Three required items. That is the entire list, and it is the best-kept secret in youth sports.
A boy needs eight pieces of equipment to step on a lacrosse field. A girl needs three.
That difference is worth real money — roughly $100 to $200 for a complete first-year girls kit against $300 to $500 for a boy — and almost nobody advertises it. Gear is only part of the total, and the rest of it is in our breakdown of what youth lacrosse costs. It makes girls lacrosse one of the least expensive entries into any organized sport in America.
1. The required list
- A stick
- A mouthguard
- Eye protection meeting the ASTM F3077 standard
Cleats and a water bottle, obviously. But the mandated list is three things. Source: USA Lacrosse equipment requirements.
2. Eye protection — the one certification that is mandatory
Goggles must meet ASTM F3077. The standard mark is printed on the product. That is the whole check, and it takes five seconds in a store.
Goggles became mandatory in girls lacrosse in 2005. Before that, players wore nothing.
2.1 How to buy them
Fit is the entire decision. Goggles that slide are goggles a player pushes up during a game, which is exactly when they are needed. Try them on if you possibly can, and buy the ones with a silicone-backed strap.
Do not buy used goggles from a stranger. Cage geometry can be bent out of spec without looking bent.
3. Headgear — optional by rule, and the data says buy it
This is the most important paragraph on this page.
Headgear meeting ASTM F3137 is optional at every level of girls lacrosse. Not required — permitted.
And here is what the research found: 72.7% of concussions in girls lacrosse come from stick or ball contact, and a peer-reviewed estimate puts 44.7% of them as preventable with a hard-shell headgear. Source: Injury Epidemiology 7:16, 2020.
Nobody will require you to buy it. The numbers say buy it anyway.
3.1 Two things worth knowing
Brown University became the first NCAA program to supply headgear to its entire team in 2017. The adoption curve since then has been slow, and the reasons are mostly cultural rather than medical.
Florida is the only state confirmed to mandate headgear by law. Texas does not.
If your daughter is the only girl on her team wearing it for a season, that is genuinely awkward at twelve. It is also the right call, and it stops being awkward the moment a second girl does it.
4. The stick
The women’s stick is a different tool, and it is harder to use on purpose. If you want to know how it got that way, the history of the stick is worth an evening.
The pocket is shallow by rule — the ball must remain visible above the sidewall when the head is held level. That makes catching and cradling genuinely more difficult than in the boys’ game, and it is why girls who learn properly develop such clean, quick hands.
It is also why boys’ coaches, including me, have players train with a girls stick. Less forgiveness, faster hands required.
4.1 Sizing
Every field player carries the same length: 35½ to 43¼ inches, regardless of position. There is no long pole in the women’s game and no stick-length specialization at all.
For a young player, shorter is better. A stick she can control is worth more than a stick she will grow into.
4.2 What to buy
- STX Crux 100 — the standard first complete stick, and the one we recommend by default
- Maverik LX starter complete — around $150 as a full starter setup
- Buy a complete stick, not a head and shaft separately. And buy the inexpensive one — entry-level heads have wider, more forgiving pockets, which is exactly what a beginner needs.
5. Goalie — a separate kit
A girls goalie needs substantially more: helmet with a full face mask, separate throat protector, chest protector, padded gloves, shin guards or leg padding, and a goalie stick running 35½ to 52 inches.
Most programs keep goalie gear on hand, ours included, precisely because the cost is a barrier to a position every team needs filled. Ask before you buy anything.
6. What to buy used, and what not to
| Buy used | Buy new |
|---|---|
| Sticks — a used complete stick is a great first purchase | Eye protection — cage geometry matters |
| Cleats, bags, apparel | Mouthguards — obviously |
| Practice pinnies | Headgear, if you buy it — same logic as a helmet |
SidelineSwap is the used market that actually works, and nearly every seller accepts offers.
7. Where to buy in San Antonio
- Play It Again Sports — the lowest-priced local option, and they trade gear back when she outgrows it. Take the trade-in as store credit; it is worth more than cash. SA North: 15038 San Pedro Ave, 210-455-3951. SA West: 8425 Bandera Rd #136, 210-888-5700. Call first — lacrosse inventory moves.
- Dick’s House of Sport, Live Oak — 4100 Ikea-RBFCU Pkwy, 210-200-6000. The only Dick’s in the city that lists lacrosse, and the best place to try goggles on.
- Nearest real lacrosse store: Lacrosse Unlimited in Austin — 6203 N Capital of Texas Hwy, about eighty minutes. There is no lacrosse store in San Antonio.
- Online: Lacrosse Monkey · Universal · Lacrosse Unlimited
- If someone else is doing the buying, hand them our lacrosse gift guide.
8. What it costs
| Route | Cost |
|---|---|
| Everything new | $100–200 |
| The smart mix — used stick, new goggles and mouthguard | ~$120 |
| Add headgear | +$100–150 |
| Goalie | Ask us first |
Cost is the number one reason kids never try this sport. Not interest, not talent, not time.
That is why the SA Armadillos keep extra gear on hand and why we price the way we do. If equipment is the only thing between your daughter and a first season, tell us. We will get her on the field.
9. Fun fact: she is playing in the centennial year
Rosabelle Sinclair, an immigrant PE teacher who learned the game as a schoolgirl in Scotland, founded the first women’s lacrosse team in America at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1926.
She co-founded the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Association in 1931 and became the first woman ever inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
That makes 2026 the hundredth anniversary of women’s lacrosse in America — and in 2028 it becomes an Olympic medal event for the first time. One hundred years from a Baltimore schoolyard to an Olympic stadium. Sources: Baltimore Sun, World Lacrosse.
10. Start here
Borrow a stick before you buy one. Any program worth joining will hand her one for a first practice, and that includes us.
After that the list is genuinely short: a stick she can control, goggles that fit and carry the ASTM mark, a mouthguard, and a headgear decision the research makes easy.
Three items and a wall. That is the whole barrier to entry, and it is lower than almost any parent expects. Everything else about the sport — the rules, the draw, the age bands, the college odds — is in our complete girls lacrosse guide.
Paul Taylor
Varsity Head Coach, Central Catholic High School
Founder, Great American Lacrosse
Paul Taylor is the varsity head lacrosse coach at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio and the founder of Great American Lacrosse, which runs the SA Armadillos club teams and the Summer Showdown Camp. He has coached lacrosse in San Antonio for over a decade.
Train with Great American Lacrosse
Great American Lacrosse runs year-round programs in San Antonio — the Speed & Skills Clinic, the SA Armadillos club teams, winter rec, private training, and the Summer Showdown Camp. Open enrollment, every level, beginners welcome.