Interested in Playing Lacrosse in Australia?

My name is Mark Lewer and I manage all overseas recruitment queries on behalf of the Altona Lacrosse Club. I also coach Altona’s State League team.

Altona is a lacrosse club situated in a bayside suburb in Victoria, Australia. We have two senior men’s sides, including one in State League, the strongest lacrosse competition in Australia. We also have boy’s and girl’s sides from Under 10 through to Under 18. We also hope to add a senior women’s side in 2024.

For box (indoor lacrosse) players, we are the home of box lacrosse in Victoria, having the only purpose-built box lacrosse court in Australia. In November and December we run competitions for players in men’s, women’s and junior indoor lacrosse.

From April to September we play field lacrosse. The State League competition in Victoria is a tough, high standard competition with many NCAA players joining the best Australian players. Altona’s playing list is one of the youngest in State League and our junior players are consistently amongst the best in the country. We are always interested in new players to join our club, particularly those with NCAA experience or equivalent standard, who can help our players reach their potential. Whilst your skills and leadership are important, you also need to be a player who has integrity, commands respect, and loves the game. Our overseas players are people our juniors can look up to and try to emulate. Our overseas players need to be more than just good lacrosse players, they need to be good people.

What the Altona Lacrosse Club can offer.

The better your skills and the earlier you can arrive and the longer you can stay are all factors impacting on how much the club can assist you. If you are the right person for us, and we are the right club for you, we will work it out. 

From the moment we meet you at the airport, you are treated like one of the family. You are looked after by a host family or senior player and provided with free room and board. When you are with your host family or at the club, you are unlikely to have to pay for anything. Host families also typically show their guests some of the sites in Victoria and take them on outings to get a feel for the Australian culture. On Thursday and Saturday nights, there is always someone at the club ready to buy you a drink and have a chat. There are also enough single men and women at the club to introduce you to Melbourne’s nightlife. You will quickly make friends, not only at the club but also with players from other clubs and other NCAA players playing in the local competition.

Overseas players at Altona are often provided with a vehicle to enable them to get to lacrosse training, games and clinics and there is plenty of time during breaks in the season to do the tourist things you want to do. Often members of the club of around the same age as the overseas players, will introduce you to some of the great experiences our wonderful country has to offer.

We cannot guarantee jobs, but past experience indicates there is an excellent chance we will find one for you. We have contacts with some companies who are always looking for temporary workers and the club has tradesmen who may also be able to assist in work. If you are looking to stay longer, the club also has contacts in civil engineering, and banking and finance fields. The club will arrange and pay you to undertake clinics at primary and secondary schools on behalf of our club. There is also often the opportunity of work from Australian Lacrosse Association and Lacrosse Victoria in assisting them with clinics they organise to introduce lacrosse to school children.

What we expect from you.

What we expect from you is to coach or assistant coach one of our junior sides, to attend all club training sessions (Tuesday and Thursday nights) and be a leader on the field as well as a positive role model around the club. We also expect you to undertake school clinics for the club in attempts to recruit new players. For the clinics, you will work in pairs and be paid by the club.

We have the capacity to take a maximum of four overseas players, and if possible, we would like to have one of these positions filled by a left-handed attackman, or left-handed attack midfield. We are also interested in defenders or LSMs and another short stick forward or two-way midfield. However, experience has shown us that no matter what position you play, if you are NCAA standard you will be a great asset to our team.

We are happy to take players from the same program or from different programs but our emphasis is on being a good role model for our younger players.

What you will need to do.

If you wish to play and work in Australia, the most likely visa you will require is a “First Work and Holiday visa” with this visa you can do short-term work in Australia and travel to and from Australia as many times as you want within a 12-month period. To be eligible for this visa, you must have a passport from an eligible country (like the United States, Canada or United Kingdom!) be between 18 and 30 years old (inclusive), apply from outside Australia and not have previously entered Australia on a subclass 462 or 417 visa (if you have, you will need a different visa like ‘Second Work and Holiday Visa”). Further details are available at: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder/work.

Also please look up the testimonials we have from other overseas players from University of Virginia and Towson University.

Please join us on our public Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/altonalacrosse/.

So, if you have finished college and are still interested in the following:

• Playing lacrosse at a high level;
• Living overseas for at least a few months;
• Making new friends;
• The trip of a lifetime to one of the most unique and beautiful destinations on the planet.

Then please get in touch by email to: Altona Lacrosse Recruitment.

Hope to hear from you soon!