on the game and endure rigorous training. But having fun is also an important part fo the experience. In the Triangle area, the lacrosse community is a tight-knit group, where many of the families from all of the programs know each other and socialize on sidelines at tournaments. There is a network for organized lacrosse at middle school (Triangle Youth Lacrosse League) and high school levels. Most of the area high schools support varsity level programs. Players and families are also known to network at the college level.

According to a recent US Lacrosse online survey of more than 1,600 parents of boys and girls youth lacrosse players from 47 different states the average age is 8.5 years old. Regardless of statistics, the right age for a child to begin playing the game of lacrosse depends on certain variables, such as their size and personal development. While it’s never too early to begin informal play, being a member of any sports team requires a certain level of coordination and maturity. If you are an older athlete, it’s never too late to start, especially if you have played other sports. We offer programs for all ages and skill levels.

There are four main positions in lacrosse; attack, mid-field, defense and goalie. Coaches will typically help place players in the appropriate positions when an athlete is just learning the game. Athletes will also have the opportunity to play a variety of positions.

ATTACK
Attack have the most skilled stick skills and more point scoring potential for the team.

MID-FIELD
As the most well-rounded players, mid-fielders play both offense and defense. The can score goals and check players. They possess speed, endurance and strength.

DEFENSE
Gone are the days of defenders being slow. Tasked with protecting the goal, they are also athletic with speed, strength and agility.

GOALIE
Players who choose to “protect the pipes” are fearless leaders with exceptional reflexes.  A different breed of athlete that is mentally and physically tough, with quick hands and feet.

From scoring to saving, all four lacrosse positions play a critical role in the game. It might help to discuss with your athlete and coaches which is the right position for them.

We recommend players that are new to the sport start off in one of our recreation programs or skills clinics. These types of programs tend to be less expensive and less time consuming. Recreation leagues have 1 to 2 practices per week with a game on the weekend. These games are mostly against other teams within the Red Devil program or other recreation teams in the area. The recreation leagues are held during winter (Indoor Box Lacrosse), spring (Outdoor full-field games) or summer (7 v7 games).

Clinics are typically held 1 time per week over a 6 –10 week time frame. These types of programs are good for building foundational skills and repetition or may be focused on a particular position on the field. They are perfect for the new player learning the game to develop foundational skills and get lots of ball repetitions or for the experienced player who desires to achieve a higher level of competency on the field. Clinics are typically held in the summer, fall and winter seasons.

After a season or two at the recreational level, your athlete may want to consider trying out for the Red Devil Travel program. Travel lacrosse provides more rigorous training and a higher level of competition. The costs to participate are higher, including travel expenses for tournaments, but our families often enjoy the family time together. Red Devil offers summer and fall travel seasons. We typically practice 2-3 times per week and attend one-day play tournaments, local games, and weekend tournaments that are within a 3-hour driving distance. The high school travel teams may also compete in tournaments that are more than 3-hours away in order to face more competitive teams or be exposed to college recruiters.

Lacrosse is a fast paced game of agility, speed and strength. The skills of hockey, basketball and soccer are all rolled into one sport. Players must learn to work together to create field strategy to score goals or play defense. Like any organized sport, discipline is required to attend practices, focus on the game and endure rigorous training. But having fun is also an important part fo the experience. In the Triangle area, the lacrosse community is a tight-knit group, where many of the families from all of the programs know each other and socialize on sidelines at tournaments. There is a network for organized lacrosse at middle school (Triangle Youth Lacrosse League) and high school levels. Most of the area high schools support varsity level programs. Players and families are also known to network at the college level.

Most of our Red Devil Travel teams are grade-based and divided up by graduation year. The teams are referred to as 2022 (11th grade) or 2026 (7th grade) and so on. We may also have combined teams with players from multiple grades where all athletes must be born after a specific cut-off date. For example, a U13 team (2026 division) must be born on or after 9/1/2007. These categories adhere to the US Lacrosse Roster Guidelines.

Program costs can vary, depending on the program. To find out specific program costs, visit our registration page.

Goalies play for free! Yep, that’s right…we are always looking for a good goalie and want to reward your families for filling such a challenging role!

Traditional lacrosse is played outdoors with 10 players (boys) and 12 players (girls) whereas Box lacrosse is played indoors either on indoor turf fields or ice rinks where the ice has been removed or covered. Box lacrosse consists of 6 players for both boys and girls lacrosse. It is a much faster moving game and is great for building stick skills that translate for traditional lacrosse. The goalie positions for Traditional vs Box are very different both in terms of goal size and equipment.

Gear needed for boys and girls lacrosse is different. Girls are required to have goggles, stick, mouth guards, and cleats. Boys are required to have a helmet, lacrosse stick, shoulder pads, arm pads, cleats, gloves, mouth guard, and an athletic cup (Goalies have other requirements, such as throat guard and chest protector). Indoor box players are also required to have rib protection.

Gear can be purchased at the Red Devil shop, or at retail stores like Play It Again, Dicks’ Sporting Goods, Lacrosse Unlimited and online through lacrosse warehouses like lacrossemonkey.com, lax.com, or sidelineswap.com. And of course, don’t forget to ask neighbors or friends if they have extra gear lying around their garage that you may be able to borrow, particularly as your athlete gets started and goes through those inevitable growth spurts. But keep in mind that most of the gear is intended to protect your athlete, so make sure used equipment is not damaged and is not more than a few years old because the safety technology improves every year. Some stores will extend limited time discounts to our families, which we will always be sure to let you know about.

If you are interested in stringing a lacrosse stick there are many how-to videos on YouTube that will guide you through the process. If stringing your own stick isn’t your thing, you can also pay to get it strung at Lacrosse Unlimited or Dicks’ Sporting Goods for approximately $20 + cost of your supplies (string and mesh).

At Red Devil, we adhere to the US Lacrosse rules that have been written by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the NCAAs. To view current rules visit USLacrosse.com.