Summer 2025: A look back at The Fly alumni on the world stage

This summer has seen three international competitions take place in the 2025 European Lacrosse Men’s Championship, The World Games 2025, and the 2025 World Lacrosse Men’s U20 Championship.

Those three tournaments have featured a whopping 64 of our The Fly alumni who have either played or coached at the world’s first and UK’s only national six-a-side lacrosse league since its inception in 2021.

Both the Men’s Euros and Men’s U20 Worlds played the traditional 10-a-side version of lacrosse but The World Games 2025 featured the best version of the sport (we’re not biased!) and the format that will be featured at the LA 2028 Olympic Games in less than three years’ time: sixes.

2025 European Lacrosse Men’s Championship

First up in July, our eyes were glued to the 2025 Men’s Euros in Wroclaw, Poland, and the 37 former The Fly players/coaches taking part for England, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, and Germany.

Nine times winners and reigning champions England were narrowly defeated by eventual winners Israel in their semi-final match but their team regrouped to take the bronze medal after a 7-4 third place game victory over Ireland.

Nick DeCaprio and Danny Hilditch, both of whom played at The Fly 2025 earlier this year, earned themselves a spot in the All-Europe Team due to their performances during the tournament.

A Germany team featuring Justin Wismer and Rintaro Fujita eventually claimed seventh spot after a 14-10 win over France.

They missed out on the opportunity to fight for fifth place after a defeat by one goal to Czechia in their play-in game.

The only Netherlands representative, goalie Thomas Haitsma, who famously scored a goal from inside his own crease at The Fly 2025, helped his side to a ninth place finish after a 9-8 win over Greece.

In an enthralling 12th place match, close rivals Scotland and Wales took each other on in a game that featured 11 The Fly alumni.

After four quarters, Scotland came out as 10-7 victors to claim 12th spot while Wales finished 13th.

The World Games 2025

Shortly after the conclusion of the 2025 Men’s Euros, all attention turned to Chengdu, China and the Great Britain women’s team who were taking part in their second consecutive The World Games.

The World Games is a bit like the Olympic Games with multiple, often quite niche, sports on show during the two-week event.

Lacrosse was first showcased at The World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2017 when Great Britain took on Poland, Japan, Australia, Canada, and USA in a six-team tournament playing the 10-a-side version of the sport.

For the 2022 competition, held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 10-a-side became six-a-side with lacrosse one of a number of sports in contention to become an Olympic sport for the 2028 Games.

The tournament was increased to an eight-team competition with GB, Canada, Australia, USA, and Japan all reaturning alongside newcomers Haudenosaunee, Israel, and Czechia.

In 2022, a men’s tournament was held for the first time as an exhibition event.

2025 saw the competition female-only once again and Haudenosaunee and Israel replaced by Ireland and China.

Great Britain women were back and looking to maintain their status as top four in the world.

It started well for GB with an opening day victory over hosts China that was followed by an excellent showing against Canada despite a narrow 14-10 defeat.

The group stage finished with a second defeat for GB after falling 15-10 to Japan which left them to battle for fifth place against Czechia.

It was a routine 20-11 win in the end for a Great Britain side who’ll be hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games at some point in the very near future.

2025 World Lacrosse Men’s U20 Championship

Finally, and just a few days after the end of The World Games, 12 The Fly alumni took to the field for England at the 2025 World Lacrosse Men’s U20 Championship on Jeju Island, South Korea.

Five wins from seven games, including an incredible last second win over Mexico in one of their play-off games and victory over Jamaica in their final match, ensured a seventh place finish for England.

Several of the 22-player squad will be looking to compete for a place in the senior England team ahead of next year’s senior World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, having graduated from the U20 squad ahead of the 2025/26 season.