It starts with a nomination.

You understand how Aspire works. And now you want to join the programme. Almost all our athletes are nominated by lacrosse clubs and coaches, schools, or universities, and we accept nominations from coaches of other sports too. Once you’ve been nominated, we’ll invite you to a County, Regional, or National Academy assessment day depending on your age and ability. Here are the details.

Nomination

– For a chance to join the programme, athletes matching our criteria have to be nominated — usually by their lacrosse club, school, or university.
– Athletes are nominated by completing this nomination form, and nominations should include the athlete’s name, school or club, and location.
– Deadlines for nominations are sent out via email. To join the mailing list, contact [email protected].

Assessment

– Most nominees aged 14 and under will be invited to their nearest County Academy assessment weekend, while older athletes will go straight to Regional or National Academy assessments.
– If an athlete misses a County Academy assessment, we might invite them to the Regional Academy instead — we don’t want to miss a chance to see a promising athlete play.
– Rather than single assessment days, we run entire weekends for you to show off your skills.
– During assessments, we’ll assess athletes against our scoring criteria, rank performance, and invite standout stars to join at the right level for their age and ability.

Scoring Criteria

You don’t have to be a fully fledged lacrosse player to join Aspire. We want power and potential — and that’s reflected in our scoring criteria. Among other things, we look for evidence of strong decision-making in highpressure situations; the ability to influence attack and defence; rapid, controlled and coordinated movement; and persistence. You can find our full scoring criteria here.

Fees

If you’re invited to join Aspire, you’ll need to pay a fee to attend the training weekends. It covers all the costs of training and coaching. There’s a bursary available for those who might need help paying the fees — for more information, visit englandlacrosse.co.uk/aspire or email [email protected].