Lacrosse   Close

Lacrosse was considered the most widely played team sport of its time in North America with regional variations played with either one or two sticks of differing structures. In all its forms the Native version of lacrosse was an athletic contest of great skill, pride, and spiritual significance.

It was so popular in fact that many sports historians considered it the original national pastime. The indigenous people believe the game was given to them by the Creator for his enjoyment. It was considered more than just a game; and Native people played to help in the healing process, to settle disputes, to help their spiritual development, and to prepare for war. The traditional face-off (toss-up) included the teams yelling the name of their creator, with sticks raised to the sky.

The traditional ball game played by Minnesota’s Ojibway and Dakota communities ended in the last 40 to 90 years due to the extensive diffusion of traditional culture and the influence of government and religious assimilation policies, plus gambling and harsh play. However, stickball, the two wooden stick version of the game played by the Southern tribes like the Seminole and Cherokee, is still played at fairs and pow-wows. In Upstate New York and Ontario, Canada, the Iroquois have also never stopped playing and are credited with introducing the game to European settlers over 300 years ago. The Iroquois have also embraced the modern game played with plastic sticks and helmets.

Today the Iroquois have a highly competitive men’s team and a 19U national team. The game of lacrosse is still a tremendous source of pride for the Iroquois community. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, efforts are being made to reintroduce the sport to kids at various reservations.

In the summer of 1763, the Sauk and Ojibway needed a plan to recapture Fort Michilimackinac (upper Michigan) from the British. The British were at war with the French and controlled all the trading in the Upper Midwest. Since the Ojibway and Sauk preferred the French’s favorable trading practices over those of the English, they devised a unique plan, using a lacrosse game to distract the British soldiers so they could take over the fort. The date for the game was set to coincide with the English kings birthday when the soldiers would be free from their duties and ready to be entertained by the public wagering on the game. On the day of the game, the plan had the women of both tribes line up along the wall in front of the main gate with tomahawks, knives, and war clubs under their shawls and blankets. As the game moved closer to the main gate, the ball was thrown into the fort.

The players from both teams dropped their sticks, grabbing the weapons from the women, and stormed the unsuspecting British through the open main gate, capturing the fort and all the goods, and that’s how lacrosse defeated the British!
There are four types of lacrosse being played today. Minilacrosse (or soft lacrosse) is played by beginners and primarily taught in gym class. It is an inexpensive modified version of the game that stresses the basic skills without the body contact and stick checking. Box or indoor lacrosse invented in Canada is played 6 on 6 in cement or turf-covered hockey rinks in the summer with many of the same rules and equipment of hockey. It stresses the speed and skills of both hockey and basketball with the unique contact, physical demands, and skills of lacrosse (no skating required). Men’s field lacrosse played 10 on 10 on football-size field in the spring is closer to the traditional Native game than box. It features the same lacrosse skills with more wide-open action, set positions, and strategy. It is an NCAA Division I, II, and III and National Federated High School sanctioned sport with programs throughout the United States.Women’s field lacrosse played 12 on 12 has no boundaries or the body checking of the men’s game. It is a highly skilled and fast-paced game that actually retains more of the traditional Native game than any other version of the sport. It is an NCAA Division I and III and National Federated High School sanctioned sport with programs throughout the United States.

Today’s game is no longer just popular in the eastern United States and Canada; it is growing in popularity from coast to coast nationally and internationally. Australia, England, Ireland, the Iroquois Nation, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Wales, and South Korea all have national teams.

Netball   Close

In 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts a 30-year-old Canadian immigrant to the USA, James Naismith, was ordered to invent an indoor game for high-spirited young men at the School for Christian Workers (later the YMCA).

Most games tried ended with injury rates of staggering proportions! So Naismith conjured up a game whereby a ball had to be lobbed into a high peach basket (his reasoning being that if a ball had to dropped into the “goal”, it couldn’t be thrown at breakneck speed).

Basketball was born, with the original game featuring nine players – three forwards, three centres and three guards – simply because Naismith had 18 youths to keep amused.

Women’s indoor basketball began exactly two days later when female teachers to the gym were captivated by the game but it wasn’t until 1895 that the current game of netball was well and truly shaped. When Clara Baer, a sports teacher in New Orleans, wrote to Naismith asking for a copy of the rules, the subsequent rules package contained a drawing of the court with lines penciled across it, simply to show the areas various players could best patrol. But Baer misinterpreted the lines and thought players couldn’t leave those areas! In 1899 her mistake was ratified into the rules of women’s basketball as zones.

Three-bounce dribbling had quickly been extended in the men’s game (which didn’t have no-go zones), but it was seldom used in the women’s version when it reached Britain and the Empire. In fact, there was no pressure to increase that form of ball movement and in the end dribbling simply ceased to exist.

Netball was first played in England in 1895 at Madame Ostenburg’s College. In the first half of the 20th century, Netball’s popularity continued to grow, with the game being played in many British Commonwealth countries. There were no standard rules at that time with both nine-a-side and five-a-side versions of the game.

During an Australian tour of England in 1957, discussions took place concerning standardising the rules of the sport and this led to representatives from England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and The West Indies meeting in Sri Lanka in 1960, to establish The International Federation of Women’s Basketball and Netball. Formal rules were established at this inaugural meeting and it was decided to hold World Championship tournaments every four years, beginning in Eastbourne, England, in 1963.

Since then World Championships have been held in Australia 1967, Jamaica 1971, New Zealand 1975, Trinidad & Tobago 1979, Singapore 1983, Scotland 1987, Australia 1991, England 1995 and New Zealand 1999. Throughout this period, Australia has dominated, winning the event in 1971, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1991, 1995 and 1999. The 2003 World Netball Championships in Kingston, Jamaica saw New Zealand finally breaking the Australian dominance taking Gold. The 2007 World Netball Championships was due to take place in Fiji but a political coup in the country led to the event being transferred to Auckland, New Zealand. Despite the home advantage, New Zealand were unable to defend their crown and Australia were once more World Champions. Australia retained their title in 2011 in Singapore and in 2015 in Sydney.

As part of the Australian Bicentenary Celebrations in 1988, a Youth Tournament took place in Canberra, for players aged under 21. Its success led to this event being held once every four years. Fiji hosted the 2nd World Youth Netball Championship, Canada the 3rd and the 4th has just taken place in Wales. Australia were winners in 1988, New Zealand in 1992 and Australia again in 1996 and 2000. At the 2005 World Youth Netball Championship, held in Florida New Zealand Won Gold, England Silver and Australia took the Bronze.

In 1995 Netball became a “recognized” sport of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and one of the Federation’s objectives is to ensure this status is retained and to encourage the International Olympic Committee to include Netball in the Olympic Games Programme in the future.

Netball was included in the Commonwealth Games programme, for the first time, in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, where Australia took the Gold medal, New Zealand Silver and England the Bronze. It was also a programmed sport in 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester (England), where Australia again took the Gold medal, New Zealand Silver and Jamaica edging out England for the Bronze. In 2006 (Melbourne, Australia) and 2010 (Delhi, India) New Zealand beat Australia and England won the bronze medal. Netball is now a core sport in the Commonwealth Games, with the next editions taking place in The Gold Coast, 2018.

2008 saw the launch of Fast Net World Netball Series, a shorter, sharper version of the game which in 2012 evolved into Fast5, attracting new audiences around the globe.

2012 also saw the sports governing body unveil a new logo and renamed itself as the International Netball Federation (INF).