lacrosse player vs participant

lacrosse player and participant both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
lacrosse player	Yes	No	No	No
participant	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, participant is a hypernym of lacrosse player; that is, participant is a word with a broader meaning than lacrosse player:

Other hypernyms of lacrosse player include athlete, jock, player.

lacrosse player (noun)	participant (noun)
an athlete who plays lacrosse	someone who takes part in an activity
	a person who participates in or is skilled at some game