OHSAA Sanctioning Lacrosse

T

thedutchman

Member
And so it begins. The following is from the minutes of the August OHSAA Board of Trustees meeting. It looks like the beginning step to lacrosse being sanctioned as an OHSAA sport. Certainly, if sanctioned the growth in teams likely would accelerate. The meeting minutes are as follows:

"Board member Phil Ackerman informed the Board that the OHSAA Expanding Opportunities Committee met the previous day with representatives from the state boys and the state girls lacrosse associations, respectively. The two associations have interest in their sports being sanctioned by the OHSAA. Both sports currently have approximately 100 schools as members, with the boys also having 25 club teams and the girls eight. The committee plans to continue discussion with the associations, with the next steps to obtain trend data and to conduct a survey with both schools that currently sponsor lacrosse and those that do not."
 
 
Exciting, this could lead to even more growth of the sport. I played in high school (graduated in 2004). After nine years, I threw the helmet and pads back on and played in a pretty competitive summer league this year. I was stunned at how big the league was, how talented the kids were, and how many schools were represented. Hopefully OHSAA involvement only continues the growth of the sport.
 
sbutler said:
dutch, or anyone,
If this process starts, any idea as to when sanctioning could happen?
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Hard to say, but assuming OHSAA, following its survey, decides to move toward adding the sport, it likely is still several years away. OHSAA does not have a history of quick moves. In the last 30 years, only four sports have been added or elevated to state tournament status; girls soccer (1985), girls golf (1993) and boys and girls bowling (2007). On the down side, boys gymnastics was dropped in 1997. The most recent addition bowling (2007) now has 308 boys teams & 284 girls teams. Seems like it had 150 to 200 teams when OHSAA sanctioned it. Reportedly an unofficial standard of 150 schools playing the sport exists before the OHSAA will consider sanctioning - but that may not be a hard and fast rule. Field hockey (37 teams), girls gymnastics (98 teams) & ice hockey (82 teams) would be hard to justify if it is. Working in favor of sanctioning is the fact that adding girls & boys lacrosse would maintain the same number of sanctioned sports for each gender (presently at 12 apiece). Certainly the increase in lacrosse's popularity at the college level will help as well. Finally, if lacrosse can show that it will generate enough revenue to pay for its tournament then it would seem that OHSAA sanctioning becomes a no brainer.
 
thedutchman said:
Finally, if lacrosse can show that it will generate enough revenue to pay for its tournament then it would seem that OHSAA sanctioning becomes a no brainer.
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This seems to be the bottom line to me. As long as the OHSAA doesn't have to pull money from somewhere else in the budget to pay for it, then why not?
 
The down side to being santioned by the OHSAA is that the flexibility in practice time, the dates to start team practice, the number of players from the same high school that can play on a club team, etc. will all be controlled by the OHSAA. Agree that it is a positive for the sport in the long run, but there are a few schools (especially some of the schools that have dominated), that are not going to like all the new restrictions and red tape that come with the OHSAA
 
Ilsco said:
The down side to being santioned by the OHSAA is that the flexibility in practice time, the dates to start team practice, the number of players from the same high school that can play on a club team, etc. will all be controlled by the OHSAA. Agree that it is a positive for the sport in the long run, but there are a few schools (especially some of the schools that have dominated), that are not going to like all the new restrictions and red tape that come with the OHSAA
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I think that the OHSLA has structured their rules to follow the OHSAA rules.
 
OHSLA does structure their eligibility rules, season start and finish, practice rules, etc. after OHSAA. However, OHSAA does not recognize club teams. All teams in OHSAA sanctioned lacrosse will have to be affiliated with a single school. If sanctioning comes, OHSLA may continue as a governing body for club teams.
 
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