Earlier this year, a brand new mixed lacrosse club was founded in London, led by Qasim Alli, who was eager to find a mixed lacrosse team or club for non-students after first discovering and subsequently falling in love with the format during his university days.
London City Panthers, as the club is now known, has, in the short time since its inception, grown to include over 70 members, even unveiling a new club crest a couple of weeks ago.
Speaking to England Lacrosse, Qasim, after moving back to his home city of London and keeping up with his involvement in lacrosse through refereeing and coaching university teams, noticed a gap in the London lacrosse market and decided to found his own team with a difference.
“There’s such a demand for mixed lacrosse teams; London City Panthers train as a single mixed squad and play matches in the England Lacrosse Mixed Leagues, mostly against university teams.
“We have a real focus on inclusion and accessibility, and welcome players of all abilities, from beginners to national squad players.
“We have been inspired by clubs like the Rainbow Rexes (an LGBTQIA+ inclusive touring lacrosse team), and the Home Nations Lions Mixed Lacrosse team, who are attempting to elevate the level of mixed lacrosse across the United Kingdom. London City Panthers strive to have the inclusive and beginner friendly ethos of the Rexes whilst pushing and growing the game in the pattern of the Home Nations Lions.“
The separate men’s rules and women’s rules teams seem to dominate the lacrosse landscape in the UK and across the globe but Qasim believes there is definitely a place for mixed lacrosse clubs.
“Mixed lacrosse is often seen as something men’s rules and women’s rules players do as a fun and less serious option, but we believe it stands on its own as a competitive version of the game. Additionally, men’s rules lacrosse is something most of our founding members have little to no experience of, and women’s rules lacrosse does not require such a significant financial investment in terms of essential playing kit from the off.”
Expanding on the club’s equality and inclusion ethos, Qasim wants London City Panthers to be an inclusive group that everyone can join.
“This is something we will all need to work on together in order to achieve; our Equality and Inclusion Action commitments are a starting point but we are willing to learn and change how we do things!
“In fact, we encourage all our members as well as people from outside the club to get in touch if they have a suggestion or if our guidelines do not adequately work to include them.
“We reject gender normative approaches to sport, i.e. we try not to make assumptions or have expectations of specific genders, whether that’s about what lacrosse they may have encountered before, their skill level, their style of play, or their athletic ability. I’ve been on mixed sports teams before where people are expected to defend players of the same gender because there is an assumed physical imbalance, but we know that athletes are individuals with strengths and weaknesses, and on-pitch match-ups are about learning and adapting to the team you’re playing with and against. We would love to see a world where lacrosse is not split by gender-normative assumptions. Men’s rules lacrosse could be referred to as ‘contact’ and women’s rules lacrosse as ‘semi-contact’ versions of the sport open to athletes of any gender identity.”
In addition to their gender inclusive approach to the game, Qasim and the team are also keen to highlight the origins of lacrosse and the way it was formalised and turned into a sport.
“It was important for us to acknowledge the colonial origins of lacrosse and the way the sport was appropriated from First Nations people by white settlers in what is now Canada and North America. Unsurprisingly given this colonial history and the racial inequality under which we still live, competitive lacrosse has not always been a welcoming space for People Of Colour (POC), and as a club we are committed to changing this.
“We take a zero-tolerance policy to all discriminatory behaviour, and challenge racist and white supremacist language and assumptions. We try to actively seek out and encourage groups that are under-represented in lacrosse to join our club, including POC. We also encourage all lacrosse players to learn more about the First Nations origins of the sport.”
People who want to learn about the origins of lacrosse can click HERE and HERE and follow @FirstNationsLax on Twitter to find out more.
If London City Panthers sounds like something up your street, you can sign up by sending an email to [email protected] or messaging them directly on their Instagram page @lcpmixedlacrosse.
They currently operate on a pay-as-you-play membership system where players only pay for the training and matches they can attend. They want to give people the option to play when they can and encourage people to jump in to whatever playing opportunity they can get to!