Like thousands of sporting tournaments the world over, the European men’s lacrosse championships planned for Wroclaw, Poland from 23 July-1 August, was postponed to 2020.

“It was a bit of a disappointment. At the same time, you've got to see the silver linings in things,” said Luxembourg men’s lacrosse team coach Maiah Bartlett. “And for us, that means extra time for preparation work, extra time to get a couple more players on our roster or to get a couple players that were kind of on the edge, they just started playing.”

Rapid development

A popular sport in the US, lacrosse was established in Luxembourg four years ago. Within a short space of time, international residents and locals organised themselves into a lacrosse club with regular training sessions, and games in the Belgian league not to mention the 2018 world championships in Israel. This summer they secured $10,000 in finance from global federation Worldwide Lacrosse to bring the game to Luxembourg public schools by training coaches and to develop a lacrosse academy for young people.

“Understanding the size of Luxembourg, we know that to sustain the sport over here, we can't just engage 50 or 70 people, you need to have more and more kids starting to play this from a younger age and have more and more clubs competing against each other not just within the country, and not just with other surrounding countries,” said club commercial and communications chief Nirav Haria.

National men's team coach Maiah Bartlett is pictured. Photo: Luxembourg Lacrosse

National team coach

Another big boost for the club has been the appointment of Bartlett as national team coach. In addition to being the first and only woman coach of a men’s national lacrosse team anywhere in the world, lacrosse is in the blood. Bartlett’s dad was a division one men’s lacrosse coach for over 25 years at the Virginia Military Institute.

Originally from Lexington, Virginia, the 26-year-old recalled shadowing her father during men’s games and then being shocked to learn as a woman she would have to play with a different kind of stick and be expected to wear a skirt for the game.

Three years ago, Bartlett moved to Europe to work as coach for the club in Frankfurt, Germany where lacrosse has been played for the past two decades. Eager to coach men’s lacrosse at the highest level, she seized at the opportunity to coach the Luxembourg national team on a voluntary basis.

Roughly every four to six weeks, Bartlett travels to Luxembourg by train to host a training camp there. She said for many players the learning curve has been very high but there are advantages to having just one club in such a small country.

“Because we only have one club in Luxembourg, essentially that's our pool for our national team. So you're getting more on-field chemistry than any other national team in my opinion. You see these players who have only played for a short time get that confidence, and that technical skill so quickly, unlike any other players that I work with. It's just phenomenal,” Bartlett said.

Luxembourg's national men's lacrosse team pose for a photo. Photo: Luxembourg Lacrosse

Training in lockdown

Evening during lockdown when trainings were cancelled, motivation was high as players shared fitness and training challenges to do at home. Now that covid-19 measures are easing, physical training has resumed twice a week with contact strictly limited to games only. During training, the club cleans the equipment, has hand sanitiser on hand and everyone maintain a distance during drills.

They also have to keep track of the people attending training. And, of course, there are no team showers. As for the rescheduled championships, the club will closely follow the measures adopted by the US professional lacrosse league. During the US championship, players and staff were quarantined and tested regularly for covid-19. Whether Europe has the financial resources to do something similar remains to be seen.

“It would warrant the European lacrosse committee to look at how it's been done in the States with this championship series and maybe something similar could be done over here for us whether that's quarantining the teams and the staff and not allowing fans to be at the event. I mean, that  would obviously not be my ideal situation. No, but if that means we can play I'll do whatever it takes,” said Bartlett.

Try lacrosse

Check out the Luxembourg club's open day on 29 August, at Boy Konen Stadium in Luxembourg-Cessange, from 10am to 3pm