The "Little Dudes" is our youngest level of organized lacrosse in Duxbury consisting of outdoor spring field lacrosse for Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade and indoor winter skills for First and Second Grade. The mission and philosophy of the Little Dudes is to provide a lacrosse education of the sport's fundamentals in an atmosphere that promotes fun-first, community building, and preparation with highly organized practices and appropriately competitive travel games. Our biggest objective is to instill a life-long passion for the sport of lacrosse for all our players (and families) and that every child who tries lacrosse in DYL will return the following year. 

 

Little Dudes Coordinators

Coach Jim Nissi - Second Graders

Coach Matt Winterle - First Graders

TBD - Kindergarten 

 

Practice Information

First and Second Graders will have one mandatory 75-minute practice per week (Wednesdays) and at least one optional (but encouraged) 60-minute workshop per week (Mondays). Practices start in April at 6:00PM at the Keene Street fields.

Kindergarten will practice one day a week (Saturdays, time TBD) at the Keene Street fields.

Practices will be focused on fundamentals with stretching, warm-ups, and drills with stations followed by a fun game to end practice (a favorite is "Sharks and Minnows"). For First and Second grade, we will likely keep the players from the same assigned team together for the station drills so that they can learn and play with their regular teammates. 

Kindergarten practices will be randomly assigned stations of drills that focus on stick work, groundballs, passing, catching, and shooting. Towards the middle of the season, we will start to teach defense and game scenario skills (e.g. faceoffs).

 

Game Information

First and Second Graders will be assigned to Dragon squads (combined grades) and will play games on Sundays against other Dragon squads and against other towns from the South Shore (including Marshfield, Norwell, Cohasset, and Scituate). Games are on Sunday mornings (typically in the range of 8:30 AM - 11:00 AM depending on the host site). Games are typically two 25-minute running halves - often with different opponents for each half. Games will run from late April to early June.

Kindergarteners will likely have one game night during the last week of the season and will be randomly assigned to a squad and will play against other Duxbury Kindergarten squads.

Jamboree Information

Town Pride League South Shore Jamboree: DYL will likely enter our Dragon squads into a South Shore end-of-year tournament (2021 and 2022 was held in Scituate) in which each team will play two or three mini games.

Laxapalooza

DYL and Duxbury High School are exploring a "combine-style" fundraiser in which Little Dudes and other youth players will have the opportunity to perform lacrosse skills workshops and clinics with High School players and coaches on the DHS Turf field. Details TBA.

DYL also highly encourages all families to support the Duxbury High School lacrosse teams and may have games in which youth players are invited to partake in some pre-game and halftime events.

Required Equipment

For ALL DYL events, players are required to have the following:

• A NOCSAE-approved lacrosse helmet (no helmets from other sports / activities will be allowed)
• NOCSAE-approved lacrosse-specific shoulder pads
• Lacrosse-specific gloves and elbow pads
• Appropriate footwear (cleats for spring lacrosse, sneakers for indoor winter skills)
• Protective athletic cups
• Mouthguards
• Lacrosse sticks (maximum 42" in length but they should be "cut" to match the length of the player's full arm - from fingertips to shoulder)

Recommendations for obtaining equipment:

The most important investment is the lacrosse stick and could last a player their entire youth experience (if the shaft is cut for Little Dudes, it will need to be replaced with regulation size shaft for 3rd grade and beyond). A quality stick (particularly the head and strung pocket) will allow players to throw and catch properly. Poor quality sticks will hinder proper fundamentals and create bad lacrosse habits. Sticks should be purchased at lacrosse specialty stores (brick-and-mortar or online retailers).

For protective gear, many families will find that used equipment is perfectly adequate for this level of play (with virtually zero physicality). You can use online forums (like Duxbury Helping Duxbury) to see if former lacrosse families have equipment they'd be willing to give/sell. Or you can find gear at second-hand sports stores.

For new equipment, DYL has a partnership with a family run store on 3A in Cohasset called Good Sport.  They have been outfitting kids for decades and do a really nice job with the boys and families.  Mention you are from Duxbury and get a discount.  This is our strongest recommendation.

We do not recommend buying a stick from a big name sports store. Big name sports stores have good quality protective gear at reasonable prices. Lacrosse specialty stores might have attractive bundles or packages that include everything. 

Fiddlesticks or other "learn-to-lacrosse beginner sticks" are not appropriate for this level and coaches may ask you to replace them with a proper youth lacrosse stick.

If you can make one big investment, a high quality well-strung stick will pay dividends.

We will also have DYL coaches/staff who can help diagnose and fix issues with stringing and pockets if your player has difficulty keeping the ball in the pocket for catching or getting the ball out of the pocket cleanly for passes and shots.