Founded in 1969 as part of Novato’s city recreation program, the Novato Lacrosse Club (“NLC”) is the oldest lacrosse club in California, perhaps on the entire West Coast. NLC enjoyed unprecedented success in the 1970’s and 80’s: the boys varsity program won ten consecutive Northern California Club Championships and five consecutive State Club Championships from 1975 to 1985. In 1997, a boy’s junio
r program was added for grades 7th and 8th and in 1998 a girl’s varsity team began to compete for the Club. NLC currently fields teams for grades 1st through 12th. In the summer of 2001, the Novato Unified School District (“NUSD”) voted to approve varsity lacrosse as a CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) sport as part of a two-year pilot program at the two Novato high schools, Novato High and San Marin High. In 2004, the NUSD extended this pilot program for varsity level lacrosse at both high schools. Today the club is still going strong with 13+ teams and over 250 players across the skill levels. In 2016 the club voted on a new mascot and became the Novato Nighthawks Lacrosse Club
