Lacrosse History
Lacrosse has its origins in a tribal game played by the North American Indians tribes, which lived in the Great Lakes area. In its beginnings lacrosse, then called baggataway, was a wide-open game that was part religious ritual and part military training. As a matter of fact, the game was sometimes played to appeal to the gods for healing or to settle disputes between tribes. This is why lacrosse always required tremendous athletic skills: in early games, just running up and down the field was a great feat. Goals could be as far as 500 yards to half a mile apart and no sidelines limited the playing area. Games lasted two to three days with “time outs” between sundown and sunup. Teams had as many as 1,000 players vying to move a small, deerskin ball past their opponent’s goal. Players used three- to four-foot long sticks with small nets on the end to throw, catch and carry the ball. With all of those sticks and only one ball, a lot of extra-curricular activity occurred.
•It was not until until the 1600s when a Jesuit priest, named Jean de Brebeuf, watched some native Americans playing lacrosse that it started to become popular. In fact, in 1636 the same missionary commented on the game that he would then call “lacrosse”.
• It was not until the early 1800s that the French settlers started playing lacrosse on a regular basis. The French influence on the game tended to "civilize' it a bit as well. Canadian dentist W. George Beers wrote a set of rules for the game in 1867 that set out the size of the playing field, limits to the number of players on each side, and other standard rules.
• New York University boasted the country's first college team in 1877, and Philips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, Philips Andover Academy, Massachusetts and the Lawrenceville School, New Jersey were the nations' first high school teams in 1882.
• In the early 1900s lacrosse became recognized as a world class sport and was accepted as an Olympic sport and the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse League (USILL) was formed. In 1926, the USILL was replaced by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, which is still the governing body of the sport of lacrosse today.
• Lacrosse continued to grow in North America during the mid 1900s, and today the game is played by over five-hundred universities and colleges, as well as over fourteen-hundred high schools nationwide.
• International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) was founded in 1974. The team in composed of 45 members (including the American Indians) and 6 associated nations. In 1995 the European Lacrosse Federation (ELF) was also formed.
• The first World Lacrosse Championships was in Melbourne, in 1974
Lacrosse in Italy
The history of lacrosse in Italy dated back to 2003 when an italian guy, Fabio Antonelli came back from the United States (Colorado), where he knew and played this sport. Once in Italy, he met Robert Corna a 32 years old italian-american man who was trying to gather some guys in order to form the first italian lacrosse team in Rome: the “Roma Leones Club”.
European Lacrosse Championships, Prague (Czech Rep.) 2004: the Italian team attended its first international competion. Robert Corna and his guys, which were part of the national roaster, ranked the 11th place in the standing.
World Lacrosse Championships, London 2006:the national team took part of the tournament, without deploying any italian player in its ranks though. They ranked the 10th place in the standing out of 20 registered teams.
June 1st, 2007: the Italian Lacrosse Game Federation (FIGL – Federazione Italiana Giuoco Lacrosse) was finally formed .
Summer 2007: the italian federation applied for and achieved the official ammission by the ILF (International Lacrosse Federation) and by the ELF (European Lacrosse Federation).
European Lacrosse Championships, Lathi (Finland) 2008: the national team was mostly set up of Italian players, while others had Italian origins (binationals).
March 2009, La Spezia (Italy): the first official Italian Cup tournament was held in the region of Tuscany in two days: February 28th, 2009 and March 1st, 2009. The “La Spezia Aquile Nere” team and the Italian Lacrosse Game Federation (FIGL) took care of the organization. The participant teams were the following: “Roma Leones” (from Rome), “Aquile Nere La Spezia” (from La Spezia) and an All Star italian selection composed of “Phoneix” team (from Perugia, region of Umbria) and players belonging to the following emerging teams: “Taurus Torino” (from Turin, region of Piemonte) e “Red Hawks Merate Lacrosse” (from Merate – Milan, region of Lombardia).
October 13rd, 2009: the Italian Lacrosse League begun with 4 participant teams: “Roma Leones”, “Phoenix Perugia”, “Red Hawks Merate\Taurus Torino” (who got together for a lack of players) and “Aquile Nere La Spezia”. The championship had a first and a second round and each team played one game per month. “Roma Leones” upset the standings and won its first league.
May 2010, II Italian Cup (Perugia): Roma Leones won again for the second season.
World Lacrosse Championships 2010, Machester (UK): the Italy national team took part of the Championship and brought to Manchester their best italian players and some binationals. Despite of the first time participants, they ranked the 19th place out of 30 registered teams. And this was the best result ever obtained by the Italy National Lacrosse team.
Check out the complete (full) Lacrosse History in Italy. |
Italy National Lacrosse Team
From its foundation, the Italian Lacrosse Federation competed for two official contests: the European Lacrosse Championships, held in Finland (Lathi 2008) and the World Lacrosse Championships, held in United Kingdom (Machester 2010).
35 players were cap for the occasions, and just 8 competed the two events.
During the last World Championship, Italy achieved, for the first time, two important aims: the winning of 4 games in a row (compared to the previous World Championship) and also the largest number of wins (5) in a international contest.
Here and now, the Italy National Lacrosse team lined up on the field the following players
| 4 | - Goalkeepers |
| 10 | - Defenders |
| 3 | - LSM |
| 11 | - Midfielders |
| 7 | - Attackers |
Roll of Honour
Italian League & Italian Cup |
| Season | League | Italian Cup |
| 2009/2010 | Roma Leones | Roma Leones |
| 2008/2009 | Roma Leones |