Where can my students play lacrosse after the unit?

Nebraska has club programs around the state for boys and girls. Start on the Nebraska Lacrosse Connection Play page, or email us and we will point you to the closest one.

For Nebraska physical education teachers

Teach a lacrosse unit without ever having played

Q: Do I have to know lacrosse to teach it?

No. Every skill has a short video you can play for the class, and the lesson plans give you the drill, the setup, and the coaching cues in writing. Teachers who have never held a stick run this unit.

Lesson plans for every grade band, seven short skill videos you can play in the gym, printable handouts, and an equipment grant that ships a full class set to your school. All of it is free.

Built for the 2026 SHAPE Nebraska Conference in Kearney, November 2 and 3. Bookmark this page and take it back to your gym.

$0

Cost of every resource on this page

18 min

Video that covers the whole skill set

K to 12

Lesson plans in four grade bands

2028

Lacrosse returns to the Olympic Games

Why it works in a gym

Four reasons PE teachers keep the unit

Lacrosse is one of the few units where the room resets. It rewards effort over experience, and most students walk in with nothing to unlearn.

Everyone starts even

Lacrosse is new to most students, so the unit does not belong to the same handful of athletes who own every other unit.

It runs on skills they have

Passing from basketball, footwork from soccer, spacing from hockey. Students recognize the movements on day one.

It fits your space

Soft sticks and foam balls keep it safe indoors, so a gym, a blacktop, or an open field all work.

It carries a real story

Lacrosse is the Creator’s Game, played by Native nations for centuries. There is classroom material below, including a Smithsonian educator guide.

If you have to justify it

This is not a novelty sport

Everything below is checkable, which matters when the unit has to be defended to an athletic director, a principal, a superintendent, or a school board.

Where the rules come from

USA Lacrosse writes the youth rules at 14U and below. For high school it works with the NFHS, which publishes the Boys and Girls Lacrosse Rules Books, the same body behind the sports your school already plays. USA Lacrosse wrote the girls’ high school rules itself until the NFHS took them over in 2023.

28 states sanction it

High school lacrosse is played under 28 state associations for boys and 29 for girls, per the NFHS 2024-25 participation survey. Kentucky and Tennessee held their first state championships in 2025, and Nevada begins varsity play in the 2026-27 school year. Nebraska has not sanctioned it, so play here still runs through clubs.

Built with SHAPE America

USA Lacrosse developed the K to 12 lesson plans on this page with SHAPE America, and sells the NFHS rulebooks to its members. The curriculum and the rules come from the same place.

It is an Olympic sport

The International Olympic Committee approved lacrosse sixes for Los Angeles 2028. It is the sport’s first Olympic medal appearance since 1908, well inside the school career of a student starting a unit now.

Rules relationship quoted from usalacrosse.com/rules. Sanctioned state count from the USA Lacrosse high school lacrosse page. Olympic status from the IOC decision of October 2023. All checked August 20, 2026.

Step one

Lesson plans for your grade band

USA Lacrosse developed these with SHAPE America and states that they meet national standards and benchmarks. Each one is a printable PDF with drills, games, setup, and cues. Pick your band and download it.

Grades K to 2

PDF, 27 pages

Lacrosse Lesson Plans, Grades K to 2

Grades 3 to 5

PDF, 28 pages

Lacrosse Lesson Plans, Grades 3 to 5

Grades 6 to 8

PDF, 29 pages

Lacrosse Lesson Plans, Grades 6 to 8

Grades 9 to 12

PDF, 29 pages

Lacrosse Lesson Plans, Grades 9 to 12

Printable handouts

Three handouts on the roots of the game, each with a QR code to a companion video. They are referenced inside the lesson plans. PDF, 4 pages.

Lacrosse PE Handouts, the roots of the game

Discover Lacrosse hub

The USA Lacrosse resource hub for physical education teachers. Free, and it asks for contact details to unlock.

Step two

Seven videos, one unit

Play these in order and you have a seven day unit. Each one runs two to four minutes, so a video fits inside a warm up while the class is still catching its breath. Eighteen minutes covers the whole skill set.

Day 1 · 2:50

Warm up

Quick games that get a class loose and moving before the sticks come out.

Day 2 · 2:19

Scooping

Ground balls. The first real skill, and the one a beginner can win on effort alone.

Day 3 · 3:07

Cradling

How players keep the ball in the stick once they start running with it.

Day 4 · 2:07

Passing

Partner work begins. Getting the ball to a teammate on target and on time.

Day 5 · 2:16

Catching

The other half of partner work, and the skill that takes the most repetitions.

Day 6 · 1:52

Shooting

The payoff day. This is usually where a class decides the sport is fun.

Day 7 · 3:33

Defending

Footwork to stay in front of the ball carrier, so the class can finish the unit playing a real game.

All seven videos are produced by USA Lacrosse and hosted on Vimeo. Nothing loads until you press play, so the page stays fast on a phone.

Classroom day

The Creator's Game

Native nations around the Great Lakes, the Mid Atlantic, and the American South have played stick and ball games for centuries. These three run on a rainy day, an indoor day, or any day the gym is taken.

Story · About 3 min

The Great Ball Game

Oren Lyons tells the story of the first game, played between the land animals and the birds.

Craft · About 5 min

Alf Jacques, the stickmaker

A legendary craftsman makes a wooden stick by hand using traditional techniques.

Voices · 11:59

More than a game

Indigenous leaders on where the sport came from and what it is meant to do.

The one to plan for

A free class set of equipment

USA Lacrosse runs a Physical Education Grant that sends a school a complete bundle, plus the instructional materials that go with it. Schools apply, not individuals, so you need your district or school EIN.

20 sticks
24 foam balls
1 pair of goals
12 cones
USA Lacrosse curriculum drill book
1 carry bag

Timing. The 2026 application window ran from June 1 to July 31, 2026 and is now closed. Award notifications go out September 1 and October 10, 2026. USA Lacrosse posts each year’s window on its process and calendar page, so the work between now and then is getting your paperwork ready.

Read the eligibility guidelines. A program has to serve youth aged 6 to 19 and deliver at least six weeks of activity.
Get your school or district EIN from your business office. The application will not go through without it.
Note the demographic data the form asks for. The application takes about 30 minutes once you have the numbers.
Watch the calendar page in late spring and apply as soon as the window opens.

The other way to pay for it

Ask your district about Title IV-A

Federal money for physical education exists, and the realistic route is your district, not you. Title IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act funds access to a well-rounded education, and the law’s definition of a well-rounded education names physical education directly. The funds go to school districts, so this is a conversation with whoever handles federal programs in your central office.

What to know before you ask

Nebraska’s minimum Title IV-A award to a district is $10,000.
Districts receiving $30,000 or more must complete a comprehensive needs assessment first, so timing matters.
A district can put the money toward equipment, curriculum, and professional development for a PE unit.
Title IV-A money is allocated to districts by formula, so your district may already have an allocation it is deciding how to spend.

How to open the conversation

Ask your federal programs coordinator two questions. Does our district receive Title IV-A funds, and is any of it going to well-rounded education this cycle. Then show them this page.

Title IV-A is a formula grant to states, which subgrant it to districts. Nothing here is a promise of funding, and every district sets its own priorities. Verified against the Nebraska Department of Education and the federal statute on August 20, 2026.

You are not doing this alone

What we can do for your school

The Nebraska Lacrosse Connection is a statewide nonprofit. If you want to run a unit, start a club, or find out where your students can keep playing, tell us what you need.

Tell us about your school

Tell us your school, your grade levels, and roughly how many students you would be teaching. We will point you at the closest program and flag you when the next grant window opens.

Where the rest of the site helps

Before you ask

Questions PE teachers actually have

Do I need equipment to start?

No. Start with the videos and the lesson plan for your grade band so you know what a unit looks like. When you are ready for gear, the USA Lacrosse Physical Education Grant sends a full class set, and a soft stick and foam ball set is the only thing you need to run the PE version of the game.

Do I have to know lacrosse to teach it?

No. Every skill on this page has a short video you can play for the class, and the lesson plans give you the drill, the setup, and the coaching cues in writing. Teachers who have never held a stick run this unit.

Is it safe for a PE class?

The physical education version uses soft sticks and foam balls, which is why it does not call for helmets or pads the way the club and high school game does. Read the lesson plans and check your district’s activity policy before you run the unit.

How much space does it take?

The lesson plans are written for a school setting, so a gym works. A blacktop or an open field works too. Soft equipment is what makes indoor space usable.

How does my school get free equipment?

Through the USA Lacrosse Physical Education Grant. The bundle is 20 sticks, 24 foam balls, a pair of goals, 12 cones, the USA Lacrosse curriculum drill book, and a carry bag. The 2026 window ran from June 1 to July 31, 2026 and is closed, so watch the USA Lacrosse process and calendar page for the next one and have your school EIN ready.

Are the lesson plans aligned to standards?

USA Lacrosse developed them with SHAPE America and states that they meet national standards and benchmarks. Check them against your own district’s requirements before you build them into a unit plan.

Where can my students play after the unit?

Nebraska has club programs around the state for boys and girls. Start on our Play page, or email us and we will point you to the closest one.

Can somebody train our whole district?

Possibly. Professional development for physical education teachers is something USA Lacrosse is actively building, and district level requests are worth raising. Email us with your district name and we will make the introduction.

See you in Kearney

2026 SHAPE Nebraska Conference

We are presenting on lacrosse in physical education at the SHAPE Nebraska Conference in Kearney on November 2 and 3, 2026. Come to the session, take a stick, and leave with the whole curriculum on your phone. This page is the handout.

Resources on this page are produced and hosted by USA Lacrosse, except the Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators, which comes from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The Nebraska Lacrosse Connection collects them here for Nebraska teachers. Links checked August 20, 2026.