A prodigious lacrosse exhibition between U.S. military special forces in August promises a next-level experience for those attending, viewing and streaming.
The third annual Stars & Stripes Classic matchup between the Green Beret Foundation and the Navy SEAL Foundation at the Ohio State University Lacrosse Stadium will be held the weekend of Aug. 2, 2026, and feature former high-caliber lacrosse players.
“What’s super cool about the game is they’re bringing some recent retirees and some active duty SEALS and Green Berets to play a game,” said Chris Brose, an admitted lacrosse junkie and the president and chief strategy officer at defense technology company Anduril, an event sponsor. “Find me another sport where you could take people who are recently out of their collegiate experience, and who are still high-performing tier-one athletes capable of coming and playing a game at a quasi-professional level.”
Charlie Iacono, president and CEO of the Green Beret Foundation, echoes Brose’s sentiments about the quality of play on the field.
“We’ve proved over the last two years that it’s actually a pretty good lacrosse game…there’s a lot of finesse at times, but there’s a lot of hard hitting, heavy hits. There’s quite a few tussles from time to time,” Iacono said. “But these are former D1 athletes, D2, D3 athletes.”
A requirement for participants in the Classic is that they possess college-level playing experience.
“We love the guys that played in high school,” Iacono said. “The SEAL team puts forward a very young team every year, largely out of the academy. So we’ve got to find guys that can compete with that.”
The Green Berets have enlisted the help of legendary West Point coach Joe Alberici and Bobby Benson, the coach at Providence College and the assistant head coach of the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team.
It’s definitely not a group of Green Berets and SEALS gathering for a pickup game. If it were, ESPN wouldn’t be televising it. The allure of the special operations personnel lacrosse matchup is akin to the annual iconic Army-Navy football game.
“As we head into the third year, it’s really beginning to draw a tremendous amount of interest, not just from other elements of the communities, the combined collective communities,” Iacono explained.
The Premier Lacrosse League’s partnership with the foundations has helped to make the contest a quality one. The PLL is the top professional lacrosse league globally.
“The PLL has been incredibly generous over the last few years to us,” the Green Beret Foundation president said. “So much is donated in kind, which allows for the proceeds of the merch sales and the ticket sales to benefit both foundations…these guys essentially show up to this game, and they don’t have to come with anything other than their street clothes that they’re wearing. They’re being given the experience that a PLL player receives.”
PLL CEO Mike Rabil said lacrosse players are prevalent in the special operations community and the Classic is a way to celebrate their service, commitment and character.
“The discipline, the team-first mentality, the relentless pursuit of excellence shared amongst these teams is a privilege to witness and share with fans around the country,” Rabil said in a statement sent to Military Families Magazine. “The Stars & Stripes Classic gives us the chance to honor Special Operations Command Veterans on the field, and support the Green Beret Foundation and Navy SEAL Foundation’s critical work to support these service members and their families.”
The idea of a lacrosse Stars & Stripes Classic happened at — you guessed correctly — a lacrosse game.
While at a PLL postseason contest honoring military families in 2023, Iacono and Rabil had a conversation before a halftime PLL presentation of an honorary helmet to the Green Beret Foundation.
“Mike Rabil and I were standing on the field before we walked out for the game-time presentation,” Iacono said. “And he said, ‘This has been fantastic. How else can we work together?’ And in that moment, I said to him, ‘Why don’t we do a Green Beret versus Navy SEAL lacrosse game?’ He said that would be something pretty spectacular from both a storytelling perspective and a lacrosse perspective. Both communities have very deep ties to the lacrosse community.”
What many said would take two years to plan and develop took just six months to implement — in time for a 2024 matchup in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
That inaugural game springboarded the Classic into its third edition.
But it’s really more than an exhibition match between stellar LAX players. It’s about community. A macro-community formed by the overlapping of micro-communities, so to speak.
“For people who don’t pay close attention to lacrosse, one of the cool things — for reasons that I can’t necessarily explain — there is a very large overlap in the Venn diagram between the sport of lacrosse and the sort of defense, national security, and military community,” Brose said.
The aim of the Stars & Stripes weekend is to create an indelible event for the player, their families and everyone attending, who is part of the extended lacrosse community. The “Army” vs. “Navy” game serves as an exclamation point to the preceding activities.
“So our focus and the Navy SEAL Foundation’s focus is to bring together a really memorable experience for all the families that come onto the campus or the stadium, or city that we’re in,” Iacono said. “They learn about the foundations and the offerings that we provide to the community. There’s family retreats, gatherings, getaways and experiences. It’s a culmination of a whole series of foundation-sponsored events that really concludes with a fantastic lacrosse game.”
Robin King, CEO of the Navy SEAL Foundation, told Military Families Magazine in an emailed statement that the weekend goes beyond the warfighter and player on the field; it’s about community.
“Behind every warrior on that field is a family and a community that carried them, and the Stars & Stripes Classic honors all of it,” King said. “We’re grateful to the Premier Lacrosse League and Anduril for building a platform that celebrates the spirit of our SEALs and SWCCs while supporting the programs that serve them and their families.”
Sponsors have become an essential element of the Stars & Stripes Classic. Event sponsors are Anduril Industries, Ticketmaster, Dude Wipes, and ECD Lacrosse.
“The fantastic thing is, industry has really started to get excited about it… it’s a culmination of both industry and lacrosse space, the defense space, the philanthropic space,” Iacono said.
He said ECD Lacrosse is a boon to the actual Stars & Stripes game. The company underwrites all of the stick costs and strings them.
“ECD Lacrosse is known in the lacrosse community to be one of the best lacrosse stick providers, manufacturers, but they also produce some of the best mesh in the game, which creates the pocket in a lacrosse stick… everything is donated,” Iacono said. “The players get to keep those sticks.”
Brose said the Classic is, unquestionably, the right sponsor fit for Anduril, saying that a stadium name and jersey logo don’t quite align with their sponsorship vision or mission.
“It’s just an incredibly exciting and cool event. And I think for Anduril, where we do these kinds of sponsorships, we’re always looking for things that we believe are in line with our mission.”
The event’s impact as a fundraiser is significant. The return-on-investment dollar totals around $0.85 for the Green Beret Foundation. Iacono said the organization endeavors to invest those funds back into the Green Beret community in the most meaningful and transformative ways.
“So, between $0.84 and $0.86 goes back into the community year over year. We’ve supported tens of thousands of families in Green Berets since the beginning of our foundation in 2009. What we look to do is strive to promote strength in mind, body and spirit. And that’s not just for the warfighter, that’s for the entire family.”
As mentioned, the Sunday in early August at Ohio State draws similarities to the annual Army-Navy football matchup in the fall, but this showdown might have a bit more punch. Brose summarized it succinctly:
“They want to go out, and they want to do well. They want to rep their service and their community well. They’re taking on the other service, right? So there’s that inherent rivalry aspect of it. As you’ve kind of watched the past couple of years, the game gets pretty chippy. These guys are out there to battle and win. These are not undergrads. These are guys who have been selected into the top tier of special operations.”
