All are welcome, says Jamaica Lacrosse

As preparations begin for the 2025 Pan-American Lacrosse Association (PALA) Women’s Qualifiers, Jamaica Lacrosse said all are welcome to register for their senior women’s ID (identifying prospective players) camp set for January 4, 2025 during the Jamaica Lacrosse Clinic.

The clinic will be split into two segments: an under-17 category for younger players who are just getting into the sport and a senior women’s category aimed at identifying prospective players for the upcoming qualifiers.

Spearheading the clinic will be former women’s lacrosse captain Corina Mahorn who has encouraged all interested players to turn out for the event.

“We’re really trying to build the basic skills of the girls who are here on the island,” she stated. “Anyone who wants to come and get the basics down – the passing and catching – or working on your defence and offence, we’re just trying to get those basics down.

“For the ID camp, we want to identify players who have the skills, the athleticism and the grit to play for Jamaica Lacrosse at world events.”

Mahorn, who heads the lacrosse officiating programme, said the idea behind the women’s ID camp is to give the various coaches as wide a pool of players available for selection as possible.

Jamaica Lacrosse recently announced Megan Sullivan and Chris Kryjewski as co-head coaches for the senior women’s team.

The clinic will be working in conjunction with tryouts scheduled to be held on January 11 and 12 in the United States to select the best crop of local and international-based players.

“There will also be tryouts in the US running around the same time. So after those weekends, the coaches will have a better idea of what the team will look like and can starting narrowing down players and putting together training packages for those players,” she explained.

“There will probably be around 50 girls in total in the player pool that will have to be narrowed down to around 20 for the final roster.”

Mahorn said while the association will look to find the perfect blend of the best local and international-based talents, the goal will also be to field the best 20 players who can represent Jamaica well.

“At the end, we really do want to take the best 20 girls to the PALA Qualifiers. The goal is always to represent Jamaica as best as we can and to leave our mark on the world stage. We want to send the best team to the qualifiers,” Mahorn insisted.

“We obviously want to combine the best local girls as well as the girls from the diaspora. That is part of the reason why I wanted to come back to have these clinics so that we can really develop the skills of the girls on the island.”

The PALA Qualifiers will serve as continental qualifiers for the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championships.

Jamaica made their debut at the 2022 Women’s Championship and are hoping to make their second consecutive appearance with a positive showing at the upcoming qualifiers in June.