On Friday 27 June, BBC Radio Oxford broadcast a special five-minute segment about Oxford City Lacrosse Club and their recent successful partnership with primary schools in the area on their Friday Night Sport show.
Read the full transcript below or listen to the piece HERE.
Presenter: The Olympics is often where I find out more about those niche sports you don't tend to usually hear about, like speed climbing, BMXing, canoe slalom.
One sport that is making a comeback for 2028 is lacrosse. Most think of it as an American sport, but here in Oxfordshire, Oxford City Lacrosse Club are trying to train up the next generation of players.
Annabel: My name is Annabel Campbell and I am the President of Oxford City Lacrosse Club. There's a lot of lacrosse in Oxford. Both universities have got good, strong teams.
It was really important, being a university town, that we could get organic growth. So we have a junior section, but we needed to try and drum up more local players to come. And that was really what came behind us starting to do some outreach. And I worked with the university students to bring young coaches in so that they got experience as coaches. And one of those schools loved it. And they came back and said, could we bring it into the West Oxfordshire primary schools?
Presenter: Students from five primary schools took up three pitches at Matthew Arnold School. They're whizzing around with their plastic lacrosse sticks, flying all over the place to try and score. There are cheers and smiles on faces, so I have to ask the students, did they actually enjoy it?
Holly: I'm Holly and I'm 11 years old. I haven't played lacrosse before. It's really fun and I would love to do it as a sport, but it's very tiring sometimes.
Harry: My name is Harry and I'm 10 years old. It sounds a bit weird, like, using sticks and balls to throw in big goals and then, like, yeah, there's a lot of rules you have to remember. Like rugby, you just have to kick a ball as far as you can, but this, there's a circle you can't go in, you can't go out, a bunch of stuff.
Presenter: So is this a sport, Harry, that you think you're going to do at school? Would you like to do it more regularly?
Harry: Yeah, maybe, because, like, for this kind of sport, like, you have to get really good at it to actually, like, score a couple of goals.
Presenter: Do you want to do this outside of school, like as a hobby, like a new sport to try?
Harry: Not really, because I just don't really think it's, like, the sport that I would like to do. Like, some other people, yeah, because there's someone here coaching us who plays for England.
Presenter: As Harry mentioned, Oxfordshire is home to an England under-20s player, showing everyone just how far you can go in lacrosse.
Talia: Hi, I'm Talia, I'm 20, I'm from Buckland, and I'm currently part of the England development team. I was lucky, I was introduced to it from school, and then from there, loved the sport, and then started playing club at Oxford City. It's a very teamwork sport, which I love, and it's very tactical, which is always fun.
It's so good to see it with such young players, and, like, seeing them enjoy the sport, and try something new, like, they're all, like, so excited that it's something so different to what they're used to, and they all seem to have loved it. I've seen some amazing players. I've been really impressed, yeah.
Presenter: Let's be honest, lacrosse can be seen as an expensive sport. So how have these schools gone about getting equipment, training coaches? That's where the partnership with Oxford City Lacrosse Club comes in.
Annabel: Worked with England Lacrosse for them to train the teachers within the school, because for me, that's going to give it longevity, and we can keep working with them. And then we were very lucky, we put together a little partnership with The Lacrosse Foundation, and with Centurion Lacrosse, which are two clubs, but they both have grants that they're able to give.
Presenter: This is the first time a lacrosse partnership between state schools and a community club has taken place in Oxford. Matthew Arnold School played host for this mini-tournament, and Head of PE Mr East was on hand to say where the secondary school fits into all of this.
Mr East: From our point of view as a secondary school, our main objective is to get young people in our community being active and playing sport. And I think, as Head of PE, our responsibility in the community is to be that central hub for the primary schools. This is the first of the pilot, which is really exciting, and lacrosse has been excellent, and it's been a really successful afternoon.
Presenter: With the Olympics coming up, why is it important for state schools in Oxfordshire to buck the trend, and offer students a chance to try sports that are often dominated by private schools? I'll let Mr East and Talia answer that one.
Talia: It's great to see it being introduced into more state schools, as it's the aim to get as many people playing as possible, and then developing more and more players. The more talent you have, the better it is for the sport as a whole, and the enjoyment of the sport in general, by making it more inclusive for everyone, it just really grows the game, which is what we all want.
Mr East: People who are in sport and love sport understand that POP lacrosse, for example, or kwik cricket, versions that they're coming out with are crucial for state schools to be able to access, to get funding to, and then to have the opportunity to play, and then brilliant clubs like Oxford City that then offer the next steps. It's all about that pathway. They can enjoy it at school, but where's the pathway? There needs to be a club and a route out. So if we can build those, any sport can be for anyone.
Presenter: That's the plan. It's all about creating and solidifying that pathway in a niche sport, which Annabel from Oxford City Lacrosse Club puts perfectly.
Annabel: This is why we do what we do, to be able to start that link from the playground, for want of a better word, to the podium.
For more information about Oxford City Lacrosse Club and how to get involved, head to their website HERE.