Lacrosse backers not giving up on IHSA approval

We had just entered the dog days of basketball season when on Jan. 10 the Illinois High School Association announced that boys and girls lacrosse would not become a sanctioned sport this spring.

Way back in October 2009 the IHSA declared that lacrosse would be upgraded from an Emerging Sport to full status with a 2011 state championship series like the other spring sports.

Now, the tulips have broken through thawing ground. Despite the letdown, lacrosse players have taken the field with their school-affiliated club teams and it’s business as usual.

The response to the change of course?

“Honestly, I have not heard any of our players talk about it,” said Peter Bogle, who coaches the St. Charles girls team, a co-op between St. Charles East and North players. The boys have the same arrangement.

“It’s been very quiet,” said Matt Troha, the IHSA assistant executive director responsible for lacrosse.

The IHSA often serves as a pin cushion for decisions it makes, but Troha is not getting deluged because, as he says, “the writing was on the wall.” The IHSA actually supported inclusion, and there’s no faulting the conditions causing the delay — and it is a delay, not a denial.

Hamstrung by reduced government funding, school districts have difficulty justifying adding a new sport when they’re cutting staff at the same time.

“We were really close and there were some schools who because of financial constraints, they were caught between financial obligations,” said Hinsdale Central athletic director Paul Moretta, a key member on the IHSA Lacrosse Advisory Committee that’s worked to secure IHSA sanctioning.

This fact is not lost on the players.

“We do understand that it is the cost, and the fact that the recession is hitting a lot of the schools hard, so it is hard to pick up the extra cost,” said Morgan Swick, a junior attack on the girls team from Benet Academy.

Truth is, the prospect of lacrosse gaining complete IHSA compliance has always been a double-edged sword. There are pros and cons in joining the fold or staying independent.

As usual, money is the biggest issue.

“The biggest pro that I’ve always seen with being funded (by the schools), and I always say this and sound altruistic, is it gives more kids the chance to play a sport that is pretty expensive,” said third-year Wheaton Warrenville South varsity boys coach Mike Blouin.

It costs about $475 to play Tigers boys lacrosse — monies go to supplies, hiring referees and buses but primarily getting fields for practices and games — which Blouin says is on the low end of the spectrum.

He’s heard of school teams that cost twice as much, and though some schools can stage fundraisers and gain corporate sponsorships to alleviate out-of-pocket expenses, not all schools are allowed to do that.

School funding would certainly help cash-strapped parents, but Bogle isn’t certain to what extent. He doesn’t believe one relatively low, flat activity fee will pay for all the expenses generated by boys teams in particular. The boys game is harder-hitting and therefore requires more protection — about $600 worth of equipment, he said.

“I think they’re still going to have to pay to play, but the magic number, what is that?” Bogle asked.

While the daily search for field space is a big perk toward lacrosse falling under school jurisdiction, concerns against IHSA sanctioning have the clubs veering from the devil they know, such as devising their own playoff brackets, to ceding that to the IHSA. Join up and programs relinquish some ability to control things as they see fit.

Play more games at faraway destinations? Field 16 assistant coaches?

As Blouin said, “We fund it, so if we can afford it we can do it.”

Also, knowing schools’ propensity to prefer their lead coaches be “in the building,” nonteaching coaches might be in danger once lacrosse comes on board. Or worse.

“Once it becomes an IHSA sport, it can be cut just like any other sport,” Blouin said.

According to a U.S. Lacrosse survey, though, player participation nationally grew 125.5 percent between 2001-09. Once in, it should stick.

Bogle estimated recent growth in the Midwest at about 40 percent. The St. Charles co-op girls coach also said something interesting: “I’m not a huge proponent that (joining the IHSA) is the best thing for the club.”

He noted his girls have made “huge strides,” but his team numbers 32 players, while he said the boys co-op is at about 120. Bogle said the boys program has split its lower levels into East and North squads, while the varsity remains a co-op, but he suspects that soon each team will field its own varsity.

Girls programs, his at least, need more development, Bogle thinks.

“My concern is you’re not going to have enough girls to field a team,” he said. “You’re certainly not going to have enough to field two teams.”

The girls at Benet don’t see a problem. One of Morgan Birck’s teammates, junior Nicole Valentine, said the sport’s popularity “has probably doubled in size” since she started playing as a freshman.

That’s hard to quantify, but Valentine added a point that makes sense to the student-athlete: “Playing lacrosse for the school directly, not just a club, would bring about a greater sense of school pride, too.”

Blouin’s WW South boys get letters and pins for competing “just like they do for other sports.” Moretta said a state series is the main difference between how lacrosse operates now and how it would under IHSA endorsement.

That’s no small consideration to a high school athlete.

“As the season goes on you actually just focus on what’s going on with the team,” Birck said. “But in the back of your mind you’re always thinking about if you win a championship you’re not going to get the recognition that, like, Simeon gets when it wins a basketball championship.”

It’s coming. Perhaps as soon as next year or, as the IHSA’s Troha said, safely within the next three to give years.

“We’ll make another run at it next year,” Moretta said. “It’s still growing, we’re still adding teams. We’ll get there next year if not the year after, I predict. But it’s expensive.”