Just before Christmas 2019, Wollaston School in Northamptonshire introduced lacrosse onto the school syllabus in their P.E. lessons.
This was the brain child of Assistant Head of the Science Department and England international box lacrosse goal-keeper, Eliot Pugh.
As Wollaston prepares to close its doors indefinitely in line with new government guidelines to help stop the spread of COVID-19, we sat down with Eliot to ask him a few questions about why the school wanted to introduce lacrosse, what challenges they encountered as a state school trying to fund lacrosse and what’s next for the sport within Wollaston in the future.
First of all, what impact has the current situation had on the school?
The shutdown has been a very strange experience as it feels like the end of the summer term but no-one was prepared for it.
It has been very hard for the year 11 and 13 students who feel left in limbo and quite a few feel at a loss as they have spent so long preparing for exams which are now not happening.
We will still be opening though to support the children of 'key workers' and those who are vulnerable or in care.
So, for me, my days are going to continue at work but with some obvious changes to who I will be teaching and what I will be teaching as we try and support all pupils both at school and those working from home.
Now, onto lacrosse, why did the school decide to start offering the sport just before Christmas?
The school had previously done a bit of pop lacrosse and had some sticks in the store room. When I joined the school in 2018, I did a couple of talks to the P.E. department on how best to use them.
Then, after returning from the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships (where I represented team England) in September last year, there was a bit of buzz about the sport in the school so I worked with the P.E. department to work out how we could use this to develop the sport in the syllabus.
We also had a new member of P.E. staff (Emily Cattell) join us in September 2019 who had coached lacrosse at her previous school and played at the University of Birmingham. She started doing sessions with her classes.
I then spoke to my friends at Stowe School (Giles Cuddy and Rob Ingham Clarke) who offered us some proper girls sticks for free. I picked these up and our year 9 and 10 girls have been using them in P.E. lessons ever since.
What challenges has the school encountered being a state school and starting to offer lacrosse?
The first challenge was getting the sticks but thankfully the guys at Stowe were brilliant in supporting us.
The next challenge was not having any proper lacrosse balls, goals or space to play the sport.
The girls spent the first few weeks using tennis balls (or cricket wind balls) and shooting into small 5-a-side football goals.
We also haven't been able to train up any goalkeepers yet.
There was never any real problem with getting the girls enthusiastic; in fact, the majority of them prefer doing the lacrosse sessions over the other major sports such as netball or hockey.
We have been very lucky to solve most of these problems with a grant from the Lacrosse Foundation which has allowed us to purchase four goals and some balls. This has meant that we can start introducing proper rules to the girls and getting them used to the idea of match situations.
Why is it important for state schools to offer different sports like lacrosse instead of the usual football, netball etc.?
I think it’s very important in helping to breakdown perceived social barriers between state and private school pupils.
For instance, our girls were really looking forward to taking on the challenge of competing against Stowe School which was due to take place on 18th March but was unfortunately postponed.
We have agreed to reschedule either in the summer term or at the beginning of the next academic year.
Many of our pupils would not have known about lacrosse before I joined and it has been great to see the enthusiasm many have had for the game.
It has also helped some pupils who wouldn't usually be interested in the more 'main-stream' sports, get into sport; they have found something that they find fun and interesting.
In every school that I have introduced lacrosse to I would say that the majority of pupils have enjoyed it and wanted to continue it further.
And finally, what does the future hold for lacrosse at Wollaston?
I think the sport will grow a lot with the girls; I’ve already seen some significant talent with a lacrosse stick in year 7 and 8.
We ran a 'beat the goalie' event for Sport Relief where I was in goal and we had students having a go at scoring past me with a lacrosse stick.
There was a lot of new players from the lower years coming to have a go and while only one scored, there were some very good techniques on display.
After expanding the girls game further, we have set a target of entering the National Schools competition either next year or in 2022 with at least one team.
Alongside that, I would like to put in another grant for a start up package of boys equipment and look at introducing that as well, perhaps with the sixth form (who would be old enough to join local clubs such as Milton Keynes for training).
For more information about the Lacrosse Foundation and the grants it offers click below: