LAST UPDATED AUGUST 8, 2020

4 Leaf Families,

With the governor's announcement last week that youth sports can return in limited fashion, we hope that you can begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel. While this has been a very difficult period for all of us, we look forward to seeing the smiles on our athletes' and coaches' faces as we return to play. 

We wanted to put together this article to outline exactly HOW we'll return to play in the coming weeks. Drawing directly from the State of NH's Stay At Home 2.0 Guidance, we put our athletes', coaches', and families' health as our #1 priority, now and always. 

Please read this article in its entirety. We'll be sure to update this as new announcements are made, and any change in guidance from the State of NH will be reflected here and in our approach to evaluations, practices, and eventually, games. 

4 Leaf Lacrosse NH will adopt a staged approach to reopening, in alignment with the guidelines set forth by the State of NH. 

WE ARE CURRENTLY IN STAGE 2 OF THE NH YOUTH SPORTS REOPENING GUIDELINES. (updated June 11, 2020)

While the guidance from the State of NH is extensive, and we encourage you to read it in full, below are the specific points that we feel are relevant to lacrosse, and the way in which 4 Leaf NH will approach small group evaluations and training over the coming weeks. We all share the responsibility to understand and follow these guidelines in an effort to keep everyone safe. 

Stage 2 Guidelines include: 

• Players should not leave their cars and enter the turf area until 10 minutes before their scheduled session. 
• For the time being, ONLY athletes who reside in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine (updated 6/11) may participate in 4 Leaf New Hampshire activities. Once the guidelines are relaxed to allow out-of-state athletes to attend, we will update this page and notify impacted families. Athletes from Massachusetts may attend beginning June 29th. 
• Any athlete, parent, or coach who experiences illness, fever, or symptoms of COVID-19 should not attend our events. 
• Athletes or staff who traveled via public transportation, who had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or who traveled internationally should not attend our events for 14 days. 
• Coaches and staff will keep a 6-foot distance from parents and athletes, and wear masks in situations where that is not possible. 
• Training will be limited to groups of no more than 10  50 participants - we will continue small group training for another week, then we will expand to larger groups and team practices. (updated 6/11)
• Given the size of the Trinity turf field, we anticipate having up to 60 individuals on the field at once, with each group maintaining distance from other groups and the groups never commingling. 
• There will be no high-fives, handshakes, or huddles. 
• Athletes should arrive at the field fully dressed, or get their equipment on at their vehicle. BAGS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED ON THE TURF FIELD. 
• Athletes should not touch each other's equipment, sticks, water bottles, etc. 
• Athletes should not pick up balls with bare hands. 
• Athletes must bring their own water, and should not share water bottles. Water bottles MUST be reusable and water/sports drinks brought from home. DO NOT bring one-time-use water/sports drinks bottles to the field (Dasani, Gatorade, etc). 
• Parents are asked to keep socially distant from each other, from the athletes, and from coaches while attending our activities. Watching from vehicles, if possible, is encouraged. We do not want large crowds of parents/spectators around the perimeter of the playing surface. 
• Please limit carpooling.
• At this time, only skill-based training is allowed. We hope to have more guidance on game-play at some point in June. 

We appreciate your patience, understanding, and adherence to these guidelines. As excited as we are about getting back to some form of lacrosse, please note that this WILL be different from what we are all used to. Regardless of your opinion on these guidelines, it is imperative that we adhere to them in order to continue offering lacrosse activities to our athletes. 

Please email scott@4leaflax.org with any questions. 

-Scott Dudley
President, 4 Leaf Lacrosse New England

What about games?

As of today (May 29th), gameplay is not allowed. We are keeping tabs on the announcements and will edit this page, and communicate out to you, when we can begin scrimmaging or possibly playing games. 

Are the tournaments still on? 

As of now the tournaments are still on, though the dates and locations for several tournaments have changed. Please see this page for our current schedule. 

We are monitoring state travel guidelines daily and will communicate any tournament cancellations or changes as soon as we have enough information to do so. 

We don't live in NH. Can we come to 4 Leaf activities? 

As of June 29th, athletes from Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts are able to come to NH to participate in 4 Leaf events. 

When will you know more? 

This situation is, and has been, changing daily. We're keeping tabs on announcements from the CDC, US Lacrosse, and each state where we participate. We'll continue to update this page, and you, whenever there are significant developments. 

What is your refund policy? 

Typically we have a strong no-refund policy, however this an unprecedented situation. If any of our summer tournaments are canceled, we will issue appropriate refunds accordingly to high school athletes who have registered and paid. 

For our youth program, we will break the tuition up into two parts:

-Training & Practices
-Tournament Gameplay

We will not invoice for the tournaments until we are certain we will attend. More information will be sent to athletes rostered on a summer youth tournament team.