Welcome to the Ashburn Bandits New Player Information Page
Summary: We are a non-profit organization run by volunteers to provide the children of Ashburn, Virginia who are geographically aligned with Stone Bridge, Broad Run and Riverside High Schools the opportunity to learn and play Lacrosse, the fastest game on two feet.
Our Name
Over the years our name has had many "flavors". The official name is the Ashburn Youth Lacrosse Club. We have gone by AYLC, Ashburn Lacrosse, Ashburn Bandits, and just Bandits. The last two - Ashburn Bandits and Bandits - are today's most-favored ways of referring to the club.
Volunteers
As stated before, we are a non-profit run by volunteers. We have an official voting Board of Directors, many volunteer coaches/assistant coaches and other activity volunteers. "It takes a village" is appropriate to say in making the Bandits function.
Location
Our primary fields and home games are at Hampshire Park located on Smith Switch Road. For practices, we also make use of several surrounding area fields - Mill Run / Eagle Ridge and Belmont Station Elementary
Club Affiliations
We are part of the larger "local" organization called the Northern Virginia Lacrosse League (NVYLL). As the name implies, it is made up of only Northern Virginia teams. The bulk of the teams come from Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, with a small representation from Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Fauquier counties. NVYLL organizes all of the games, fields, and referees.
While we are not directly affiliated with US Lacrosse, the "sport's national governing body", we are greatly affected by them. Most importantly, we play by the rules that US Lacrosse publishes every year with minor modifications made by NVYLL. US Lacrosse provides many other essential services to lacrosse clubs such as coach training material, a certification system, safety information, and other general lacrosse advocacy efforts
Leagues / Divisions / Games
We play our Spring season games against other clubs belonging to NVYLL. There is a girls league and a boys league, broken up into age groups from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Almost all age groups, boys and girls, consisting of two ages or grades.
The Boy's league employs a strict age-based system where the cutoff is determined by 1 September of the previous year. The divisions are 14U, 12U, 10U, 8U, 6U. "8U" means the player was under 8 as of 1 September of the previous year. There are no exceptions to this rule.
The Girl's league is based on a school grade level system. The girl's divisions are G78, G56, G34 and GK2 (kindergarten, first and second grade)
Within an age-group for boys or grade level-group for girls, there are divisions according to skill (except at the lowest ages - Boys 6U and Girls GK2 - there is just one level.) Most divisions have the concept of a beginner level, intermediate level, and an experienced level. This does not always work out because of the number of players. We may have just an experienced and beginner team depending on the total number of players and their experience level.
Our Spring season starts in late March / early April and goes for approximately ten weeks. There are eight games and one or more playoff games. Boys play on Saturdays and girls play on Sundays. Practices are generally twice a week at Hampshire or other local fields.
Equipment / Uniforms
There is a vastly different set of equipment between boys and girls.
GIRLS
Girls: girls lacrosse stick, goggles, mouth guard, cleats
Ashburn Bandits Youth Lacrosse adheres to the safety guidelines established by US Lacrosse around equipment used for play. If desired, girls helmets are an acceptable piece of equipment for use. Please note that US Lacrosse has very detailed standards for girls helmets that can be found on their website via the links below.
https://www.uslacrosse.org/safety/equipment/legal-womens-headgear
https://www.uslacrosse.org/safety/equipment/womens-lacrosse-headgear-faq
Women's lacrosse is considered a relatively safe sport. The rules do not allow the same physical nature as the Men's side which is why helmets are available but not required for play.
BOYS
Boys: boys lacrosse stick, a lacrosse helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, mouth guard, cleats, athletic cup.
Please do not substitute other sport's equipment! For instance, a hockey helmet is not a substitute for a lacrosse helmet.
Rental equipment details
Bandits have an equipment rental program that provides most of the equipment you need for a reasonable price ($25 for Girls, $50 for Boys) if you select that option when you are registering your player(s). At time of pick up, a deposit check is requested that we will hold until the end of the season when equipment is returned back in ($100 for Girls, $200 for Boys).
Boys equipment includes: Helmet, Shoulder pads, Elbow pads, and Gloves
NOT included: Boys lacrosse stick, mouth guard, cleats, and athletic cup
Girls equipment includes: Girls lacrosse stick, Equipment bag, and Eye Protection Goggles
NOT included: Mouth guard and cleats
