OHSAA Recognition & Sanctioning

rjones

Member
Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in Ohio. There are now about 120 schools with teams. If recognized by OHSAA that number would increase dramatically. Girl's Field Hockey has 37 schools with teams, Girl's Gymnastics 98, and Boy's Ice Hockey 82. All are OHSAA sanctioned sports. Why has lacrosse not been sanctioned? It has significantly more individual and schools participating than these sports. Is the OHSLA actively lobbying OHSAA to sanction lacrosse? If so, what is the status? If not, why not? The cost to run a tournament is much less than ice hockey and gymnastics. While the tournament cost may compare to that of field hockey, the popularity of lacrosse likely would make it a revenue generator for OHSAA rather than a drain on OHSAA's budget. The same can not be said for many other sanctioned sports, especially field hockey, gymnastics and ice hockey. If OHSAA has a minimum number of schools that must have teams participating in the sport before it will sanction it how do they justify continuing to sponsor sports that fall below that minimum. Interested in any insights others may have to why OHSAA has not sanctioned this sport.
 
 
Keep in mind that once lacrosse becomes an OHSAA sport (and it probably will) there will be a whole lot of rules that do not currently apply. Summer teams, for instance, would have restrictions on the number of players that are allowed from each school. Coaches will be more restricted in their contact with the kids- not saying this is all bad, just an adjustment.
 
I thought that the OHSLA followed OHSAA general rules already. Regardless, wouldn't the increased growth that OHSAA sanctioning would invariably bring be worth whatever further restrictions would apply? As to why it is not sanctioned yet, I suspect that a number of factors are at play. First, although it may not be a formal rule, I believe the OHSAA generally requires 150 schools to be participating before it will recognize and sanction a sport. (Perhaps this is to avoid the field hockey - and to a lesser degree ice hockey and gymnastics situation.) That aside, other sports and coaches may be actively lobbying against recognition. The pool of athletes has limitations and in todays atmosphere many sports have become year round meaning that coaches do not encourage their athletes to play other sports. So football coaches - for example - may see lacrosse as a challenge to their team in getting players even though their seasons differ. Obviously, the other spring sports would not necessarily want another sport to draw from the pool of available athletes. Finally, Title IX may require that a girl's sport be added at the same time. The newest sport to the OHSAA lineup was bowling - and it came in with both boy's and girl's teams. I'm not certain where girl's lacrosse is in terms of schools playing, but that could be a factor as well.
 
Ohio Boys D1/DII have 108 schools participating, according to Laxpower. In addition, there are 24 schools with boys club teams, for a total of 132 schools.

Laxpower lists 109 schools with girls teams in Ohio - thats D1, DII and Independent.
 
As of now club/ travel lacrosse does not have 50% rule in effect, unlike AAU basketball, travel baseball etc. From what i know, the players are also allowed to be coached by their school team coach during the summer/ off season- this would most likely change to follow OHSAA rules which would be much more restrictive.

I looked it up, the 50% rule (5 player max from the same school) Does apply, but only in August and January/ February. HS coaches have much more freedom than say basketball coaches, even though there are some limitations in place such as only 2 tournaments allowed in the fall and no contact in August.
 
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