Illinois Adds High School Championships
from press release
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors
approved a recommendation at its regularly scheduled meeting on
Tuesday, October 13 to adopt an official state series for the
sports of boys' lacrosse and girls' lacrosse beginning with the
2010-11 school term. The official IHSA lacrosse season, State
Series and State Finals will be contested during the spring
semester.
The addition of lacrosse will bring the total number of boys and
girls sports contesting state championships to 15 apiece, while the
overall number of IHSA sports and activities will grow to 43.
“The goal of the IHSA is to provide quality interscholastic
opportunities for students in the state and the Board recognized
that the addition of boys and girls lacrosse helps support that
mission,” said IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman.
“The Board’s decision was consistent with the
procedures used when adopting several other recent sports and
activities, including water polo and journalism.”
The Board did create a contingency that 65 boys' lacrosse teams
and 40 girls' lacrosse teams must be registered to participate in
the state series by the February 1, 2011 spring sport deadline in
order for either sport to crown a state champion in 2010-11.
According to the IHSA Emerging Sports List, there are currently 65
schools fielding boys' lacrosse teams in the state and 40 fielding
girls' lacrosse teams.
Even if the contingency prevents the inaugural state series from
occurring during the 2010-11 school term, Hickman reiterated that
the Board’s decision on Tuesday will only help the
sport’s growth in Illinois.
“The Board felt it was important to put contingencies in
place to preserve the esteem of the tournament and crowning a state
champion, even if it has the possibility of delaying the start of a
state series until beyond 2010-11. Regardless, we feel like the
IHSA’s endorsement of the sport will help bring more
legitimacy to club and intramural programs around the state and
that many more schools will field squads in the coming
years.”
Currently, 17 other state associations crown champions in boys and
girls lacrosse.
