The number of players on a box lacrosse team usually starts at six but can be reduced due to penalties.
Player rosters can be significantly bigger, particularly at professional level. Junior levels can start with fewer players on the floor and have a smaller roster.
This article gets into the details. You may be surprised that the first box lacrosse teams in history were bigger.
Number Of Players On A Box Lacrosse Team
There are usually six players on a box lacrosse team: one goalie and five runners. The team roster can be bigger, but only six players can be on the floor at once.
When a player commits a penalty, the team is reduced in number for a set period. Up to three players can be sent to the penalty box.
However, the rules ensure that a team must have a minimum of three runners on the floor.
“Three man down”
A penalty lasts two minutes for a minor breach. It’s possible for two players to get overlapping penalties.
That can reduce the team to the goalie and three runners. If another runner commits a penalty, new rules come into play.
The sport doesn’t allow teams to play with fewer than three runners. Three coinciding penalties result in a “three man down” situation. In this case, the third player doesn’t leave the field.
Instead, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot.
“Too Many Men” Rule
What would happen if an extra player sneaks onto the floor to help save their team? I don’t know because that’s a far-fetched situation.
What can sometimes happen is that a player is too eager to rotate onto the floor and doesn’t wait for the substituted player to leave.
The substitution rules say that the replaced player must have both feet in the substitution area before the other player is on the floor.
In reality, referees won’t penalize a very close call when the play isn’t close to the benches.
However, it could result in interference with play through an advantage by an extra player on the field. This will be penalized as “too many men”.
Different Numbers At Youth Level
Some youth leagues play without a goalie.
This means that they have five players on the floor instead of six.
Number Of Players On The Roster In Box Lacrosse
The number of players on the roster varies by league.
Clubs in the NLL, the professional box league, dress nineteen players on game day. The roster must include two goalies and seventeen runners.
The NLL clubs tend to have specialist offensive and defensive players. The large roster lets them rotate five runners in shifts depending on possession of the ball.
Amateur and junior leagues
There are different rules for roster size across different amateur leagues and age grades.
The sport’s governing bodies are keen that all youth and school players will get game-time. So, there are some leagues that don’t allow the roster to be more than half the number of the team.
In other words, the maximum roster size would be nine players. That is only three players waiting to get on the floor.
How Numbers Have Changed In History
Box lacrosse teams used to have more players on the floor. We know this by looking at historical newspaper coverage from the 1930s.
Box lacrosse originated in 1931 in Canada. The newspapers reported that the sport was played with seven players per team.
The early incarnation of the sport was heavily influenced by ice hockey. The positions lined up as a goalie, two defencemen, three forwards, and a rover that roamed around the floor.
If you’re not familiar with how the sport lines up now, check out our article on player positions in box lacrosse.
I haven’t been able to establish exactly when the sport reduced team numbers from seven to six. By the time that the NLL was established, there were the current six per team.
