Every lacrosse player remembers the first time they picked up a stick. In 2025-26, NLL UnBOXed™ gave that moment to tens of thousands more kids, then went after the harder part: giving them a reason to pick it up again.
Year 1 saw donations bring lacrosse into gym classes in the 9 inaugural markets. Year 2 was about building what comes next, and expanding. The program more than doubled its activation map, from 9 markets to 22, and brought the game to dozens of new schools across North America.
It stepped outside the school day for the first time with free community clinics, and it helped launch a team in a city with minimal box lacrosse at the youth level. In one season, NLL UnBOXed went from a program that hands out sticks to one that gives kids somewhere to play, and to keep playing.
(Students from London, ON arrange donated gear in school initials.)
Homeroom: The Schools
It starts in the gym. Year 2 was the biggest expansion in the program’s short history, with 13 new markets launching at once and NLL UnBOXed growing from 9 markets to 22. By the end of the 2025-26 school year, 100 schools across the U.S. and Canada had brand new lacrosse gear in their gyms.
Every school gets the same kit: 30 sticks, 30 balls, four goals and three bags, built to rotate through the entire building during a two-week PE unit. A kit isn’t for one class. It’s for every kid who walks into that gym, and across 100 schools, that adds up to more than 61,000 students with a stick in their hands.
The new markets wasted no time. Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Edmonton, Indianapolis, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Jersey, Portland, Providence and Québec City are now home to nearly 25,000 UnBOXed students, many of them picking up the game for the first time.
The original nine kept growing. Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Minnesota, Montréal, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Utah now account for 58 schools and more than 36,000 students. Tampa Bay leads the way with 13 schools, powered by its partnership with Tampa General Hospital, and is on track for nearly 20 in Year 3. In Dallas, Valley Creek Elementary joined the program and teamed up with the Shadow Cats Box Lacrosse Program, giving its students a direct path from PE class to a local team.
“A huge thank you to [NLL UnBOXed] for your generosity! We would like to recognize the valuable donation of lacrosse equipment we received, which allows our students to discover and play this dynamic sport, both in the gym and outdoors. Thanks to this support, many young people have already had the chance to try lacrosse, and this activity will continue to get our students moving and inspire them for years to come. Your support has a real and much-appreciated impact on our school community. Thank you again for your commitment to the success and well-being of our students!” – Académie Saint-Louis, Québec City (via Facebook)
Canada brings real weight. Québec City has eight schools, while London, Edmonton and Montréal have seven each, for 29 Canadian schools and nearly 15,000 students. In a country where box lacrosse is part of the culture, NLL UnBOXed is helping hand the game to its next generation.
One hundred schools. Twenty-two markets. More than 61,000 kids who now know what it feels like to cradle a ball and fire a shot on goal. For most of them, that first moment happened in gym class. The next challenge was giving them somewhere to chase the second one.
(Athletes from Tampa Bay participate in free-to-play clinic with WINNERS Lacrosse.)
After School: Into the Community
If the schools opened the door, the community work showed where it could lead.
For the first time, NLL UnBOXed ran programming outside the school day. A gym class introduces the game to every kid in the building. A Saturday clinic is for the kids who want more. Across 21 events in six markets, 524 of them showed up.
(Athletes from Tampa Bay take part in a free-to-play clinic with WINNERS Lacrosse.)
Tampa Bay set the template. NLL UnBOXed donated a full set of gear to WINNERS Lacrosse and ran eight free clinics with them throughout the year, putting kids on the field without a family paying a dollar. The funding came from the Tampa General Hospital partnership, proof that a presenting partner can help the program reach well beyond the school walls.
In Salt Lake City, NLL UnBOXed teamed up with the Salt Lake Storm, a semi-pro box lacrosse team founded by General Manager Austin Braerman to give players a place to keep competing after high school and college. Storm members dedicated their Friday nights to the Boys & Girls Club, nearly all paricipants brand new to the game. The response was strong enough that the Club is eyeing bringing the program to all five of its Utah locations.
For Braerman, making the game accessible is personal. He’s talked with kids who wanted to play but were held back because lacrosse didn’t fit their family’s budget, and that’s what drives him to keep the game open to everyone.
(Austin Braerman, General Manager of the Salt Lake Storm, leads a clinic at the Boys & Girls Club in Salt Lake City, UT.)
“Lacrosse is an expensive sport, and that hits me personally,” Braerman said. “Working with youth is rewarding in itself. You get to see the small improvements they make over the course of several clinics, but more than that, you see the excitement and the smiles when they do something right.”
(Member of the Salt Lake Storm, leads a clinic at the Boys & Girls Club in Salt Lake City, UT.)
“We at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Salt Lake are so grateful for community members like the Salt Lake Storm and the NLL,” said Sophie McCollum, Community Engagement Officer at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Salt Lake. “Thanks to their support, we are able to expand our youth’s horizons and give them access to experiences like lacrosse that might otherwise be out of reach. We are hopeful to share the experience our Sugar House youth had with our other four clubs.”
What happened in Utah is exactly why UnBOXed exists: kids who might never have picked up a stick, getting the chance to play, and a community already asking how to bring it to more of them.
(NLL player Nathan Grenon leads young players through drills at a clinic with the Shadow Cats Box Lacrosse Program in Dallas, TX.)
Then the pros showed up.
In Dallas, NLL player Nathan Grenon and the Shadow Cats Box Lacrosse Program led a clinic that brought out more than 50 players. NLL UnBOXed helped secure the facility space, and Grenon and the Shadow Cats took it from there, giving young athletes in North Texas the chance to learn the game from someone who plays it at the highest level.
In Winnipeg, the pros came to Frozen Fest.
(Luc Magnan poses with participants at the 2026 Frozen Fest in Winnipeg, MB.)
Presented by the Winnipeg Blizzard with support from NLL UnBOXed™, the Manitoba Lacrosse Association and the Greater Winnipeg Lacrosse League, the 2026 Frozen Fest brought young players together at Notre Dame Arena, or known to the locals as “The Ice Box,” for a day built around the next generation of the game. National Lacrosse League players Luc Magnan and Jerrett Smith spent the day on the floor working directly with participants, giving them an up-close look at the pace and decision-making of the pro game and showing them how to bring those details into their own development. For Magnan, it was a homecoming of sorts. He learned the game and grew up playing at the Ice Box, and this time he was back on the same floor coaching the kids now coming up through it.
“Partnering with the National Lacrosse League to bring Frozen Fest to life is truly a special moment for the Winnipeg Blizzard organization and our lacrosse community,” said Terry Williams, Owner & President of the Winnipeg Blizzard. “This isn’t just a one-day event, it’s an opportunity to inspire the next generation of players, create lasting memories, and showcase the energy and passion that makes this game so unique.”
The timing made it even bigger. In 2026, the Blizzard entered their inaugural season at the Canadian Junior A level, competing for the historic Minto Cup, and Frozen Fest became a chance to test something new: run the clinic on a game day and give every participant free tickets to that night’s game. The result was a crowd nearly double the size of their first game night. It’s one game, but it’s exactly the kind of ripple the program is chasing.
(Luc Magnan leads instruction at the 2026 Frozen Fest in Winnipeg, MB.)
“Events like Frozen Fest are a big step forward for lacrosse in Manitoba,” said Serge Balcaen, Executive Director of the Manitoba Lacrosse Association. “Bringing the community together while giving young players the chance to see and learn from current NLL athletes is incredibly impactful. It not only shows them what’s possible, but helps connect our grassroots players to the higher levels of the game.”
It’s a fitting chapter for a city with deep lacrosse roots. Winnipeg’s first club formed in 1871, and by the late 1800s the game was one of the city’s most popular pastimes, drawing thousands of spectators across Manitoba. More than 150 years later, Frozen Fest is helping write the next part of that story.
Field Trip: The UnBOXed Edmonton Series
If you want to see the whole idea of NLL UnBOXed in one place, Edmonton is where to look.
Working with the Georgia Swarm, NLL UnBOXed brought professional players into the amiskwaciy Academy in Edmonton for a half day with the students. The players went classroom to classroom, talking about lacrosse, life in the NLL and what playing sports meant to them growing up. Along the way, they answered questions, swapped stories and connected with kids who were meeting a pro athlete up close.
(Georgia Swarm players Brett Dobson, Kason Tarbell and Zach Miller visit students at amiskwaciy Academy in Edmonton, AB.)
Then they hit the gym. More than 50 kids got a stick in their hands with pros on the floor right beside them, learning the game from some of the best to ever play it.
(Georgia Swarm goaltender Brett Dobson teaches students the game during gym class at amiskwaciy Academy in Edmonton, AB.)
Then the NLL itself came to town.
And the students from that school visit weren’t just in the stands. At halftime, they took center stage, performing in front of the crowd at an NLL game in their own city. In the span of a couple of days, those kids went from meeting the players in their classrooms to sharing the spotlight on the same floor as the pros.
(Students from amiskwaciy Academy perform at halftime of the NLL UnBOXed Series Edmonton game.)
The night also looked back at where it all started. The League honored the North Glenora Blues, the club that helped bring lacrosse back to Edmonton and Alberta in the 1960s. In 1966, founder John Tayler bought the only three lacrosse sticks he could find in local stores, and a handful of boys started learning the game in a dirt box using hockey nets and homemade pads. Within three years, the Blues were representing Alberta at the 1969 Canada Games in Halifax, and those original players went on to coach, referee and build the organizations that grew the game across the province.
More than half a century later, the idea hasn’t changed. From the classroom to the arena, Edmonton showed what NLL UnBOXed looks like when every piece connects: pros who show up for kids, a school community that showed up right back, and a League that honors the people who first put sticks in kids’ hands.
Honor Roll: The Indianapolis Checkers
Indianapolis doesn’t have an NLL team. Until this past season, it had very little youth box lacrosse at all.
The Indianapolis Checkers changed that. Run by McFly Lacrosse, the Checkers became the first NLL UnBOXed community team, and it all started on a Tuesday night at The SportZone, where players, coaches and families packed the floor for the team’s inaugural tryouts.
For McFly co-founder and managing partner Matt McIntyre, it was a long time coming. McFly had spent years building the field game in Indiana, but box lacrosse always seemed to live somewhere else. That changed the first time he saw a pro box game live, the Colorado Mammoth in 2023.
“I always wanted to start a box program,” McIntyre said. “After seeing that game, I knew box lacrosse was perfect for the Indianapolis-area athlete and fan. High scoring, gritty, skillful, and team-first attitudes directly align with our local sports interests.”
(Matt McIntyre speaks with the Indianapolis Checkers at the 2025 USBOXLA Championships in Columbus, OH.)
The Checkers started young by design, giving players a head start on the stick skills and quick decision-making that box demands. McIntyre has a simple way of putting it: “Learn to cradle in a phone booth.”
By Labor Day weekend, the team was already competing at the 2025 USBOXLA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, with a practice roster training right alongside them so every player got the benefit of box reps.
And the kids loved it. “The smiles,” McIntyre said after tryouts. “They were ear to ear, and I’m pretty sure they all would’ve kept playing for hours.”
Over the season, that excitement spread to the stands. Many Checkers families went from barely knowing the sport to watching it, following it and making it part of their week.
And then there’s the question every young player eventually gets asked: who’s your team? Ask a Checkers player, and the answers come from all over the map. Buffalo. Georgia. Colorado. Calgary. Las Vegas. Eleven different NLL franchises in all.
That’s the power of youth programming. A kid in Indiana picks up a stick, and a team in Buffalo or Calgary gains a fan for life.
The coaches got their moment too. NLL UnBOXed helped bring the Checkers coaching staff out to Las Vegas for an NLL gameday experience with the Desert Dogs, giving the people who built the program from the ground up a look at the pro game they’ve been teaching their players to love.
(Indianapolis Checkers coaches receive Las Vegas Desert Dogs jerseys during their NLL gameday experience in Las Vegas, NV, on January 31, 2026.)
With sixes lacrosse headed to the LA28 Olympics, McIntyre is thinking even bigger.
“We want some of the kids who are stepping into box lacrosse for the first time this year to be the same ones representing their country in a few years,” he said.
What’s Next for NLL UnBOXed
Year 2 showed just how far a stick and a ball can go. In schools, NLL UnBOXed introduced the game to tens of thousands of kids. In communities, it gave them places to keep playing, with pros, local clubs and families right there alongside them.
Year 3 is about going bigger on both. The final wave of NLL UnBOXed markets will be announced in December. At the same time, NLL UnBOXed is set to bring lacrosse to more than 70 new schools, nearly doubling the program’s school footprint for the second straight year. That’s roughly 42,000 more students picking up a stick, and by the end of the 2026-27 school year, NLL UnBOXed will have introduced lacrosse to more than 100,000 kids across North America.
On the community side, NLL UnBOXed is aiming to double its free-to-play and intro events and create even more opportunities for NLL players to get on the floor with the next generation.
Stay tuned, because there’s a lot more on the way for NLL UnBOXed, including a few surprises we’re not quite ready to share just yet.
(Nathan Grenon poses with players following the Shadow Cats Box Lacrosse Program clinic in Dallas, TX.)
Bring UnBOXed to Your Community
Want to work with NLL UnBOXed, or help bring lacrosse to your school, rec center or community? Reach out at [email protected].
