Lacrosse has seen increasing participation in Nevada in recent years. The sport is now transitioning from a club-based activity into a sanctioned high school sport under the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA).
But it took more than a decade of advocacy from High Sierra Lacrosse to reach this point. In 2025, a bill introduced in the Nevada Legislature allowing lacrosse to become a sanctioned sport passed unanimously. Although Governor Joe Lombardo later vetoed the bill, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association announced it would move forward with sanctioning lacrosse as a varsity sport.
Lacrosse is a fast-paced field sport where players use netted sticks to pass, carry, and shoot a ball into a goal. The game emphasizes speed, agility, and technical skill.
Justin Cutler, president of High Sierra Lacrosse and head coach at Galena High School, was among those who advocated for the change.
“I thought it brought a lot of awareness of what lacrosse was,” Cutler said. “We were in the media, we were in the legislature. I thought it was a really cool moment for lacrosse.”
With the NIAA moving forward, Nevada lacrosse is set to enter a new phase. The state will become the 26th in the country to sanction the sport. The shift brings significant benefits for student athletes, especially as programs move from club status into school-sponsored athletics, Cutler said.
“Once it becomes an official school sport, they have to provide uniforms, coaches, access to fields, transportation to games,” Cutler said. “We get full access to school facilities. We’ll now have access to weight rooms. There are a lot of immediate benefits.”
The change will also help expand participation, said Paul Axley, lacrosse head coach at Spanish Springs High School.
“I think with a lot of these schools coming together and being sanctioned, more girls will want to play lacrosse because of it,” Axley said.
Sanctioning is also expected to affect college recruitment opportunities. In women’s lacrosse, only a small percentage of high school athletes go on to compete at the Division I level. Coaches say formal recognition by the state can help increase visibility for players.
Axley believes it will broaden recruiting opportunities, particularly for East Coast programs where lacrosse is more established.
“It’ll definitely open up a huge window for that,” he said. “Knowing we are sanctioned now is going to open up more recruiting opportunities, especially on the East Coast.”
Randy Hill, a lacrosse coach at McQueen High School and a parent who has gone through the recruitment process with his daughter, says the impact is especially significant for girls’ lacrosse.
“I think immediately for the girls game it will have a quicker impact,” Hill said. “I have a child who has been recruited, and the opportunities in girls lacrosse specifically vastly outweigh some of those other sports.”
Hill said the change helps put Nevada athletes on the map, giving them a stronger chance to be seen by college programs in regions where lacrosse has long been established.
Kaitlyn Campbell is a senior at Galena High School and a participant in KUNR’s Youth Media program, a special partnership with the Washoe County School District to train the next generation of journalists.