Opinion
Israel Premier Sports League Number One Goal: Give Back
Imagine being able to go back in time to the beginnings of the National Basketball Association or National Football League and create a foundation of giving back to the community. This is what the Israel Premier Lacrosse League (IPLL) is doing right now. In its second season, the IPLL, a league composed of Jewish college lacrosse players from North America, foreign players from England, Germany, Turkey, Czech Republic, and Uganda, as well as native Israeli players, fields six teams: Be’er Sheva, Kiryat Gat, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Netanya, and Haifa. While like all Premier League’s the outcome on the field matters, the true winning takes place off the field.
This season the IPLL is a pilot Masa summer program. Thanks to Masa, players receive Hebrew lessons, travel, and a full Israel experience. The IPLL schedule includes two practices, one conditioning training, and two games each week. Outside of these activities each player is required to volunteer 20+ hours in the community helping grow the game of lacrosse. In conjunction with the local community centers, IPLL players run lacrosse camps as well as visit camps around their city holding introductory lacrosse clinics. According to Shlomi Numa, Head of Education and Community in Beer Sheva, “What a special experience for the kids. Imagine as a kid, Premier sports players coming to your camp and giving you private lessons. The kids are blown away. We have sent players to 40 camps around the city.” Commissioner of the IPLL Ted Bergman explains, “This is a win win win. The program gives players the opportunity to learn and connect to the city that they play for, while building a fanbase and the next generation of lacrosse players. At the same time this also provides Israeli youth in the cities that we work in a sports experience they will never forget.”
Lacrosse will be be televised nationally in Israel for the first time, when Sport ONE carries the Israel Premier Lacrosse League Championship Game live from Wolfson Fields in Tel Aviv on Wednesday at 7:45 PM (local time). The Hebrew-language broadcast will also be streamed live via the Sport ONE website, at one.co.il.
David Lasday serves as the Director of Youth Development for the Israel Lacrosse Association. A social entrepreneur, Lasday also helps direct the growth of Global Game Changers, Sticks For Kids and Hoops For Kids. Lasday can be reached at David@lacrosse.co.il.