Our Story
In the early winter of 2014, two Lake Forest fathers got together to talk about girls’ lacrosse in their community. It became apparent to both parents, who each had both boys and girls in the local programs, that there was an opportunity to build a better lacrosse program for girls than what was currently being offered. Girls’ lacrosse was booming in the U.S., yet our local numbers were flat or declining with many girls dropping out after minimal exposure to the sport. After a number of discussions, John Lazzaretto and Kevin Robinson decided that the time was right and that the need was there for creating a new not for profit girls’ lacrosse program in Lake Forest/Lake Bluff.
How did they do it? Like the line from “Field of Dreams”, “Build it and they will come”,…. John and Kevin felt that if they carefully developed a lacrosse program from the ground up, with a culture embracing best effort with lots positivity from coaches, that the girls would come to the Bandits. And they did. They created a program with club-like training at community prices in a community based program. Years later, Bandits Lacrosse is now the most popular girls’ community lacrosse program in the area. The Bandits have built an amazing reputation over the last decade by adhering to their mission and their goals – always putting the athletes development first. While at Bandits, our players have built lifetime memories and friendships with their classmates in their local community.
Our goal is to continue delivering maximum exposure, high-quality lacrosse instruction, that helps build confidence, through positive and encouraging mentorship to our athletes, in their own local community – a program which encourages multiple sports and multiple activities participation by its athletes.
Bandits has made a profound difference personally for John’s family – his daughter, Ellie, now on a lacrosse scholarship at Duke University was ready to leave lacrosse in 4th grade because lacrosse wasn’t fun and she wasn’t being challenged by the past program – instead she joined the Bandits program, worked hard, grew her lacrosse skills, had fun, and found a love for lacrosse. Our hope is that all our players find the joy and love of playing lacrosse while playing with the Bandits.
Coach John talks Bandits https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-lazzaretto-founder-of-bandits-lacrosse-club/id1549972698?i=1000526885793
