PLL-backed CityLax is transforming New York City’s PSAL through lacrosse, and transforming lacrosse through underdog NYC students

PLL-backed CityLax is transforming New York City’s PSAL through lacrosse, and transforming lacrosse through underdog NYC students originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . You don’t typically associate the concrete jungle of New York City with the sport of lacrosse these days, despite the boroughs’ rich history of indigenous peoples playing it dating back to the 1100s.

Played on artificial turf fields that are 60 yards wide and 110 yards long, lacrosse is tough to fit in a tightly-packed modern urban setting. Ipso facto, it’s long been the suburbs of Long Island, Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester, far less populated metros with more room to build facilities, that have been hotbeds for collegiate lax talent in the state of New York. Truly, the disparity comes down to dollars and sense.

Lacrosse is an expensive sport in a youth athletics marketplace that has squeezed out working-class families. It costs over $1,000 per child annually to participate in youth sports, and only 34% of children from the lowest income families participate in organized sports, compared to nearly 68% from the highest income households, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. That makes it hard for communities in major metros to compete with more affluent communities located many miles outside of city squares.

It will be a long time until there’s a significant shift in where top New York collegiate prospects come from. But CityLax , a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the lives of students through the game of lacrosse, is slowly looking to change that by boosting underserved communities across NYC. Now, CityLax is proud to say it has yet to develop a professional lacrosse player, but it has achieved a 99% graduation rate for kids who have come through the program.