Florida Adds Lacrosse as Official Varsity Sport

[peterwho]

Add lacrosse to the list of high school sports now officially recognized by the state.

The Florida High School Athletic Association announced earlier this week that participation for boys' and girls' lacrosse met the minimum requirement of 48 competing schools to hold a state championships series in April 2008.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/highschool/sfl-flsplacrosse29pnsep29,0,1611266.story

It is interesting that money is cited as a reason that my county (Broward) will not be participating - the club teams have managed to fund the sport, this far.

Our growing pains seem to mirror many of the issues in the MCLA.

[Zeuslax]

It is interesting that money is cited as a reason that my county (Broward) will not be participating - the club teams have managed to fund the sport, this far.

you are correct, there are very different parameters once a high school sport is elevated. Especially one as capital intensive as boys lacrosse. In many east coast states outside coaches (outside of school and then school system/district) can only act as assistants and many cases can not. Could you imagine if Balto City/County, or the state of Maryland for that matter allowed coaches outside of the school systems?

PA just went varsity and a bunch of the top Western PA schools thought they were going to stay in the MidWest so they could continue travel, tournaments, fall ball activities, ect.......and they found out very quickly that they either had to join or fold the school affiliated "club". Basically, they had to comply with all the varsity rules or nothing. Essentially the mandate came down and schools have to accept it if they want their school to have a team. It always varries from state to state though.

I know that some cash strapped school systems require small payments to offset costs for varsity sports, but that is usually capped at $50 bucks. I'm not sure what FL is going to do, but I wouldn't think that they would allow the dues for a varsity sport to continue at the level that they currently are.

[StrykerFSU]

I believe that, at least in Leon County Florida, the district charges dues for varsity football so it is conceivable they will do the same with varsity lacrosse.

[PigPen]

In many east coast states outside coaches (outside of school and then school system/district) can only act as assistants and many cases can not. Could you imagine if Balto City/County, or the state of Maryland for that matter allowed coaches outside of the school systems?

I grew up in NY almost 20 years ago and all of my lax coaches had jobs outside of the school district. That is what is killing coaching in a lot of areas-the belief that good coaches have to be teachers/district employees. There are a lot of guys out there that played a high level of ball and would make great coaches but can't coach because they got a job in the financial field, etc.

If lax went varsity in TX (UIL) and made it mandatory that all coaches had to be district employees, it would kill the sport. You have these football line coaches who thought the kids had fishing nets, yelling at kids to "hit 'em"all the time. After all why would a guy making $75K a year take a $30K teaching job just so he could coach h.s. lax. You might get a really dedicated guy but chances are that wouldn't happen.

As someone pointed out to me years ago here-careful what you wish for. Going varsity isn't the be all end all.

[TexOle]

I am not completely happy with the MSHSL for multiple reasons. I liked the lacrosse community having complete control of the sport in MN.

[GrayBear]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Amen.

[LaxRef]

I am not completely happy with the MSHSL for multiple reasons. I liked the lacrosse community having complete control of the sport in MN.

There have been good and bad things with it. Overall, I think it's been better than I thought it would be. Getting more teams involved and getting 3 officials on more games has been good.

The biggest downside so far is that the MSHSL doesn't seem to "get" that 3 games per week is not a reasonable rate. Last year they told them they could have a 12-game schedule in 6 weeks, then gave them 5 weeks instead of 6. Then we lost a week due to weather. There were some teams that played 4 days in a row and 6 games in 7 days due to rescheduling. That's not good for anyone.

[Sonny]

I am not completely happy with the MSHSL for multiple reasons. I liked the lacrosse community having complete control of the sport in MN.

The flip side is of course that the sport can grown & succeed in the main stream high school and recreational sports communities. Like it or not, until the athletic directors, principals, football coaches, basketball coaches (i.e. the decision makers) embrace lacrosse across the country - it will always be viewed as an fringe sport. Now, with many states sanctioning the sport - lacrosse can join football, basketball, baseball, etc. - on the inside (not the outside looking in...)

P.S. Many of the club guys (non school employees) can still continue to coach at the H.S. level, although they may have to shift down to an assistant coach and go through some sort of formal certification process.

[Danny Hogan]

florida HS lax has lost a week of our season each of the last 2 years due to FHSAA guidance. Our state series is the 3rd week of april this year.

sucks because we get a plethora of cold climate HS that want to come play us in april (on their spring break) and we begin our district series the first week of april.

[peterwho]

Danny - you are 100% correct with that observation (can we blame the FCAT???).

Our community lax program feeds into Stoneman Douglas High School (Florida State Club champs) and we are just a stone's throw from St. Andrew's (Florida State champs). There is a lot of interest from well established programs in playing a round-robin format over Spring Break. Our cost is minimal, but the experience is priceless - the younger kids get to see great lacrosse played on their fields.

[laxfan25]

We just completed the third season of MHSAA-sanctioned lacrosse here in Michigan. While it has given programs varsity status, the MHSAA knows very little about the sport and has relied heavily on the folks that used to run the MSLA - a private organization.
Growth has not accelerated beyond what was happening already. It has had some negative effects on teams and officials. For the better teams it greatly restricted their travel opportunities - can't go more than 300 miles one-way for a game, so East Coast trips or Florida trips are out. They also limit how many games a week can be played.
For the officials, we had one statewide lacrosse officials organization, and we would negotiate rates with the MSLA and everyone used the recognized assignors.
Now, the MHSAA has forced the lacrosse officials organization to be broken up - "we refuse to recognize a statewide organization". After fighting this for two years we finally relented and broke into two groups.
While schools can still use the organization assignors, they can also go out on their own and get their own refs and pay them whatever they want. This is similar to football here, and it boggles my mind that an AD can go out and select his own ref crew and pay varying rates. The opportunity to be "homered" seems to be huge - ("if you want this assignment next year you better do a good job")
There is no mileage reimbursement, game rates have been the same for the past few years and it will be much more difficult to get any increases through.
So as others have said, it's been a mixed bag on sanctioning.

[TexOle]

I can say a little about Texas and the problems there.

First is all coaches must be full time employees of the school. It is a set rule, and does not look like it will change.

Second is the UIL and who can join. Jesuit and Strake Jesuit are the only private schools allowed to join. Also all teams must be single school varsity teams with no club or combined school teams.

I asked a former principal about starting lacrosse at a school, and he pointed out a lot of the problems.

With the schools assigning games there are some problems with football. I think most former 9-5A athletes would argue that certain schools got more calls than others. The home team submitted recommended officials, and the visitors could reject a crew. I think Coach Gayden only rejected 1 crew in a 5 year period. It was generally frowned upon in the UIL to reject officials.

I don't mind doing games with 2 refs, but my biggest problems involved the lack of consultation with teams and refs by the schools. This past season was my least favorite of all the previous seasons. I would like to know what some of the coaches and parents who have been involved as board members in the MBSLA and the MSHSL think.